Can a regional run without long-term pilots
 

Thinking particularly of the AA wholly owned carriers that are continually sucking out their most senior people, but presumably this will apply to most carriers.

There is some current (dwindling) supply of lifers but can a regional sustain itself over a prolonged hiring wave when all the line check airmen are getting hired away and every FO has to upgrade the moment they hit 1000 hours?

Not sure what airline you're at, but at mine the check airmen do not get hired anytime they want. The majors are still extremely competitive. Most people seem to operate under the incorrect assumption that being a check airmen means you can get hired wherever.

I guess it depends how many people are learning to fly. At Piedmont we only lose 6 month to flow, so if they can't keep up with that attrition there are big issues. Which come to think of it seems like exactly the kind of situation Piedmont would find itself in. Is your company having trouble covering attrition?

We can hope not (and wish for everything to be absorbed into mainline), but wholly owned carriers have been in a growth stage for the last 3 years, hence the 1000 hour upgrades. This will continue for only so long and then the music will slow as they only need to move people for attrition. When it takes 5-6 years for a new hire to flow, 3-4 or those years will be spent as a captain, which should be enough time for them to mature to LCA/Sim Instructor/etc and the company recover their investment. The one position that seems more difficult to fill is APD, basically a DPE for the airline. That’s a very senior position, one that holds a lot of weight within the training department.

At my airline all the new check airmen seem to get scooped up within a year of getting the position. Most of the long term ones have either burned far too many bridges to get hired anywhere or have no desire to leave.

The check airmen at my airline seem to have some success as soon as they receive that designation. We had one LCA who was a direct entry captain on reserve for 2 years, and 2 months after he got the LCA letter he was hired by Delta. I know of another LCA who will be moving on to another major, and has only had his LCA for about 5 months. These are only 2 recent ones I have personal contact with, but know of many others who seem to move on as soon as they become LCA. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. I think the LCA will help make a guy stand out more than the next guy.

Flow at the AA Wholly owned regionals are 9-10+ years for new hires. Regardless of how much their management cries wolf about needing more pilots to staff and withhold flows, they’re not in danger of running out of pilots anytime soon.

I definitely agree, you need any edge you can get and being a check airmen is a leadership position and shows that your company really believes in you. I was just saying that it helps, but isn’t as easy of a task to get hired at a major as a check airmen as some believe it to be

I didn’t mean to make this about lca’s. They’re just an example of something an airline needs that you cannot manufacture quickly.

Using psa as an example - half the pilot group was hired in the last two years. Many of the lifers are near retirement. What happens if in a year they have 40 pilots who have been there over 5 years. Does that work.

Not “asking for a friend” about psa. Just generally curious about what degree of senior pilot staffing a regional has to have.

Enough to stay on the FAA's good side, and enough to not bend metal. That's about it.

One of the most surprising things to me, transitioning from engineering to the airlines, is that pilots only need to be "adequate". There is no reward or recognition for holding a heading +/- one degree instead of the +/- ten degrees, for example.

The pilots who push, nonetheless, for +/- one degree are the ones I want to fly with. In my brief and junior experience, those are also the ones that attract attention from major airlines, LCA or not (mostly not).

YMMV, of course.