Originally Posted by ryane946
5 years at a regional.
If I join a regional with 1000hrs, mostly PIC.
I work as FO for 2 or 3 years (Well within reason considering the upgrade times I saw), and then work as Captain for 3 years.
I would expect to have 5000TT, and 3000PIC, probably jet. Reasonable?
Are you telling me that the airlines that are currently hiring (Southwest, JB, Continental, UPS, FedEx,...) will not hire you with those numbers. What happens in a few years when the rest of the majors start hiring again... I am sorry, but even given the poor hiring conditions of today, 5 years at a decent regional is a fair estimation. If you disagree, I'd like to hear actual reasons.
No deductive reasoning...Just cause one guy said that 15 years ago does not speak for the other 90% of regional pilots from 15 years ago who are flying for majors today.
There are going to be some retirements over the next 5 years, a LOT at USAir (maybe enough to recall most of their furloughs).
All the airlines you mentioned have huge stacks of resumes from RJ captains and military guys.
UPS, FEDEX you have to know someone (do you?). And their interviews are f*cking brutal. I know a guy who barely squeeked through at UPS, and felt lucky to have been hired. He was an RJ check airman... and his dad flys for UPS!
SWA is fun...first you have to buy a 737 type rating ($8K). That will give you a decent chance of getting called for the interview...a rough survey of people I know indicates that they hire abot 20-25% of folks who interview. So you interviewed, but didn't make it (for every winner, there's lots of losers and odds are you're one of them!). Now you have an $8K type rating.... Well maybe you get lucky and get called by JB or CAL...so now you're at their interview trying to convince them that you really have always dreamed of working there...but you first you have to explain why you have a 737 type on your ATP LOL (hint: there's only one possible reason for a regional CA to posses a 737 type).
Once you hit that 5000 window, you need to know someone, get the interview, and succeed at the interview. The odds aren't good. More than 5000 hours may increase your odds slightly but not much...eventually the majors will start asking themselves why you have 9000 hours and have not been hired yet...they will assume that you have tried and failed elsewhere, so why should they waste THEIR time and money on you. There are always exceptions, but few and far between.
This is the way it is TODAY, and could change for better or worse (but I don't see fuel prices going down, my wildest fantasy is they don't go up anymore)