I was a captain at QX a few years back and loved it. No overnights, only occasional time zone changes and a very awesome training program. I left for personal reasons and ended up as a DEC candidate at Skywest a year later. The eperience could not have been more stark. Horizon approaches flying from a no-nonsense, efficient mindset. Use short, efficient checklists, don't reinvent the wheel, fly the airplane (E175) the way it's meant to be flown. Skywest won't let you do that*training was an absolute effing grind. Every minute of the two hour briefing prior to our 12(!!) sim sessions was accounted for, and every sim was packed with way too much superfluous crap. I had heard that Skywest had a reputation for not giving a #($() about pilot's certificates, and I watched a lot of DECs and green FOs use up 1,2 and even 3 extra sim sessions before quitting, failing and being asked to leave. They don't tell you if you resign after hooking a checkride, your records will reflect "Terminated for Poor Performance." One friend found this out the hard way and is no longer in the industry.

I would worry less about which regional will get you what you want quicker and more about which regional will be a good fit for you. Just one guy's opinion.

*For example: Using manual speed because OO has specific airline approach speeds, overriding the aircraft's FMS speeds for flap seettings (counterintuitive and distracting); Not activating approach until the P-fix (the penultimate fix is the one prior to FAF) because there's about 4 airports in the country where this could create an issue, instead of addressing those four and letting crews fly the other hundreds of approaches as the FMS intended; Creating a "Two engines, before takeoff checklist" because one crew took off with one engine after a single engine taxi, instead of addressing these issues in training; Creating a runway change checklist because somebody didn't change the runway in the box. If you cater to the lowest common demoninator, we will soon need three pilots, one to fly, one to monitor, and one to make sure they're not doing anything "unSkywest-like."

 

Yeah ive heard similar stuff about SkyWests training. I met a guy who washed out of E175 training on LOE and it sounded like his examiner went off script (ATC asked him to modify an alttiude on an RNP).

I heard SkyWest has been washing out alot of captain upgrades recently as well.

 

While i agree OO “grinds” training. The p-fix comment is invalid if you know anything about cold weather opps, and there is no RNP approach on a check ride, there is always more to the story. QX is a great airline with great training. If your from the PNW its the choice. But not if your east of SEA/PDX.

 

How is the DEC training program? Is Horizon still actively hiring CAs?