BrownDoubles

One more thing to add to this "regional" discussion. As a general rule you will make yourself significantly more marketable by climbing in the largest piece of iron you can find; overwater and international even better. Starting early and apply "above" the regionals at the ACMI and LCC airlines will put a way better bullet on your resume than RJ time at a regional. Of course that's just my opinion but who would you hire if you were in charge at FedEx, UPS, United, Delta, American? Mil guy with RJ time doing 4-6 legs a day or the mil guy with 747 international experience at an ACMI?

rickair7777

ACMI or LCC are not much easier to get hired at than legacies. They also expect a much better ROI on a new hire than regionals, so they may shy away from an obviously upwardly mobile mil pilot.

You'd probably have to start at a regional anyway, then go back to the bottom of a seniority list. Also the big issue is TPIC... if it turns out you need some, it will come faster by sticking with a regional.

TPIC trumps wide body and intentional time, that's been proven, especially for the big four. If you're set on FDX/UPS, and already have enough PIC then an ACMI would give you a leg up.

BrownDoubles

Concur completely... maybe I could have stated the position better. Just about any qualified individual without skeletons could be working at the regional of their choice within the next month. Start early and put lines in the water at the legacy, ACMI, and LCC levels prior to resigning yourself to the regional level. If you still don't have any offers 2 months prior to the desired timeline apply at the regional level.

z06stinger

What is a good planning factor for TPIC Time? It seems that someone in my position will benefit from flying my @$$ off during my remaining time in to get 1) FW ME time, and 2) as much PIC FW time as possible. No?

BeatNavy

TPIC isn’t as critical as it once was, especially with your background. As a datapoint a guy at my bottom feeder regional had 300 hours of TPIC and was 24 years old when delta hired him. Another army buddy at my regional had 60 hours of TPIC after just upgrading (never upgraded to AC in the army so this was his first) when AA gave him an interview. Many XJT 5-7 year FOs have gone on to legacies with no TPIC. That said, with quick upgrades at most regionals, most guys who have been in the regionals for more than 3 years have 1k+ TPIC already (which used to be the widely accepted minimum for a legacy) and are still in the regionals. So it’s really hard to say how the algos/hiring people score apps, and how ____ hours of TPIC affect each app with each airline, with backgrounds/resumes varying so widely.

But universally I think people will agree that some is better than none, more is better than less, jet better than prop, and the bigger the better (minus F teen type), and 121 or mil FW TPIC is the most valuable. How much is necessary for your app to be competitive is hard to gauge and anybody’s guess. Many will say 1k FW TPIC. But I’ve seen guys with 5k+ who haven’t gotten a call, and I’ve seen people with 0 get a call.

If you want a hard number, having 500-1k mil FW + 500-1k hrs 121 time totaling at least 1,500, a type rating, and a combo of mil/121 FW TPIC time at 500-1k, I think you’ll be competitive. Disclaimer: I’m not a recruiter and have no real knowledge, just anecdotal evidence and data from reading forums.

Sliceback

Do the RJ. It’s a higher ops tempo than long haul. If you haven’t flown in awhile get more sorties vs bigger jets.