Captain Scott Jones (IG @moosepilot) and I crush a Barry's workout in the ATL.

Happy Fast Jet Friday from Milan. Welcome to the new wingmen.

I don't mean the weather. I mean the mood. In the trenches I keep hearing the same thing: nobody's hiring.

It isn't true. My favorite legacy airline just seated two new hire classes eight days apart. That's 122 pilots. The jobs are there. Landing one takes work.

A young CFI in New Mexico texted me recently. He had 2,100 hours and 50 multi, he was doing everything right, and he was getting nowhere. I told him to stop sending applications and start running a campaign:

FIND. Stop searching only for "airline pilot." Look at Part 135, charter, corporate SIC, cargo, survey and medevac. Chase the multi and turbine time.

TARGET. List 50 to 100 operators, starting at home and then expanding to every city you'd move to. Track every contact.

NETWORK. Don't ask "are you hiring?" Ask for ten minutes of advice. You're building a relationship.

FOLLOW UP. Every application gets a follow-up. Every conversation gets a thank you.

"At 2,100 hours, you have something to sell. The challenge is converting it into the experience that makes the next application stronger."

✈️ Who just got hired. The October 6 class had 72 new pilots, with 1,608 hired this year and 2,168 projected. The average was 6,700 hours, and one new hire had just 2,200. That's a hundred hours more than my CFI in New Mexico. Twenty came from Endeavor and twenty from SkyWest. The pilot in the trenches thinks the door is closed. The numbers say it's a few hundred multi hours and a good network away.

🎯 Busted rides and the two-lesson rule. I told Mike Sheldon on his new show: "I made a mistake. I learned, I adjusted, I reattacked, and I'm a better person for it." Mike passed his commercial multi on his second try. And after a bad ride, don't beat yourself up with seventeen lessons. When I debriefed a wingman, I never gave more than two. One at least, two ideal, three at most. Fix those and reattack.

🎖️ Wingman spotlight. This week at our semiannual standards meeting in Atlanta, I caught up with Scott "Moose" Jones (@MoosePilot). He's a former C-17 pilot, a DPE, and one of the most talented leaders at my favorite legacy airline. What a valuable resource. I'm looking forward to sharing more conversations with him.

💬 Quote I'm flying with. "When we're hiring somebody, we're not dating them, we're marrying them." We used that line in the Air National Guard, because a new pilot might spend 20 to 30 years in the same unit. It's the same at an airline. Culture matters. Fit matters. Your hours get you in the door. The soft skills are what make a long career, in uniform or out.

💬 Hit reply. Where are you stuck in the job search? I read every one.

P.S. Looking for a military flying job? GetYourPilotSlot.com Code: WHACKER

Forwarded this by a wingman? Unlock the Vault at fastjetfriday.com.