Thinking of Mesa; am I crazy?
 

About me: 31, 2500hrs, ATP w/E170-190 type, no degree.

My previous experience is from Republic and a 91K/135 outfit. I’ve been out of aviation for about two years now and own a home in ATL. I want to be based in ATL so my options are only four carriers including Mesas’ future (if it happens) ATL base. I’ve already applied to endeavor and received the thanks no thanks email without an interview. I thought returning to a 121 carrier in an aircraft I already have experience with would be rather simple and thought Mesa might work. Looking for input from current Mesa pilots to fill me in on the airline, future base, and whatever else I’m probably overlooking.

Just don’t be in a hurry, training on the Ejet is extremely backed up right now. You will be paid the whole time and have travel benefits. But just so you know you’ll be waiting two months on sims right now, maybe longer then that.

Mesa will be THRILLED to have you. Ask them about how far they will be backed up for you since you have the ATP and Type rating.

Unless you dislike flying, the biggest challenge is the backup on Ejet training. Then, PBS scheduling is “unstacked”, which means they only honor your “else start next”. You can “else start next” into reserve if being on reserve is your “thing”.

For the good news, the upgrade stands at 22 months.

Spirit is recruiting Mesa FO’s with 3,000 total and 500 hours in the right seat. No degree required.

I will seriously drink some of the koolaid here in saying that Mesa has some of the best pay in the regionals. They pay 300% flying that is picked up (right now) off of Open Time. I am crediting 150 hours this month - but that is not usual for me because I don’t aggressively pick up Open Time. I normal credit about 120 hours per month.

I'm OK with time off. I'm hoping I will be able to turn my current non-aviation position into a part-time/contract one, as I really enjoy the job but can't see myself making $50K/yr until retirement. I've heard rumors of ATL going senior, no idea if that's for FO or CA, any thought?

They haven’t run a standing bid for ATL yet. Senior/junior is conjecture based on the number of pilots who commute to IAH via two legs from the East Coast and ATL will reduce their commute to a single leg.

You will know whether ATL is senior or junior before you come out of training. The sooner you join, the sooner you will have enough seniority to hold ATL.

I've considered Mesa as well for the DFW base. Commuting just doesn't sound like my cup of tea!

I would be very careful of coming to Mesa for the ATL base. I would not do it my self. You live in Atlanta and don't want to commute, do what makes sense and go to a Delta Connection carrier. I would even recommend trying Endeavor one more time. I assume you are also trying SkyWest.

This is just a rumor (though Mesa has done the same thing in the past...), but there are decent chances that the ATL base would be an interim base to staff the IAD E-Jet flying while the CRJs in IAD are phased out (at least out of the United system). You might be wondering why Mesa would do this (they have done it in the past, I repeat). The answer is, if Mesa was to base the E-Jets in IAD right now, when the IAD CRJ base starts to downsize in the near future, per our contract, those CRJ pilots would have the option to transition to the E-Jet to stay in the domicile. Those are non-essential training events that Mesa doesn't like. Why doesn't Mesa just keep staffing the IAD E-Jet flying out of IAH then? because we have too many E-Jets for one base, and when weather strikes in IAH a lot of crews get stranded there, thus affecting the IAD flying. The solution is an outstation relatively close to IAD with enough feeder flights: ATL. Sure, Mesa will use the opportunity to recruit folks from the southeast, specially with the assassination of ASA, but like I said, coming to Mesa hoping to be based in ATL long term is a very very risky move.

Even if the company decides to leave ATL open after IAD is stablished as an all E-Jet base, it will still be an outstation and the flying will be less than ideal.

What is weird to me is the 7 month timeline until opening the base.
SkyWest typically takes 2 months from announcement to opening. Worked that way for dtw, boi, San and atl.

For SkyWest, DTW, BOI and ATL already had Xjet or a maintenance base in place. They simply bumped the Xjet pilots out to LGA or DFW and took over the base. SAN was under wraps until the Alaska deal was public. A lot more work than 2 months prep went into opening the base.

For Mesa, SDF was quick since it was a maintenance base already. ATL will be coming online as both a maintenance and a crew base. A little more logistics than kicking Xjet pilots out of their base.

I agree. Outstation flying is less than ideal. If he wants to fly the CRJ, he should go to SkyWest if Endeavor is off the table. Delta loves SkyWest and with ATL being a major Delta Hub, one cannot go wrong with SkyWest in ATL on the CRJ.

On the other hand, if he wants to fly the Ejet, there is no option other than Mesa or commuting. And, a commute to IAH or IAD sure beats a commute to ORD.