The timeline kind of ebbs and flows somewhat. It's affected by the training pipeline in other equipment - guys that are bidding off after a year are being held for training for a few months, and that slows the progression for the new guys. Then a big part of the backlog is cleared, and people move up a huge amount.

But as a data point, I'm in the home stretch of my first year, and I spent two months on short call and another four months on long call before getting a secondary block. I got a primary a month after that. So six months of reserve total. Other guys in my class only spent four months on reserve - I got a little unlucky with the cutoff for two months.

One other thing to think about if you go the 190 route - remember that your hire month might not fall on a bid month the following year, so you might not be able to bid off at exactly 12 months. Therefore your Airbus classmates are getting Group 2 pay right away while you're still stuck on Group 1 until another bid comes out. It should only be a month or two, or maybe not at all if the timing is right, but it's something I didn't consider when I bid the 190.