Originally Posted by frmrbuffdrvr

The advantage to coming on as an FO is that you can come on with less than the 1200 hours that 135 requires for a captain position. As mentioned above, you then can transition to a captain position (most likely a BE99) when you get your hours AND generally after you have spent a year in the right seat of the Bro to cover you training commitment.

Yes, you will likely spend at least a year as an FO before transitioning. So if you are over or pretty close to 1200 hours (and a way to get there) you might be better off getting your 1200 and hire on as a captain in the PA31.

Originally Posted by own nav

There's a limited number of Brasillias in the fleet, and we just lost some Texas runs. There's definitely far more openings for cheiftain pilots than EMB FO's.

EMB FOs are the bottom of the pecking order and pay scale. However, you can get into AMF at an earlier time, build up seniority, and skip the chieftain for the 99 when you hit 1200 hours. I have seen a few people do it, and it has worked out pretty well for them.