cheyennedrvr

I posted a question on the Majors board.. http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...ad.php?t=10067

I got some feed-back that with my time/age/lack of 121 experience, I should look at a regional to start. So I would like some input from the regional folks.

3600TT - 2600ME - 1400 PIC T-prop - I will be 46 yrs old when I start applying.

I know for sure (no offense to anyone) that I do not want to work for Mesa. I'm kind of looking at Eagle.

My problem is that I'm a 135 guy, not a 121 guy so my pilot contacts are mostly 135 folks also.

So, if it was a perfect world, who's the best, who's the worst. If you could pick a regional who would it be.

Any thoughts, comments?

Thanks

Seatownflyer

Skywest and Expressjet were my two top choices. Uh, actually they were my only choices.

johnso29

Wow! Thats kinda tough to give you advice on. Where do you live? Are you willing to commute? If not, are you willing to relocate? Eagle has fairly widespread pilot domiciles, but upgrade has been very slow.(6 yrs) Republic aka Chautaqua aka Shuttle America is going to hire a lot this year and they have fairly widespread domiciles as well. ExpressJet is hiring, some shy away for the uncertainty of the branded flying. But they now have an Ontario, CA base as well as a San Antonio base and Houston for the Continental side of flying. I believe Pinnacle is hiring, but you're stuck with Detroit or Minneapolis. Mesaba is hiring and getting some new airplanes, but again I think your only option there is Minneapolis. There are many things you must consider. Upgrades are probably quickest at Skywest. I think the Brasilia is 6-8 months and 1.5 to 2 yrs for the jet..don't know for sure. Chautaqua and ExpressJet are probably the next, right around 2 years for the jet. Do you want to stay at the regional, you need to consider QOL. Look into work rules, pay, pay protection, commuter clauses, vacation, Leaves of Absence, etc. So many things that you have to consider. I would start with looking for somewhere close to home. Life is great if you don't have to commute. It gives you more flexibility on the schedules you can bid, and gives you a better chance of being home more. After that, upgrade time and pay. Hope this helps.

cheyennedrvr

Seat, why? can you give me any details?

John, I live in New Mexico, so I would have to move or commute. How does one go about research work rules, etc?

Would I have a chance being hired as a street CA without 121 exp?

Thanks again

johnso29

I don't know of any regionals hiring street captains right now...maybe Pinnacle? You certainly have no chance of getting hired into the left seat at ExpressJet or Skywest. Those were probably his only two choices because they are some of the best paying with the opportunity for upgrade. Air Wisconsin has great pay and work rules, but their movement has been slow. If you live in New Mexico I would think Skywest would be one of your best options. I don't know for sure but I am willing to bet a Skywest driver can come on here and tell you. Outside of them I would think Mesa is your other option, and you are 150% correct for staying away from them. They will make your life a living hell with the way they abuse their pilots. Researching work rules and contracts is tough, you usually just have to use forums like this so you have started off on the right foot. Like I said earlier, if you want to move beyond the regionals, then you most certainly want to look into somewhere with fast upgrade time that has good workrules. I would say Skywest, Chautaqua, or ExpressJet. You can find the pilot domiciles for each of those companies on this site www.airlinepilotcentral.com under the airline profiles. Look under regional for Chautaqua, and major-lcc for ExpressJet and Skywest.

rickair7777

If you live in a small town, you would probably want to move, unless you can easily drive to ABQ, Santa Fe, TUS, or PHX. Small town air service (especially EAS) is not reliable enough for a commuter.

In the west, SKW, Eagle, Mesa, and horizon are the options (XJet is moving in to ONT and LAX)...you've already ruled out mesa (good thinking), and commuting to/from the pac-NW is brutal so I wouldn't consider horizon unless you want to move. Also if you're doing this soley to enhance your prospects with a major, you want to consider upgrade time.

There are a few opportunities for street captain, but they only exist at companies where the FO's refuse to stick around for more than a few months (ie mesa)...so the QOL is probably in the "living nightmare" range. You would likely be operating very small turbo-props, which might not be as attractive to some majors as RJ experience (SWA and CAL frequently hire folks with only T-prop time, and I'm sure others will also).

sflpilot

I would look in to Spirit or others above the regional level with that kind of time. If you are going the regional route I would consider direct hire captain options. At 3600 hours, getting more SIC would not really be a good idea at the regional level.

cheyennedrvr

Some of the advice I got on the major board led me to belive that it would be quite difficult to get on with a major with zero 121 time. I was also thinking that getting some jet time would be helpful being that I have a fair amount of T-prop time. The other thing I dont have is any SIC time. It almost seems that I have kinda screwed myself doing all this single pilot 135 flying.

Flyby1206

I think it all comes down to who you know. Since you dont have any contacts in the 121 world it might be hard to get hired with a SWA/FedEx/UPS/Frontier/Spirit type place. If you are just looking to find a stable regional then Eagle is a good choice. The upgrade is long, but its not a bad place if you plan on staying there for a while. If your ultimate goal would be somewhere like a major then your best bet would be getting hired at skywest or xjt, somewhere with a quicker upgrade so that you can build some jet pic. Maybe Big Sky if you would want some quick PIC 121 t-prop time. They are hiring street CAs.

EFIS COMP MON

Not commuting will make your QOL exceedingly better (at least that's what I'm told...given I've never been fortunate enough to live in base). Here at Mesa (ducking to avoid rocks being thrown), the only one's who have any remote sense of happiness are those that live in base. They're able to practically straight-line bid and maximize days off (what little there are). They don't have to dissect lines for late reports/early releases; thus ensuring commutability. They're not stressing when it's their last day, the inbound aircraft is late, or they have a 3+ hour EDC time, and seeing their commuting chances dwindle to nothing. I could go on and on. The main point is: commuting sucks. REALLY sucks.

Having said that, stability of a base is always in question in the regional ranks. AWAC folks probably never envisioned DEN or ORD closing, and having to restructure their lives to suddenly become commuters to the east coast. Same thing with Horizon losing DEN as well. I thought I would be moving to my base of choice of DEN within months of being hired at Mesa, yet that went buh-bye quickly. If you're really inent on living in a certain base, chose a regional with a slew of bases in that region. Therefore, if one closes, there's at least another in the remote vicinity.

Personally, avoiding commuting would be the over-riding factor in chosing a regional. Followed closely by what's been stated before: contract, work rules, overall QOL/satisfaction of employees, etc (upgrade time wouldn't really be a consideration, for me, as that can and will change).

But you've already made the smartest decision of avoiding Mesa!