Originally Posted by Ravenwing

I am one of many DECs that Envoy hired with no currency and no recency, I hadn't flown in 16 years when I started in March. They hired me with no interview, just a logbook review. The catch is that I was required to train as a captain. I decided that was the price of readmission. It was nice that I didn't have to wait for a local CFI and pay to get current in a small plane. Yes, it can be done, and many have. The hand flying was the easy part, I do believe that's a skill like riding a bicycle that you don't forget. Learning a new aircraft and company procedures was hard work. I would have preferred to start as an FO, but I figured many regionals were making upgrade mandatory and FO hiring had slowed down. I also came into this with 2,000 TPIC. Many people have made it through DEC training with only FO time. I'm looking at the job as a stepping stone to the majors. It was definitely a risk going directly to the left seat. But thanks to Envoy's strategy, they are actually over staffed on captains in anticipation of the delivery of additional E-175s in 2024 while everyone else is short of regional captains. I will say that in my experience the majors are still looking for 200-300 hours of flight time in the last year, and you are unlikely to be able to avoid that preferred recency without military flight experience. I am happy that I have been getting paid to build that time in an E-175.