Originally Posted by MadCat360

Long time reader, first time poster...

I'm currently a PC-12 and King Air C90 charter pilot with about 1000 hours, 250 turboprop and 150 AMEL. My goal is legacy airline. I fly about 450 hoiurs a year between the job and my personal GA flying. I am under a training contract for $12K currently. At 1500 hours I anticipate having roughly 500 turbine. I should hit ATP mins by this time next year.

I took this job before the airline pay hikes. I was content to make more than a regional FO (at the time) while building my time somewhat slower. The idea was I could stay here till about 1800-2000 hours and then go straight to a major or even a legacy after paying for my own ATP/CTP and possibly even full ATP. Many of my coworkers are doing just that.

Now, things have changed. The airline money is insane, and even regionals are paying way more than I am currently or will ever be making in the future flying the turboprops. So my priority has changed to building flight time a bit faster, if I can. My goal is to skip regionals if at all possible. I don't know how reasonable that is with turboprop time, but I have heard of it happening.

I feel very lucky to have the job that I do at my total time, but I can't help but think there might be a faster way to do it. I was looking at the JSX and Contours of the world, imagining bunkering down for the low pay for 6 months to a year to make captain pay when I hit their upgrade requirements. Even their captain pay would be quite a bit more than I would be getting if I stayed here. The allure of flying a jet as a resume builder is quite strong, if it's worth it. I have shot resumes to a couple more desirable local charter outfits flying jets, but so far it's been crickets. I do not want to relocate, but I could stomach going back to a rotation-based schedule. I've done it before.

Or should I just stick where I'm at for another year, and apply to everyone I can when I hit 1500, then take the best offer that comes my way when the dust settles? I'd likely be applying to, in order of priority, Alaska, Avelo, Frontier, iAero, Breeze, and the assorted regionals with bases in the west half of the country (yuck on the regionals, now that the metering agreements are so nasty).

Am I thinking about the right things here?

Thanks in advance.