Originally Posted by
67Creek
I'm a prospective airline FO, trying to educate myself about the ins-and-outs of the airline career.
My understanding is as follows:
- To shorten the time it takes to get up to the majors, start building turbine/121 PIC as soon as you can, and build as much as you can, to gain interest from the majors and beat the flow-through.
- To do that, upgrade to captain ASAP. The majors don't care which jet the PIC is in.
- Upgrade times are short enough that some FOs miss upgrades for lack of the 1000hrs. Once you have the 1000hrs 121, your current domicile/airframe won't be a factor in getting picked for upgrade.
- Since you can't do anything about your seniority number, all an FO can do to accelerate the upgrade is to make sure to have the 1000hrs 121 when the upgrade opportunity comes around.
- To get to that 1000 quicker, an FO can
- try to pick a base/type with a short reserve status?
- try to pick a base/type that flies longer legs?
- try to book additional/overtime trips
- live near base and answer/accept the "junior man" calls
If all above is true, it seems to me that the airframe/domicile a new Envoy FO chooses right out of the gate can have a significant impact on how long it takes to get up to the majors, as it will affect how quickly he builds time, including the 1,000 PIC needed to upgrade.
That's what I've got so far. Please correct me where I'm wrong. If there are important factors I'm missing, please let me know.
Hypothetical Situation
Entry-level pilot (civilian, no 121, no TPIC, qualifies for restricted ATP), joins Envoy and starts training (CTP/ATP) in November 2017. He has no geographical preference, and will move to any domicile to avoid commuting. What initial base/combo will give him the quickest path to upgrade (and ultimately, to the major airlines)?
If the pilot prefers Dallas, what type will offer the quickest path to upgrade and moving up to the majors?
Any other thoughts/advice?
The most common misconception about Envoy (or any airline, for that matter) is that length of time to upgrade is dependant on base/equipment you have as an FO. It's not. It's based purely on seniority, as you can upgrade as soon as your seniority can hold it. You might switch your base and/or equipment when you upgrade, but just because you are DFW 175 FO doesn't mean you're going to upgrade any faster or slower than a LGA 145 FO. If you are senior to that guy, you will upgrade faster than him, assuming you both bid all captain statuses. Now, all that being said, as you mentioned - you won't be able to upgrade until you have 1000 121 time. The fastest way to do that, in my opinion, is to get an equipment/base combination that will get you to lineholder status as quickly as possible. Also, you want a base that has lines with a high number of days off. This way you can pick up a high amount of OT on your days off. On reserve, you're going to average less 70 hours per month, and since all reserve lines only have 11 days off, that only leaves you 3 days to pick up OT (you are required to have at least 8 days off). If you can manage to get an 80 hour, 15 day off line, you will manage to get pretty close to the maximum hours every month. Even if you get a low time line, you should be able to trip-trade into higher value trips. The Quick Trade app just became your new best friend
. All things considered, I think ORD 145 is your best bet for maximizing hours. CRJ right now has low credit trips with low days off. In LGA and MIA, you're going to have trouble picking up OT, however, you can pick up OT in ANY base on the same equipment. In DFW I think you might be on reserve longer than you want. I have no freaking clue about the 175, so hopefully someone else can chime in on that. At any rate, good luck and one piece of advice: don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do, and in many cases more detrimental to your career than "getting somewhere fast."