bryris, Thats one of the reasons I am considering passing on the internship. I could graduate in December with the Accounting degree. Its going good, only taking cost accounting this semester so its not to bad. Just have Tax and audit left to take in the fall as far as accounting classes go. How are the graduate accounting classes going?

Guess I should mention I am an Accounting and Aviation Management major at the moment. I have been kicking around the idea of dropping the aviation, but its an easy GPA booster and dont have many classes left for that degree.

Do not know where you are pulling this number from, unless you are taking year age 65 passed and adding 5 years. Colgan will be hiring the first of 2010 for new aircraft coming.

Its going well. I am enjoying the pursuit. But, honestly, I have yet to determine if I can actually DO this for a living again. My goal is to open my own firm in a few years and I think that once I arrive at that point, it will all be worth it.

After this term, I need 3 more classes (only 1 accounting) to hit the 150 hours. I am ordering my Gleim books in a few weeks so that I can hit the ground running on studying for the REG and BEC sections. My goal is to have both of those parts completed and passed by the end of the testing window in Aug.

I am still flying on the side. I have two active students who are both weekend warriors. So, I am averaging 3-4 hours per week of flying. Not great, but enough to keep me "connected" for now.

I just might look into some sort of business aviation position in the future. Maybe I can combine these efforts into something that gives me the best of both.

Or maybe it'll be back to the airlines in due time. I am still low time compared to many of the guys out there, but with 1000 hours 121 experience and nearly 2000 total, and the CPA in my back pocket, I imagine I can get a job somewhere should I desire it going forth....

Instead of doing the internship, I would get as much flight time as I could during that time. You may or may not want to go to Expressjet in time. I would get the flight time and make myself marketable to everybody and not one just one airline because you have a job interview there.

Where do you live? Try doing one for CAL.

That's exactly where I got that number. I'm sure one or two regionals will hire a few folks...but wholesale hiring is not going to happen.

There is zero or negative growth at the regionals right now, and nobody is leaving. In 2012 many majors will have to start hiring just to keep up with attrition...that would trigger regional hiring, assuming that the economy improves and most of the furloughs are back by then.

I agree. I did the internship with XJT in CLE a few years ago, back when they were actually hiring. It wasn't an especially fun job for the most part, but it did give me the opportunity to learn the inner workings of an airline. On the bad side, it caused me to focus on getting hired at XJT afterwards when there were better options out there. In retrospect, it would have been worth it if it had been paid, but since it wasn't I wouldn't have done it again, and like I said, that was back when they WERE hiring. They've got 300 pilots on the streets and any prospect of new-hires getting on there within the next few years is basically nonexistent. I say do yourself a favor and find a paid internship with a major or focus on building flight time.

...
 

Just my $.02 worth. I have never done an internship. But If I were going to do an internship it would not be with a regional. In a year or two anyone who wants to get on with a regional will be able too. Now you cant say that about a legacy. Try to intern with a legacy. After that you are almost guarenteed to get hired on there and that is what it is really all about.

As a matter of fact most people that interned for CAL were walked right over to XJT and hired. After they met the mins they were hired at CAL.

Thats what I would do. Go intern for UPS, FedEx, CAL, Delta, or SWA. You'll be golden.

X

I've heard that this one specifically is a lot of fun and they actually pay you. I always wanted to do a summer internship, but thought it would just add 3-4 months to getting hired at my first airline. In hindsight, if I had done an internship I'd still be instructing instead of sitting right seat in a fancy new jet getting payed peanuts. The regionals won't be hiring for a while, so take advantage of this lull in the industry and go do something fun and off the beaten path.

I interned at XJT in the past and it worked out great because I lived in IAH. I had a blast and learned alot. It helped me get hired quicker and also helped me get my job at NWA.

During my interview at Nwa they specifically had highlighted my internship on my resume. I think it was one more thing that separated me from the pack. They said they liked that I founded the program for my college and it showed that I worked hard for what I wanted.

Bottom line, you would learn alot and can add something else to the resume. If the opportunity arises for an internship at a major then I would take it first but a internship is very helpful also. Plus, Why rush to finish school now while there aren't any jobs right now? Do anything you can to separate yourself from the 1000's of guys with the same qualifications.

Good luck