Sorry - I meant before your time
'Crusoe' and I were in -115 together for years.
I was XO during part of Chili's tenure as CO.
I was in -106 between 06-10. We certainly shared airspace

 

Like most say, it can vary depending on multiple factors. The regional's contract, as well if you're commuting or not. If you sit reserve at home/move to base, it can a "bearable" existence. In a 31 day bid month, I'd sit 19 reserve/on call periods. Usually only used 14-15 of them. Now, I don't consider those days where I wasn't called as "off". But it was nice to sit on my couch, work out, or able to do things close to home with the bag packed and uniform ready incase I was pressed to my 2hr callout. BTW, I NEVER had minimum callout. Shortest lead time I ever had was 4-5 hrs. If you are going to commute and can avoid a crashpad, do it. If you got a buddy with a spare room, etc, it's better. Being in a crashpad blows, but you won't be burdened with all those collateral duties.

Yep, and so will a Legacy, so will an LCC, and even one of the top freight carriers. It's business, and pilots are nothing but a line item expense that needs to be managed.

 

Great point! If I had to go to another SAPR brief I'd poke my eyes out. That's just one small part of the BS we are putting up with nowadays. To just go flying would be great.

 

Who knows? I was probably in your control zone… Ha.

 

Depending on where you live regional pay and retirement pay shouldn't be an issue. If you get on with a regional and you live in base QOL will be good even if your on reserve. Some bases you will be getting paid to sit at home. Qol sucks if your on reserve and commuting. Good luck and thank you for your service. How many hours are you getting deployed?

 

Have no illusions about the military… we definitely have loyalty and take care of each other on our own, but to the "machine" we are just numbers as well. They play a lot of lip service to it, but the military does not care about you or your family or what is in your best interests. Had a Major ask a 3 Star in a Commander's Call about pilot retention with a possible looming airline hiring boom and the boss told him to go ahead and leave because he will be easily replaced. I'm not sure how he will "easily replace" a 14 yr Evaluator pilot with over 1000 combat hours, but it shows the mentality of our senior "managers". If I feel like I'm being treated like crap at an airline I can quit tomorrow, not an option in the military… not for your first 10 yrs as a pilot anyways.

 

As I was saying I've heard horror stories on both ends.

I'm assuming you already have turbine PIC, so in your case you could go to one of the "good" regionals since you're more than likely not too concerned about upgrade time. I have several friends at Skywest and they have good QOL and get treated way better than my friends at places like GoJet (which is where one would go to upgrade faster to get TPIC).

Good luck to you though!

 

Talking to guys I know doing the deployed gig, 150 every two months so 450-500 per year. Not as much as a regional probably.

 

Here is what I did after I retired from the Navy last 1 April, 2013..flying T-45's out of Kingsville. I initially went Regional, AWAC and almost finished training but the pay was just awful. So I fly for L3 now, not the best of locations and though I won't try to justify the time off (60 on and 60 off), the pay is decent. Some guys love this job for the time off and I'm not saying they are wrong as I will see as my first 60 off is coming up in a week. I still think I want a major but will just have to wait and see if they call and then if I get hired. I finished 20 years with 3025 hours total, 2200 prop and the rest jet, 1800 PIC, etc, etc. You will fly around 100-125 hours a month here. I got 105 first month and now getting PIC time as well.

 

Sorry for what might seem like some dumb questions. I am just starting to do my research and I still have a lot to learn. I'm a Naval Aviator retiring in 4 years (2350 TT / 1100 ME HELO, 750 PIC / 100 SE HELO / 1150 FW SE, 1000 PIC / NO ME FW Time). I plan to pad my stats in my twilight tour with some more FW time, hopefully ME FW time.

Do the Majors/Legacys not like pilots that come from the Regionals? It seems there is some sort of negativity the Major/Legacy have out for the Regionals. Or due they just like post military better?

Why do some Regionals have a higher minimums but pay so much less than some of the Major/Legacy? Delta/United for example (1500 TT / 1000 Turbine) vs Compass Air (1500 TT / 100 ME, preferred 2500 TT/ 500 ME). Delta/United says nothing about ME time, why?

Is Spirit "better" than UAL/Delta/AA? Their mins are off the chart for someone like me. (4000 TT / 1000 ME) There FO pay is "bad" compared to the Big 3 I just mentioned.

Bottom line I would love to bypass the small paycheck at the Regionals and some Majors like SkyWest, but it seems like I might have to go there for ME FW time and 121 experience, but then I have to deal with being a "Regional" guy.