Greetings! Let me pick your brains!
 

Hello everyone, long time lurker and decided to make an account to start communicating with pilots all around!

I find myself in a situation. I am a 27 year old A&P mechanic at a major US airline. It's a good time... I am topped out in pay with a bit of seniority under my belt. That being said....

I am about to begin commercial and multi engine, then hopefully CFI...you get the picture! I've always wanted to fly for a major. It's never been about the money, or how bad regionals are or anything. I Taxi these planes and I can't help but to feel it in my stomach.

I'm unmarried with no mortgage or kiddos. With my seniority I can land premium days off across any shift really and the ability to give away as many of my shifts as I want.

With that being said, when it's regional time I'd really like to hold employment with my current major (internal applicants are typically tossed up to the top of the stack, and they love that type of stuff, two mechanics have internally hired in recent times).

Is this a feasible approach? I really feel like I'm in the best possible position, flexibility, finances, family, considered.

Sorry for the lengthy first post and I appreciate anyone who takes their time to read and/or answer.

Lawrence

Are you asking if you can remain on a seniority list as a mechanic while working at a regional?

Sounds tough. You could do all the GA training and work as a CFI on a mechanic's (or FA's, or CSRs) schedule.

But for new-hire training at a regional you would need to take a LOA or lots of vacation. No regional is going to work with you at all on that, their programs are not set up that way and they can't be in the business of doing favors, otherwise everybody would want one. Legally they probably can't prevent you from holding another job but they would probably not be happy about it, especially if it created "issues" with your regional job.

On reserve you might get ten days off per month.

Once you get on the line and off reserve, it might be more practical if you can bid any schedule you need on the mechanic side. You would almost certainly need to live in base for BOTH jobs.

Fundamentally I think it would come down to how much flexibility you have on the mechanic side, ie seniority, and whether can you bid down to significantly less than whatever a normal schedule is.

Bear in mind that while there's no legal prohibition, the FAA and NTSB would take a very dim view of it if you were involved in a flying accident/incident immediately after having pulled a 12-hour mechanic shift on the back side. So you need some actual sleep in there too.

I reread the post and I don't think he's talking about holding both jobs.

Now for the OP if your major has wholly owned regionals with flow-thru then that's good. With your low cost life style and good job that should enable you to quickly build time until you can earn a paycheck instructing. Look at the min quals for some possible employers and make sure you work towards meeting those. If you just work the min as a mech and instruct and fly as much as possible you'll get your 1500 in a year or two hopefully.

Keep in mind if the regional you work for has a flow thru, your status as a mechanic won't matter as you'll have to wait in line with all the other regional pilots wanting to flow thru. (I'm assuming flow thru is done by seniority, not 100% sure about that).

You might be better off building time at a regional not affiliated with your major then applying. That way you're not waiting in line for many years. Get LOR's from your current bosses and network to the max when you have the min quals for your major.

Absolutely! I have already planned an LOA for training, company is awfully gracious with those.

When it came to post-training I was going to drop my mechanic hours down to 40-60 a month. Which is 4-6 days of work. With the daytrade system in place I can make those days whenever I please.

I am home based in DFW it almost seems too good to be true 😂. There are tons of regionals that are here and have new hire bases here.

I did mean holding both jobs at once. The airline I work for, while successful, doesn't wholly own any regional carrier at this time.

However with their application process, being an internal applicant would GUARANTEE me a interview if not a little more.

When it is time to fly turbine I basically have 2 choices. Quit my airline I'm working for now, or drop hours to 40-60 a month just to hold onto my employed status.

Well if you can take the LOA for training and have the flexibility on the mechanic side, yeah I'd keep my day job too.

If you can keep both that's a great deal. If you do drop down to 4-6 days a month, even if you have to commute, it's like being a military reservist. Being single, no kids, no debt or low debt, makes it much easier.

But you still have to reach the competitive minimums/averages to get hired. Either internally or at a different airline. If you choose a path that delays the start of your major airline career you're losing time at the end of your career. That's a loss of $30-40K per month minus your current income. That's why guys push hard to get hired ASAP, it has a significant value as well as being more senior every single month of your career.

Good luck.

[QUOTE=larryfxlast;2614301

I find myself in a situation. I am a 27 year old A&P mechanic at a major US airline. It's a good time... I am topped out in pay with a bit of seniority under my belt. That being said



Lawrence[/QUOTE]

I think this says everything you need to know about a maintenance career!