Limeice

Is that because the legs are so short or because you are home a lot?

Flyguy255

Some days have very short legs. On your average 75 credit month, you’ll get 60-65 flight hours out of that (give or take).

Clcoregon

Look. I wouldn't recommend horizon at all. Right now we are basically SkyWest's and Alaska's slaves. We only get what ii left and pathways is not a contract. Alaska did not hire amazing people from Horizon in the past months. Every time Union try something better for us they start threatening giving flights to SW. The only good thing around here is the training department excluding the laughable FMS lab.
Lot's of complains against Alaska. Have you watched the multiple videos on YT? People are leaving everyday to majors and flipping the middle finger on Alaska. I if you can you should go to SkyWest or other regional unless commuting is something impossible for you. I'm not happy here. Have applications with all the majors and cargo. First one that calls I will be gone.
Can't see myself around this WA/OR liberal narrative where you need to watch what you say all the time to avoid getting reported. I'm glad we have Union otherwise management would be doing whatever they want.
Can you imagine needing to audit your paycheck EVERY MONTH and find mistakes.??? Yeah ...this is gross, but we need to fight for them to pay us sometimes. SkyWest friends of mine make way more money with no Union.
Alaska is the biggest Regional in US ( yeah we all joke about it around here)
Sadly I like my coworkers a lot and leaving it is a necessity because I value myself.

TyWebb

I understand your frustrations, and not to take Alaska's defense too much, but have you spoken to anyone else at another regional? Horizon is one of the better one's. I have had friends at Mesa, PSA, Piedmont, Compass, and Trans States - the stuff I heard was horrible. Junior manning, blatant lies, pay issues, etc. Regionals could be mainstays for a handful of people that don't need bag loads of $$ and like to fly, but they are all ran the same. Get your time and get the hell out. It would go a long way if management was just straight up with us, but again, thats to be expected at any airline not just regional.

That said, perspective new hires, Horizon isn't experiencing anything that other regionals aren't. Skywest is hiring Direct Entry Captains, as far as I know, we haven't yet. We did lose 5 aircraft that was schedule to be here by now, and most likely SW got them, but I would bet they are having a hard time filling seats and probably wont utilize them at all in the foreseeable future.

I think we are going to see mainline aircraft in spots only traditionally serviced by frequent regional services as early as this summer.

DashAviator

Back to the question of "how many hours per year": I typically fly around 650-700 hours a year. My "best" year was as a second-year FO, when I clocked in at 840 hours. My worst year was in 2020, when the pandemic shut down a lot of our flying. I think I flew about 420 hours that year. Over the 650 or so flights I do a year, the average leg length is about 1.1 hour. If you're a new FO (or a new captain), you will spend about three or four months in training, so figure on about 400-500 hours of flying in your first twelve months. We're getting short in the Q400. If you're on reserve, expect to get used a lot.

There aren't many day trips. Most of our trips are three or four days. At best, you'll be home about 15-16 days a month if you live in base.

METT

As a flip side to Dash's experience, do NOT go Seattle and expect this in the Q. The other bases, yes. I am around three years now...and at a little over 800 hours. (yes, 3 years 121 at QXE). There are more than a few SEA Q FOs that were on reserve for 2-2.5 or more years (with that requisite lack of flight time). Current movement shows we are hopefully an aberration, but Seattle on the Q is a punching bag.

leftondelta

This, so much this... SEA on the Q is a legitimate joke, assuming you can even hold it after 10 months. Besides the fact that SEA is the #1 airport on the planet for the number of Q400 operations (OAG data), it is QXE's smallest base on the Q side. Arguably MFR might be smaller (number of lines) since that's where they dump everyone (on paper) still in training.

For the March FLICA Vacancy Bid (#Q FOs):
BOI: 29
GEG: 29
MFR: 58
PDX: 56
SEA: 22

If you want to build time quickly on the Q as an FO... MFR or PDX and waive as much as you're willing to in PBS. If you don't want to move to MFR and don't want to deal with the "commute" there, I'd say go to PDX. At least there it would be easier to pick up open time trips both in PDX and SEA (just grab a shuttle flight up for a commute). But who knows, that's today.

Dishubathla

What’s the situation on 175 if one bids for Seattle base?

Duckaduck

It's all about QOL. Just drop the garage trip they give you and stay home or pick up something better. QX is so underpaid, its cheaper to stay home sometimes.

Kate can drop pilot trips via Ecrew. Just send a text. $50 a trip or reserve day.

661-489-8370

Painless and did it for years.

Good luck!

Blip

First of all WTF: A crew scheduler or something dropping trips for cash??!?

Second of all WTF: you putting her number up on APC.

If you're trolling, well played