Originally Posted by
guidoverduci
Hi-
Given the choice what would you choose?
I'm a military reservist at Travis AFB with 2000 hrs (1200 turbine). I don't care about the pay, they both suck, but ultimately the commute is what I'm concerned with. I'm a 3 hour drive to FAT and 45 minutes to SFO / OAK / SMF. Moving is not an option.
With that being said… It looks like Eagle has an LAX base, which I suppose wouldn't be a bad option… although I don't know how hard it would be to get it.
Skywest has SFO and FAT which would be good, but again, not sure how hard those are.
Most of the Major pilots I work with say it's best to just get into a regional and use the AF reserve flying to supplement your income while you build time for the majors. But I don't want crazy commute hours and also have reserve flying to keep up with. Thoughts? Thanks!
Given your situation I would bypass the Regionals. But if I had to make a run at the Regionals (which I did in 2010) I would make SkyWest my first choice, but I would consider the following before making your decision (I'm not a SkyWest or Eagle guy, was hired in 2010 at SkyWest and bailed after ground school):
- SFO SkyWest Base is a Reserve base (at least back in 2010 it was), which means you won't be spending a lot of time in SFO and when you are there you will be sitting Reserve.
- FAT SkyWest is a base and goes junior (at least back in 2010). Seems to me you won't have a problem with this, but things always change.
- Not sure how much you know about Regionals, I didn't know that much (military guy like you) but I had to bail from SkyWest after looking at the schedule and pay. The company was very professional and made a positive impression on me, just not a good fit for my situation.
-Your protected under USERA, that will help your schedule situation (drill days/AT, etc.)
I'm sure lots of Eagle & SkyWest folks will chime in with very detailed info, but at the end of the day your QOL will not be that good, but you mentioned commute time is your primary concern as well as not moving, which leads me to believe you want to build time but not leave your area of residence. For that Combination, OO would probably be a better match. Worst Case, bypass the Regionals, continue flying (assuming C-17?) Reserve and go directly to majors. Good luck.