bluesfan78

Well, I've been reading around these forums for the past couple hours. I must say it has been interesting.

I went to a hiring seminar yesterday in San Diego and was able to talk to a bunch of the recruiters from the regionals. It seems like there are a lot of openings, and a lot of what I've been hearing about a pilot shortage seems to be showing in the regionals specifically. One thing of note, I think any rotary wing guy considering the transition right know is aware of the Envoy program. Well, PSA, and Piedmont will also be offering a similar program as well. It seems AA has realized that we can be taught, and more quickly and cheaper than a "cadet" off the street.

Reading a lot in the regionals thread has been, well, shall we say enlightening? I'm just curious if there is anyone out there that has recently made the switch, or close to the switch.

Here's my considerations at this point. There's the "easy" button which is Envoy, PSA, and Piedmont right now. They all offer competitive FO pay, and bonuses keeping it around 60k a year. The upgrade time seems pretty similar from what I've gathered, with less than a six month disparity between them.

The other option is getting my 250 FWPIC time on my own. My current plan is getting my multi-engine when I get back from deployment roughly July/August timeframe. Then looking at CFI to get the rest of the time, using the weekends first, and next year around March I'll have about two months of terminal leave to get as many hours as possible in two months to get the 250.

So, I guess I'm debating between those two options. The first one, is the easy button, and what I've seen in the regionals thread they all seem like good options. Is there anyone who has done those already? The only commitment that I'm aware of is the 2 year commitment from the transition program. Is there some fine print that I'm missing there?

The second one may take a little longer, but opens up other options such as SkyWest, endeavor, express jet, and well all of the other regionals.

Any recommendations or reason for one over the other?

Oh, quick breakdown for me.

Navy -60 guy, retiring next year at 22 years, prior enlisted so only doing MSR from wings..

~1300 TT and will be current, or should be baring something crazy, when I retire.

~125 FW time, not pic though as almost all of that was flight school.