Finished the ATP program back in March. Decided against instructing and started work ferrying Cessna’s around the country. Last week I was hired at a small airline in Colorado and start training in a week. Student pilot to professional pilot in six months without any “dual given” in my logbook.
It can be done.
Good luck to all!
Arthur,
Congratulations on your first airline job! Which airline will you be flying for?
Chris
Great Lakes Airlines
They have been around a long time and are a rather respected carrier. Enjoy your time there.
Chris
I’m very excited and can’t wait to get going. Spending my time studying limitations and emergency procedures to have them memorized before ground school.
Congrats Arthur!
It definitely can be done if you get creative (which you obviously did). Have fun and enjoy. Oh and start working on your flows too! 
Adam
Will do!
Hi there,
Very cool, just curious, if you don’t mind my asking, how much total time did you have to get this job,
did you acquire allot ferry Cessna’s as you said, thanks.
Kris
I don’t know if you’ll remember but we exchanged messages on here a while back before I joined ATP. You were fairly fresh in Hawaii flying the island hops and I was stationed in Kaneohe with the Marines a few years before you moved out there. We swapped a few stories and moved on.
I just think it’s neat that back then I wanted to be a pilot and we chatted about Hawaii and now you just congratulated me on my new job with Great Lakes.
My total time is somewhere between 300-400 hours. I need to total up a few pages in my log book to know where I’m at exactly.
I do remember and yes it is very cool! Again congrats.
Btw, if you haven’t already go electronic on the logbook. Makes life much easier and there’s nothing to total up ever.
Adam
@Arthur
This might be a stupid question, because I’m a brand new student pilot, but what do you mean by ferrying Cessnas around the country? What’s the name of the company that hired you to do that?
Ferrying = delivery/pick up
I worked for a plane dealer/broker local to me and just moved his planes across the country to and from customers.
@Arthur
I really appreciate you letting us know that there is another path of gaining hours instead of just the instructor route. I had no idea that there were airline companies out there that actually hire pilots that haven’t reached the 1500 flight hours.
There are tons of ways to gain hours instead of instructing BUT it is not easy. Really look at it before you decide not to instruct before just walking away from that option. Let me also add, I got the job ferrying planes with a “wet” commercial multi & single rating because the chief pilot loved my resume and my motivated yet mature attitude (his words not mine). I’m in my mid 30’s, married, two kids, prior military and 12 years as a police officer with multiple awards and accomplishments in both. I also got the attention of my new employer because of my resume and someone I know at the company hand delivered it to them.
All that being said, I have several other friends that decided against instructing (some even after getting their CFI/CFII/MEI) and are doing fairly well flying pipeline in west Texas, gliders in Arizona,
and aerial Survey across the country.
Congrats on the gig with Great Lakes! Did they hire you as an FO on their 135 ops? I have been watching their website for a few months now and all they want are ATP qualified FOs…
Yes they did. I applied back in March and shortly after they removed the position and only had the ATP position last posted and took this long to contact me back. Honestly it was a total surprise when they called. I assumed my application had long been passed over.
Two weeks of basic indoc completed last Friday. Last day of systems training is tomorrow AND we finally get to see the plane in person when we go out to the airport for a walk around. Systems exam on Monday morning and then it’s time for the Level C full motion sim. Super happy to be here, learning a lot, and definitely “drinking from the fire hose” as they say. IOE starts in November if everything goes well.
Arthur,
That is excellent. Thanks for the update and keep up the good work!
Chris
And do you think being exposed to ATP’s environment has acclimated you well
to the rate at which this new information is being presented to you?