1: F.O.s tend to have 6 or 7 on/6 or 7 off. They seem cronicly short of captains who (during the summer) work 4-7 days on with 2-3 days off. In the winter things slow down a bit. You end up in Anchorage every night. If you are scheduled for reserve and aren't used, you receive 2 hrs of flight pay.
2: ACE has hired a couple of direct entry captains, I'm not entirely sure how that works other than that they are advertising bonuses. If a F.O. sticks around upgrade time is right around 1 year maybe a little more.
Upgrade times depend as much on your flight time vs. seniority.
In all a good place to work. It's hard work, and you will do some pretty fun flying out of gravel strips in rural Alaska. Pilot management really encourages pilots to be safe and not push any of the numbers.