Originally Posted by
CL65driver
I had a few buddies at Mesa who would rather have had their nuts ripped off by weed whacker than stay there. After a month on the line, you'll start realizing how much QOL is worth and hopefully come to your senses about that place.
That is a powerful statement!
Lewis, fortunately you have 850TT, so you are in pretty good shape for other regionals. If you decide to stick with Mesa, here is the best advice I can offer you. Start applying to other airlines immediately. Skywest and American Eagle both have an ORD base. Skywest and Eagle are two of the top tier regional airlines. Mesa is the worst of the worst. Skywest upgrade is about 2 years. Eagle's upgrade is probably 3-4 years if you got hired today. That is about the same as Mesa's upgrade time!!! Also, apply to Pinnacle as they are within a very close commute.
DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR TRAINING CONTRACT AT MESA!!!
As soon as you are offered a job at Skywest, Eagle, Pinnacle, or somewhere else, take it immediately. From what I hear, it is too damn hard to enforce those contracts. Even if they were enforced, that money is a small price to pay. Think about it, if you spend just one extra year as FO for Mesa when you could have been a captain for Skywest, that is $30,000 you are missing out on!! Not to mention you will be building that valuable TPIC a full year earlier. That means you are elegible to be hired by the major airlines a full year earlier. That means an extra year of making big money $$$ during your career. By not breaking that small $10,000 training contract, you could be costing yourself roughly $150,000 or more over your career. Not to mention the crappy QOL you have to put up with at Mesa.
If I were you, I would keep flight instructing for another two months. Apply to Skywest, Eagle, and Pinnacle. You already meet the mins for Eagle and Pinnacle, and you will have Skywest mins in about 2 months. Trust me. I don't want to have to say, "I told you so!!" when you come back on this forum asking about Skywest, Eagle, and Pinnacle in 6 months because Mesa sucks! If you do decide to go to Mesa to build time, do not worry about the training contract. Get out of there as soon as you can. It could be very costly NOT to break that training contract.