Toonces

I'll bite. Never worked for a regional but applied and was accepted at two; decided I didn't want to commute.

PlaneSense isn't a regional, so that may be one type attraction. It's a different brand of flying.

As mentioned, it's not a regional so their target market may not be people who want to fly for an airline. $30K was more competitive in past years, it's still competitive for the equipment. First year you will make over $40K between raises, per diem, and holiday pay. Less career mobility coming here, but you don't need 1500 hrs and ATP minimums to apply and get hired. Stay for a career and fly a jet (maybe). Upgrade and build some street cred and confidence. Go to some really weird, middle-of-nowhere places. It's not an airline, it doesn't operate like one, that may be part of the appeal.

See more of the above. PC-24 sounds cool. It will probably have some growing pains.

I have not worked for a regional. You will find less people these days who have made the jump from regional to PlaneSense, although I have flown with many of them. The unifying argument for all of them was a change in the lifestyle. Generally, they have said it is for the better. All of them took a paycut.

As someone who has contemplated changing directions and going to a regional, one of the biggest obstacles is the change in lifestyle. I've had a lot of jobs and this one is pretty decent. Considering where I live, this job offers me better opportunities for now. Until I can get a much larger raise in pay and benefits, it's hard to justify. I have talked to many people who feel the same way. The job fits them well for where they are in their life.

KaizerShizer

... made the jump last year after being displaced from my home base to an outstation base in a less than desirable city at regional Brand X. QOL improvement was 150% for me not having to sweat a commute and dodge the reserve bubble or worry about paying for commuter hotels in aforementioned outstation regional base. With the Sunday start cycle override I was making a little more than what I was here at PS on 1st year than at Brand X on 2nd year pay (plus per-diem was almost 2x than Brand X). I rarely saw 6 days off in a row at the regional and was almost never able to commute to my crappy little outstation base on day 1 or make a commute home on the last day of my trip after RTB at midnight+ (FedEx was a big help though). Also, after taking all the commuting expense out of my financial equation I managed to get myself out of credit card debt after 7 months on the job here which has been a big relief. Aside form all the other internal griping day-to-day over operations, and a few other 121 perks that are absent from this operation; the biggest issue I have now with PS is this slime-ball $10,000 training contract in order to upgrade here which has me under serious consideration to hold my nose and get back the regional grind. KS

feltf4

You won't have to pay it back...

Upgrade... If something better comes along move on... If not keep going...

There very little value career wise to sit in the right seat there. The value comes from moving over.

HwkrPlt

I can't believe they are making people sign training contracts to upgrade....

Docflyer

I've flown with a handful of guys that say they won't upgrade because of it. I understand the principle on both sides. It came from a rash of people last year leaving within literally a few weeks after coming home from the sim. Once in a lifetime job comes along, you got to take it, I get that. Company is just trying to protect their investment. It will be interesting to see if all these pilots decline upgrade, but then are still sitting around in the right seat 1 year later.

Docflyer

This ^^^^

Toonces

Although there is a lot of value from upgrading and then being assigned the right seat for a trip. It's always nice to get the pay without the responsibility.

HVYMETALDRVR

I worked there some years back but haven't kept in touch with anyone. Although it's weak, it looks like their pay has improved since I left. Keep in mind when I was there (pre-recession) the only entry level regionals that were hiring guys in the 300-700 flight hour range were Colgan and Eagle. Both started at something like 18/hr to be based in NYC, so PS looked pretty nice with a starting pay of $27,500.

Why would a regional FO would go there now? Well a good portion of the pilots are DWC grads. Most of the guy/gals were locals and didn't want to live anywhere else. The only other big option up there being Cape Air. So that holds a lot of value and it looks like the Captain pay now tops out at $85,000, not baller money, but you can pay the bills on it, especially if you move up into rural NH or Maine.

I'll also point out that 8/6 is an awesome schedule. I would kill for that in my current gig.

HVYMETALDRVR

I worked there some years back but haven't kept in touch with anyone. Although it's weak, it looks like their pay has improved since I left. Keep in mind when I was there (pre-recession) the only entry level regionals that were hiring guys in the 300-700 flight hour range and no turbine time were Colgan and Eagle. Both started at something like 17.50/hr to be based in NYC, so PS looked pretty nice with a starting pay of $27,500.

Why would a regional FO would go there now? Well a good portion of the pilots are DWC grads. Most of the guy/gals are locals and don't want to live anywhere else. The only other big option up there being Cape Air. So that holds a lot of value and it looks like the Captain pay now tops out at $85,000, not baller money, but you can pay the bills on it, especially if you move up into rural NH or Maine.

I'll also point out that 8/6 is an awesome schedule. I would kill for that in my current gig. So is it a stretch for a senior regional FO to go to PS? Yeah, but I could see the draw for some people...

chrisreedrules

Maybe it's just me, but 8/6 doesn't sound that great. 7/7 would sound better for the pay there.

Year 1 at a regional I had almost half the year off and made about $30K.

This year I'll make between $40K and $45K and I average about 13-15 nights home every month.

With the pay increases at the regionals, and some even starting at over $50K year one for FOs, I don't know why young guys would come to PlaneSense to get Pilatus time. But that's just me. I considered PlaneSense a couple years ago. Now I'm glad I did not end up working there. And none of this is to say that it isn't a good company, because by all accounts they are pretty good. I have friends there who like it. But all of them are trying to get out and not many people care about single engine turbine time. Some have ended up in the right seat of a regional jet. The same right seat they tried to avoid by going to PlaneSense.