If you want to buld quality time, look outside the box. You need another 200 hours for the magical 1200 needed for 135 IFR. Good way to try to build time (and character) before the regionals. They don't pay a whole lot. I flew cloud seeding for 3 1/2 years. It was very seasonal, but it was all quality multi-time versus the usual CFI job. There's also air ambulance, though you would need to probably start in the right seat there... i had a buddy that did that and he said that the hardest part was when he would have to fly little kids in the back that needed the air lift. Hope you have a strong stomach.

The beautiful thing right now with all the regionals desperate to get the SJS kids into the right seat, is that its leaving a lot of these more creative lines of work that need to be filled. Just open your eyes, use your contacts and find something you will enjoy doing. There's too many people (especially on these message boards) that went through flight training, instructed for a little while, and went straight to the airlines, and are now b**ching about how flying is not what they expected it would be. Here's a hint. THE REGIONALS SUCK UNTIL YOU GET BE VERY SENIOR! Find a job flying somewhere you want to that will allow you to enjoy what you do while paying back some of your loan.

I can't stress it enough. Go find a fun flying job for a year or two, work on paying off your loans, then go to the regionals. I know i'll get crap for saying to pass up the seniority, but you'll have so much more to talk about on the flight deck with your future captains when you fly with them. (Another perk to doing unusual work, is people remember who you are if you did something outside the box... i have several captains who remember me as the cloud seeder!) just my two cents. AND CUT UP YOUR CREDIT CARDS!!!!! You have enough of a loan to worry about. Yeah, you may say, I need that now... but what happens 5 years from now when you are a FO and want to buy your first house in base, and can't b/c you have $30,000 on your school loan AND $20,000 on a credit card charging 21% interest? Guess what, on a FO's pay (even a regional captain's pay) you probably won't be able to afford your home