Yessir, born and raised. (Crosswinds anybody?)

1. Location

This is where do you live in relation to their dominciles. Different for eveyone. But by far number uno.

2. Company reputation in industry and their chances of survival for the next couple of years.

This is good for Mesaba, Horizon, Republic, Skywest, Pinnacle. And bad for Mesa, Colgan, TSA, ASA, Comair, and XJT(XJT and Comair have a great reputation, but your taking a big chance in the surival category).

3. Upgrade time

Good for CommutAir, Colgan, Pinnacle, and Mesa. Bad for Air Wisconsin, Mesaba, Eagle, ASA, Comair.

4. First two year FO and first four year CAPT pay

Good for Air Wisconsin, Mesaba, Republic, Horizon, XJT. Bad for CommutAir, Colgan, TSA, Mesa, Great Lakes, and some say SkyWest and Pinnacle.

5. Jet time over prop time

Good for XJT, Pinnacle, Republic, Air Wisconsin, Comair. Bad for CommutAir, Colgan, Mesaba, Great Lakes.

6. Training situation (ie, training pay, single occupancy hotel, bonus, etc)

Good for Mesaba, Republic, Air Wisconsin. Bad for CommutAir, Colgan, Mesa.

7. Projected future...this is just a guess in this industry. Things change every day. One day a regional looks doom and gloom and the next they are considered the best of the industry and vice-versa. It kind of relates to reason number one.

Good for Republic, Mesaba, SkyWest, Pinnacle. Bad for XJT, CommutAir, ASA, Comair, Colgan.

This is all opinion, but an open minded one. I definity am not an expert. And what I typed here today will probably be completely different tomorrow.

Hope all of this helps.

How's the training at TSA? Do they take care of hotel and give you a food allowance everyday? I like food so that would be great if they gave some allowance to fill my bottomless pit, an organ commonly refered to as my stomach. Also, just curious, how many hours a day are you in training at any regional?

Most regionals will be 8 hours with an handful of 5-15 minute brakes and about an hour for lunch.

Thanks guys!!! i really appreciate the opinions!! i hear good stuff about every regional.. and with some good always comes a little bad, but i've really been wondering whether or not to ship off to colgan or one of these "stepping stones" or wait a while, instruct until i can get on with (I'm hoping for) Eagle, just cuz i'm from FL...

Would Eagle be a good choice all around????

People will talk about the "decade long upgrade" but yes, I'd say Eagle is a good choice all around.

AMR (the Corporation that owns Eagle and AA) isn't known for treating their pilots well. Certainly they have some of the best base-pay, but their work rules aren't the best. Anyway, Eagle kind of screwed themselves when they made a huge fuss about the AA pilots flowing back during the post 9/11 furloughs. So, because of that, besides a massively long upgrade time, don't expect to flow into AA, as the AA pilot group has a few bones to pick with Eagle.

Eagle would be a good choice especially since they let you choose domicile(MIA) if you want to stay in FL. Also, upgrade times change very frequently so it wont be 10 years for long.

How do the ASA Pilots like working there?

Jet Time = good & Prop Time = bad