Strategic start date
 

I currently have a CJO with 9E. I am eligible for the 1000 hour reduced minimums.
I want to start at the top of 2019 for the following reasons.
- my birthday sept, mother bday October, my sons bday nov, thanksgiving , December dads bday, Christmas and newyr.

I don’t wanna start training and not be able to focus while drinking from the “FIREHOSE”.

With the Cj200 currently backed up a couple of months would it make sense to start in October and if I get placed on the 200 then I would have a considerable break before IOE?

If this is a bad idea feel free to let me know!

If you start in october you will go to training in october. The only thing backed up on the 200 right now is IOE, and who knows if that will last through the fall. You would still have to go through several weeks of ground and simulator training in order to reach IOE.

If you really need those months off then I would wait, but you would be passing up on a lot of valuable seniority. They do give you tickets to and from home if you have two or more days off in a row during training.

I delayed my start date two months for similar reasons. This job is hard enough with a family. Enjoy them while you can! Yes, I wish my name was higher on the seniority list, but I don't regret my decision. I might be in the minority on this topic, and YMMV.

Also, you're not guaranteed to get the 200. If your class is all 900, or if your seniority in class won't hold the 200 (!?), then you probably won't get that LOE/IOE gap.

Are you planning 9E as your final airline, or as a stop on the way to something better?

Joe

The company is actively trying to reduce the LOE-IOE gap on the 200, and it is starting to go down. The LCAs they have been training are starting to come on line- and they have stopped sending as many people through 200 classes until the backlog becomes manageable. I would bet on any backlog being back to normal by the end of October.

This. Things change so much month by month in this industry. The only reason the 200 was so backed up is they had to cram way more people thru training than they otherwise would have needed due to pilots leaving the 200 for the 900 before the new seat lock came into effect in January (people awarded differences training back then just left for 900 training recently). Now that the fleet is stable things should balance out. I can’t see this being an issue for much longer...

Seniority seniority seniority

If I’d have been just 70 numbers higher on the XJ list during the merger, I’d have been over 800 higher after the combined list.

Just sayin.

Yes, this.

Birthdays and routine holidays fall by the wayside early in your airline career. The sooner you get started, the sooner you'll have the seniority to bid off special events.

I wouldn't delay a start date for anything other than wedding (yours) or serious illness.

Ok this is clearly an overstatement, As bad as I got the lubeless back alley jobbing, the entire Mesaba list was about 1100 when the sale was announced.... I was about as worst case numbers wise ( not necessarily DOH, but close, and I would have at best shifted 500, probably more like 400.)

I wouldn’t wait. Seniority is everything in the airline business, and with our alleged “announcement” coming soon that may change the landscape. If it ends up with a lot of people coming here you want to be on the front end of that wave. Just celebrate those events when you can, and you never know. You might end up getting most of those events off if the stars align.