Start looking at ANG/Reserve unit’s for UPT assignments while a junior in college. It takes time to get the tests and physical completed. Then, package put together for the twice annual selection boards. Absolute pipeline to legacy. I sent about 20, most are now at legacies. Two in the first class Delta hired in 2014, now captains. They waited out stagnation getting thousands of hours of heavy jet, captain and instructor time.

You, nor I, have any idea what the regionals will look like in 5 years. They’re shrinking now.

I knew several “boy hires” at EAL in the eighties. They grew up near BOS, worked as baggage handlers, got hired with a wet commercial in Cessna 150s. When we closed they had no idea what to do. One was just lost, he had never done anything but go throw bags in a 727 or fly it in all three seats. He envied us with military or outside lives.

When I was your age, I was going to fly for Pan Am, layover in London and Paris, live in Greenwich, CT. PAA is gone and, with home prices north of a million, few pilots are living in Greenwich. Life is about living it, what you can contribute to others and family. Flying planes is a nice way to do it, but it ain’t everything.

GF