Real FO flying hours
 

Is there someone with REAL data about how many hours is a FO flying on reserve and holding a line?

has someone been giving you fake hours?

i have Around 2 years on property. i came here with 1500 hrs all piston part 91.

FO line holder in LGA. i'm one of the top 30% of FOs
flew just under 700 hrs last year
qualified for captain upgrade in under 2 years.

I usually bid for lines based on days i want off (weekends and most days off typically), rather than by pay or hours. My lines end up being worth anywhere from 72 to 88 hours. my line last month was worth 77 hours and i got some weekends off, worked some weekends. i think 14 day off.
i only pick up OT if its juicy these days. I commute so no chance im wasting a day off for 3 hrs pay. The flying varies monthly so schedules will never stay the same.

back when i was a senior fo on reserve i flew from 35-50 hours a month. i liked to fly as much as possible then so i'd profer for most of the good trips. i got most of what i proffered for in the last months before holding a line. if there were inconvenient trips only, (like 4 day trips that overnight in lame cities with very little hours, id just bid RAP2 and usually get to sit at home all day.

when i was brand new NY was alot different and we had a lot of flying and few pilots. i flew a fair amount then too. probably 40 hours or more a month on average but didn't always get what i proffered for. that includes some OT though. rsv pilots fly considerably more when the weather is bad, so summer and winter make fore more flying than spring and fall.
staffing, and base size/flying have changed alot in 2 years and lga is smaller than it was, and less staffed. So your mileage will vary.

Thanks for the info. Actually yes, I heard people have spend weeks without flying, others going to other regionals because they don’t fly. I guess it depends on where are you based. All I’m interested is in flying as much as possible. Just wanna make the best decision.

This is so true. The REAL data is so significantly different based on base and equipment and WHEN you are/were hired. One month difference in hire date even to the same base and equipment can have a huge difference in experience.

yep, mileage has changed. In LGA as a junior reserve guy October/November I flew quite a bit (30-40 hours each month). Since I’ve moved toward the top of the list it’s dropped drastically. I bet I end up around 10 hours in February. There is nothing in open time to proffer for bc that end up giving almost all the 3 and 4 day trips to new FOs trying to consolidate.

thanks for sharing...I guess the company has to give priority to new FOs. Do you think is going to continue like that until you get a line ? Also if you not mind sharing, what are the expected reserve times ? They are saying between 3 to 9 in DFW or 6 to 12 months in LGA.

145 DFW FO - 9/2018 hire. Took 14 months on property to hold a hard line in DFW. Reserve monthly flight time varied from a low of 16 hours to a high of 63 hours. It’s extremely unpredictable and it just comes down to luck of the draw and where you are on the reserve list that month.

If you gave more info on how old you are, cadet/non-cadet, and where you want to be based we could probably be more specific.

DFW is def not 3 months on the 175. I think in Feb composite lines went to spring 2019 hires.

To be fair, anyone in DFW not holding a line is doing it by choice to live in base being the senior base (outside of Miami 145). Pretty much anyone in DFW could commute to a line elsewhere.

Yeah that’s what I thought. 27 non-cadet, 1500 hours part 135. I live in south FL so I’m thinking DFW or LGA since I heard MIA is almost impossible to get since new hire. Eventually in the future I would try to get MIA. I’m just concerned about the flying. Also what base do you guys recommend if I want to fly more and not just sitting on reserve. Thanks

Someone more recent can give you guesstimates but it really could change significantly by the time you get on property. The time of year also has a significant impact. Lines increase during summer. If you complete IOE in March or April, not possible now for you now, but you will be starting reserve as the lines start increasing in summer. Finish IOE in November or December, you will be starting reserve as lines are the lowest.

Also keep in mind LGA and MIA are only 145. Any rumors otherwise are just that. Don’t make plans on rumors. That being said, just like reserve time, the truth changes.

Until this last class, all new hire 145 pilots came to LGA. So for the next 2-3 months most of the open flying will go to getting them through consolidation, bc it would cost the company a lot of money if they didn’t.

I should hold a line around May, so about 6-7 months. Chicago is about the same right now for the 145 and Dallas is going to longer

The past two FOs I went through AQP (annual recurrent training) had really low time. One had less than 200 hours and the other had less than 250 after 10-11 months on property.

You are likely to get the 145. If your most important goal your first year is building time then once you get here you can see the trends and bid accordingly. The numbers you are going to get from everyone is likely going to be vastly different. Suffice it to say you aren’t going to fly as much as you’d like. What you have to ask yourself is are you going to be happy with only building 300, 400, or xxx number of hours your first year.

Final thought- people here aren’t going to lie to you but they do have a tendency to think the experience is the end all be all of Envoy. Unfortunately people have wide ranging experiences at Envoy based on when they got hired here. Just a quick glance through the thread and everything people has said so far seems legit.

yeah, not everyone has experienced the same thing. That’s why I had to asked. All info I was getting was from guys that left or want to leave to other regionals (mostly complains). Also, once you hold a line how many hours do you guys fly ? And if anyone has any recommendation to which base would be better to commute from FLL or MIA would be nice. Thanks

Naturally, I could have commuted to a line in Chicago or NYC. Commute or a line or drive to work for reserve. To me my home time is more valuable than commuting to a line. Granted I got used very little on reserve (on average around 30 hours a month), I got way more time at home than I do now as a line holder.

Different strokes for different folks. It only fair though to put claims/experiences into context is all, and then they can decide based on the full picture.

So in late 2017 we hired a massive amount of 145 FOs into ORD. This caused a huge amount of back log and extreme cases of low low hour FOs. Those guys were not flying for 4-6 weeks at a time. Many of them missed consolidation (100 hours in 3-4 months) and had to go back to the school house to retrain. Many of these guys left due to lack of flying and nobody faulted them for it. It’s obviously not as bad now but that’s not to say it could get worse.

Also, can you confirm or anyone in here, if cadet pilots that were hired before me(1500TT part 135)have priority over me when biding for base and airplane ?

Cadets bid first based on length of time in the program, then prior 121 based on time, then all others based on age. Some 135 and military time counts towards upgrade, but I don’t know that the time counts towards seniority ranking in class for bidding.

Out of my personal experience, New York was not a bad commute from MIA, FLL or PBI. Chicago is hit and miss especially during spring break and whenever school is out. DFW is by far the worst commute out of any South Florida airport. I would not commute there for reserve. However, you might get lucky and will be able to hold Miami in just a few months. Once you upgrade-that’s a different story. You will then see Chicago for a few years before able to hold Miami

Any of you guys (or girls) know how many months it takes to get a line in Chicago on the 175 after IOE?

Depends how long it takes to finish IOE. A lot of people on the 175, at least when I got hired, got 2-3 months of time off making training pay before they got called in for ground, then got a line the next month after they got off IOE, usually on reserve for a week or two.

Nowadays I'm hearing 3-4 months. Still less than half of what 145 guys are waiting.

Thank you. I used dera’s advice on another thread and went into decs to see who has a line based off the seniority list. Looks like an October new hires have 175 lines in Chicago. Dallas is a whole other story though.

Anyone mind sharing come current info on how much flight time you can expect on reserve?

145 FO reserve. 30ish hours a month

The last month I was on reserve on the 175 (April) I flew over 70 hours.

its called no staffing. Your on your way to the major.