Someone once said that any pilot applying to a 121 airline should have an ATP to be considered for the job. If the pay were comensurate with that requirement, (and I believe it should be), I would happily forgo an RJ job now and keep instructing and then freightdawg it or whatever until I got an ATP. As it is, I will likely take an hourly paycut to go to my first 121 job.
The thing is, all this hiring means movement at the airlines which leads to the precious PIC turbine time. For me, that is the biggest motivator, not flying a jet just for sake of saying so, especially when Ill make $19/hr to do it vs $22 that I get now to teach. But the market drives the mins as well as the pay. I think most people will agree that its not that difficult to train a Commercial, Multi-rated pilot to fly an RJ. Be that as it may, experience is golden IMHO especially when it comes to flying. But thats why the dude in the left seat is pilot in command and the dude in the right seat is his/her 'assistant'. That said, I have reached 600hrs not too long ago and about 55 multi. You can bet I will be applying now and if a 121 company decides that they like me, then the rest is history!
Last edited by Tinpusher007; 03-17-2007 at 10:30 AM.