Originally Posted by
widebodyjunkie
Holy Hell.....I should stick to my original plan and be a part-time mime. So then here's another set of questions, if the majors mimimums are in the low thousands...what is the incentive for a FO at a regional to stay there verses just going to a major and start working? Ex: say you're FO at eagle, and you've been there for five years and have 5K TT under your belt, why wouldn't you just go on to work for American instead of continuing to work at a regional making chicken scratch for pay?
And so I guess my question about how long is a pilot typically on reserve has already been answered huh? There's no way to know as it depends on what the general move of pilots are like at the time that you get out of training and start flying?
What about commuting pilots? Is it free to travel when even when you're off duty? Do airline pilots gets to fly for free with other airlines?
They don't go because the majors aren't hiring. The "majors" are being downsized daily, and the regionals are being given larger aircraft.... it is a case of management realizing they can get regional pilots to fly larger planes for less money than if they put them on at major carriers...
So, the old days of doing a few years at a regional, and then going to a major are long gone. Sure, a few will get to go that route, but nothing like how it used to be.
You are on reserve until there are enough people junior to you to cover reserve flying... which means your seniority is now high enough to hold a scheduled line. At places that are not hiring, anybody on reserve right now, will be on reserve until they begin hiring again.... that can be YEARS.
Yes, you can commute, but the best advice is not to, unless you have to. Living near your base is the best option. In most cases as a pilot you do fly (jumpseat) free on other airlines. In many cases you will pay a small annual fee to fly on your codeshare partners, and in one case you will pay service fees to fly on your own airline for the first five years, then coach becomes free.... (needless to say, those folks fly on everybody else but their own airline.
My advice would be to stay where the money is, get your license & ratings and just fly for fun. Never knowing your schedule from one month to the next, never being able to plan ahead, constant fear of furloughs, outsourcing, downsizing, fuel costs, reduced rest overnights after 6 leg days in hard IMC, and all the other worries that go with this job can take a toll on you, and it really is not the glory job people think it is. Add in the potential to lose your job for a medical, checkride or FAA isue at just about anytime, and it makes the idea even less attractive.
If you have a good stable career, I would be very very cautious of leaving just because you have shiney jet syndrome.
Other than that.... if you still have the flying curse, then you'll just have to go ahead and do it.