LA base?
 

For regionals with a base in LAX.
Is LA a city that a lot of pilots ask for as base?
I live in LA and my wife is too tough to leave town.

If you need to stay in California, Skywest is the airline to be based there as far as regionals.


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In general SOCAL airline bases tend to be somewhat senior at the top, but somewhat junior at the bottom since junior folks may not want to subject themselves to the high COL.

But LAX is also a popular base for commuters, plenty of flight options and no SFO flow. I've seen a lot of people actually move to LAS or RNO recently, to escape the taxes and politics; they just commute to LAX or maybe SFO.

Yes, OO is the regional for SOCAL, in addition to LAX you can drive to bases in PSP or SAN from LA and vice versa. With covid traffic you can probably sit reserve for any of those bases, anywhere in socal (that won't last though).

It used to be Compass (RIP) and Skywest were the regionals with bases there. Now just Skywest but not idea on how senior it is. For majors - last I knew 'pre-covid' it seemed like both was able to relatively get LAX as a base quickly (AA, UA and SWA is my gauge for FO) It all depends on needs, seniority etc. Anywhere you might wind up, you might take awhile to get from their junior base back to LAX. Then at upgrade time it will change all again. It's nearly impossible to 'plan' so be ready for commuting at various times in your career. Too many variables and right now with no one hiring, no one 'knows' . All this said LA is not a bad place to be out of unless you are having to commute to the east coast.

If you do have to live on the west coast and commute to the east coast, LAX is probably going to be the best western airport for that commute. Lots of options, better weather than SFO or SEA.

That sounds horrible. Commuting is bad anyway you look at it, but a coast to coast would burn me out fast.

Depends, if it's between two big hubs with lots of flights, not too bad. There are worse commutes, pretty much any two-leg commute IMO. The real pain is actually getting on the flight, not so much the sitting there on the plane.

I know plenty of folks who do it. Since I work transcons, it usually means I've got the first leg of the trip if the other guy just commuted in.

Taking a peek at the SkyWest seniority list, you could essentially hold LAX (right seat) on the 175 out of training.

As rickair7777 stated, both seats are not very senior to hold, but you’re going to be enjoying reserve for some time.

Side note: I’ve worked LAX-RNO multiple times, the flight was PACKED with commuters. DL, UA, AA, AS, even some fractional guys.

Ask yourself which fleet will garner the most amount of respect.

Engine-under wing time. Definitely.

When comparing TPIC does engine under wing really make a difference? I haven’t flown both but I imagine the general complexity and handling between a crj/e140,5 can’t be all too different than an e170,5 (other than a marginally wider thrust centerline). The job of regional pilot is certainly the same.

^^^ Matters not, but there are advantages to getting experience in next generation aircraft. Nothing wrong with the CRJ, but its very old technology. No VNAV, No Autothrottle, No CAT3 and no RNP-AR.

No auto brakes on the CRJ as well. Flown both equipment, I thought it was an upgrade having FADEC with the CRJ700/900 compared to the 200 which feels and flies like a massive Piper Archer. CRJ requires substantially more workload for the pilots IMO. You’re more of a manager on the ERJ175, confirming VNAV and auto throttles are behaving. That has it’s downfalls as you lose your hand flying skills.

I would much rather be in a 175 out of the left seat, my first couple of simulator lessons in the 175 had me smiling ear to ear, it’s a sweet jet, can’t believe I didn’t fly it sooner. VNAV took some time for me, which is common with our CRJ men and women transitioning to the 175 at OO. It’s my belief majors would consider that time more valuable due to VNAV experience, which naturally would result in lower training costs for any new hire.

Unless you want to try and survive on regional pay or big three come calling, LA is mostly a Pt135 gig area if you want to make money. You really have to get out of LA to have more airline options if you don’t want to commute.

No....it’s a joke. It’s something that is said to make fun of people for thinking the plane matters. The company issuing the check is what matters. Period.

I’d say adding any new type rating places a prettier picture on the resume. Before COVID sucker punched the whole industry we had pilots going right seat regional to right seat ULCC to right seat Legacy.

please tell me you’re joking because that comment just made me dumber.

Which part I went on sort of a ramble, also have you flown both?

To be clear the CRJ 900 does in fact have VNAV.

Best advice I ever got when choosing a regional was to ignore plane envy. Whatever you do, do not choose a regional based off the fleet. I’d say the only exception in today’s environment is to maybe veer away away from 50 seat only regionals. At the end of the day TPIC is TPIC. Choose a regional because of their ability to withstand times like these, plus having a base that you won’t need to commute to. It makes all the difference. Besides we know the chicks dig CRJ pilots

Sure....every type you can add is another point in the system....but people who talk about “under-wing engine time” are usually making fun of people. If you don’t realize that....you are the one being made fun of. Just sayin.

As to your comments about right seat to right seat......I can’t actually agree with you that when that happens it has ANYTHING to do with complexity or modernity of aircraft flown. That’s usually a function of HR and/or how much hustle that individual put forth.

You need to provide a link. For a short period I flew the 900’s including the newer Atmospheres. Both equipped with Vertical Speed/Speed Mode/Pitch, never VNAV capabilities.

This....
Flying jets is fun, and I'm sure the jungle jet is a laugh; but if your goal is to fly an Airbus or Boeing it does not matter one jot.
Fly what gets you to the left seat sooner.

I forgot to toggle the sarcasm code.

Yes, all else being equal but I wouldn't take any delay at all on building time or upgrading just to fly an ERJ. The majors just don't care one little bit, they're going to teach you AT, CAT 3, RNP, ETOPS etc anyway.

The CRJ does actually do VNAV, it just doesn't do it for you.

They just don't seem to care, I think that's too far down in the weeds. If they get into the weeds it's more about you as a person. They do like it if you've done jets and/or 121, preferably both.

Two+ types is good, you might have got lucky once and had Santa Claus for sim and the Easter Bunny for IOE but multiple types means you're probably trainable (and nor afraid of training). Majors do care about that.

They also care about a recent (3-5 years) type rating, which might now be of concern if major hiring stagnates for a few years. If you only have one other fleet to jump to at your regional, might want to consider the timing.

Some 900s do have VNAV. The atmospheres you flew didn’t have it since Delta was too cheap to pay for that option. All the newer 900s at PSA have VNAV. Endeavor has a few with VNAV that came from ASA.

The Nextgen 7,900s I flew had a VNAV button on the FMS that armed the VNAV in the FMA and would switch over to VPATH when capturing the “snowflake “.

Ill argue that just the Legencies being petty again ULCC competition and hiring their pilots to increase their training costs.....

All of PSA CRJ-900s do have VNAV....,

There really no advantage unless you have a Boeing or Airbus type with some TPIC time on your resume.

175 definitely makes transition to 320 easier.

Sure, when it comes to the training. But you have to get hired first before going to training. Having the E175 type it isn’t going give you an hiring advantage vs a CRJ/E145 guy all things being equal.

this part “It’s my belief majors would consider that time more valuable due to VNAV experience, which naturally would result in lower training costs for any new hire.”

yes I’ve flown both.

This has been my best one-sentence-thread-derail since the compass days.

Compass had a ton of commuters to the City of Angels. Unfortunately in the FFD world bases come and go based on the needs of the mothership