In order to get to the majors or corporate, you have to quit jobs! Employers want to see that you are making strides to get to the top and the only way to do that is to move on from one to the other. Also, it's not a smart idea to quit any job until you have another lined up and guaranteed! When and if I get a job with an RJ company, I plan on sending numerous resumes out to other companies while I'm there. There's always something better and employers know this.

 

No...Get hired, pass training, get 1,000 PIC then send out resumes looking for a better job...

-LAFF

 

1K PIC means exactly squat nowadays.

 

Isn't that what I said? Just in a different way?

 

Blast-

Using the regionals to ratchet up ones' qualifications for subsequent jobs is not a bad plan if you are in a position to benefit from it, but the point is most people are not. A few thoughts in response:

1) Most pilots are self-funded through loans and will have incurred considerable debt to get a multi/commercial/instrument ticket. Regional FO salaries do not pay down these debts. Most people report dipping into emergency savings to get by on the first few years of regional flying and it does not get much better for years afterwards.

2) If you have a family or some other bill to pay like student loan repayment from college in order to hope for applying to a major later, then you have serious commitments and regional FO pay will not be enough to keep them. College loans are due in monthly installments after graduation plus 6 months. I have $750/mo payment on a college loan, and this is without any flight training debt at all. I could not go to the regionals even if I wanted to, and I do not think my debts are atypical. In fact, I cannot even afford a spiffy car, house, or children on twice what an regional FO earns.

3) If you are hired with a wet commercial ticket having skipped CFI work and smalltime commercial work altogether, the 8 week CRJ training period tends to wash out lowtimers more often than 750TT+ pilots who worked up by the standard path. Getting there does not insure staying there, and it is not a very strong likehood that you will.

4) If regionals are as hard up for applicants as you describe there would be evidence they are willing to pay for it. I see no such evidence.

5) Regionals would not only ratchet up the starting payscale, they would post super-low minimums on company websites if indeed it were a severe pilot shortage. They would not depend on a few forums to spread the word.

6) If one is over 35 years old then starting a flying career at a regional is considered risky. There is not enough time to get a decent payback on a typical training investment and there's no guarantee you are going to make it to a major airline. As Skyhigh and others point out, the odds are rather against making it to a major as he likes to say "2000 jobs for 60,000 applicants" or something like that. Getting to a major is plan that starts early and carries numerous prerequisites many of which are not equilaterally available.

For the time being I shall pass on all the other negatives associated with regionals such as quality of life, the questionable reputations of tooth-and-nail operators like Mesa and GoJet, the base/domicile inconveniences, furlough risks, medical risks, DUI threat, and so forth. I just want to point out the glaring problems with your undaunted enthusiasm for what amounts to a problematic proposal.

I should add that I too would like to quit my $50k+ job and go off and join the circus excuse me, fly CRJs all week. And one day I may go and do it. But to think this is anything other than a problematic fantasy leading to financial malaise is folly. I wonder if you make the distinction.

By the way: Welcome and nice website!

 

Nice post.

One thing I'd like to add, though, is I believe the regionals will continue to lower the bar with respect to experience levels of new hires, rather than increasing pay, until the rate of failures in training causes them to take notice. It's all dollar and cents. Training failures are expensive. Airline management doesn't care about Capts having to excessively "baby sit" low time F/O's. They don't care about what goes on in the cockpit as long as the airplane moves from point A to point B without crashing. What they do care about, though, is the bottom line.

When enough guys fail out of training, you'll see pay increase to attract a more well qualified applicant.

God help us if they just lower the standards in training. The line check airmen are really the last line of defense.

 

Regionals will slowly increase they pay scale, but it will take time.
First of all they have to pick up every pilot out in the market that is willing to fly jets for less than 1700 dollars a month. Once there is no pilots out there they will bring up the payscale and attract other pilots to come work for them.

Bottom line it's all about money, if the operator can use us pilots as slaves to make a profit they will.

Thats why we have a pilot shortage, because the industry sucks!!!! Not many students want to become pilots anymore. If you walk in to a big flight school in US this days you will only see Indian and Chinese students. Where are the US guys!!!!! No interest, why should he or she spend a lot of money and earn peanuts!!!


But it is about to change.

Spoke with a former Delta Airline Captain the other day regarding the pilot shortage in US, he told me that we are going to see the biggest pilot shortage in aviation. He said that the problem is not only in US the problem is spread around the world, China, India and Middle East and it keep growing.

Good Luck guys

 

Nice post but I have to ask, where are you getting these ideas that the company will post super low minimums on there website? That wouldn't look good for them to the general public. I am telling you, they don't care about the minimums and they certainly will not rachet up the pay. LOL! The information I get is from actual F/O's who have been hired on the RJ with 300-400TT: no they did not do the mesa bridge program or any other RJ prep. My dad has been an airline pilot since 1977, seen it all, been there done that. He's been hired at over half a dozen airlines well below their prescribed minimums because they needed pilots. The company website is worthless as far as mins are concerned! Trash that information! Why does everybody think that they have to be right at 500TT/50ME to fly with the RJs? Because the website says so? Come on! If you run a store and usually require certain credentials for employees and all of a sudden nobody wants to work there anymore, you're going to lower the standards before you start forking out more money to pay them, right! Well, I would pay them more but Mr. RJ CEO is not going to do that. He will scrape the bottom before he ponys up the doe!

 

Oh, and they're not hard up for applicants because there a trillion guys like myself with low time that would LOOOVE to fly the RJ's and build up some time. The turnover rate at the RJs has, is and always will be high. What is going on today is old news and it's happened before. BTW, thanks for the kudos on the website.

 

Blast: all in good time, just wanted to counterbalance the conversation. I am not an inveterate detractor from regionals like some are here but I do think caution is in order. Be ready for hardship. Regionals are a valid stop on the way if not an end in itself and if I wasn't towing such a heavy debt I'd go too. X-Jet and ASA are my favorites, being southern.