Training Departments at Regionals
 

Former military pilot here, with a couple of years of commercial and Part 121 experience until I opted to make my 9/11 furlough permanent. So a long time away from the industry, now learning, hoping to return for one last encore career change.

Apart from the important stuff like pay, work rules, flow, QoL, etc...., how do the training departments compare across the Regionals? Which carriers have a good reputation of professional pilot-centric training programs? And which are known for the opposite?


Thanks!

I seriously hope you apply for the majors or ULCCs. If you have enough time to go in as a DEC you’ll get a class date soon but considering you’re probably pushing 50 I wouldn’t wait 9 months to be a regional F.O. only because the training department will hold your hand.

I’d find a local CFII, spend a week going over Jepp charts, reading the FAR and AIM, and flying approaches. It’ll come back to you and if you apply the same rigorous study habits from the military to your 121 training you will be ready.

Based on personal experience, friends' experience, and lurking the posts on these forums, I know this for a fact:

Fantastic training departments:
United, Frontier, Mesa, Endeavor, Republic, Piedmont, ABX Air, Omni Air, Air Transport International

Horrible training departments:
PSA (believe me on this one, this I know for a fact). Air Wisconsin.

Questionable training departments (some say its alright, some others say its bad, its 50/50... I've heard of guys with prior regional 121 jet experience fail initial checkride, so)
Spirit


What makes a training department great is:

-How organized they are... do they give you everything you need right away. Is the material well organized, and presented good visually and easy to understand? do they give you a syllabus? or throw a bunch of crap out you and expect you to spend days and days deciphering it.
-The quality of instruction... does the instructor just speak in a monotone voice during ground school with death by powerpoint? or are they funny, engaging, keep you awake, encourage you to ask questions, gets everyone to participate, and has a "no-one-gets-left-behind" attitude towards the students
-How many instructors you are given throughout your training
-Family feel Vs. Just a number over there
-Class size... smaller is ALWAYS better. Everyone becomes friends and helps each other out. Everyone knows Everyone. class size of 30+ is NOT the way to go.
-Communication by email, if the training department solves any issues you have or if they ignore your emails
-Simulator availability... will you lose proficiency waiting months for a sim
-Does any one APD have a history of being douchee in the company?

[QUOTE=WindshearAhead;3589849]
-Class size... smaller is ALWAYS better. Everyone becomes friends and helps each other out. Everyone knows Everyone. class size of 30+ is NOT the way to go.
/QUOTE]

Yes, Delta, AA and United famously have horrible training departments...

Class size has nothing to do with it.

- Yes, I will be applying to majors and LCC/ULCC in hopes of skipping Regionals, but just trying to be realistic as I haven't flown in 20 years, and having been tacair in military and only FE in 121, total time is low (~2000).
- Also considering Fractionals vice Regionals, as I have experience there and enjoyed it, but prefer 121.
- over 50, so yes time is short. But after flying a desk for so long, spending a year or so at Regionals is more than acceptable, especially in this new era of livable wages there, while it lasts.
- Not expecting hand-holding. Just researching and comparing on a metric I find important.

[/QUOTE]I’d find a local CFII, spend a week going over Jepp charts, reading the FAR and AIM, and flying approaches.[/QUOTE]
- in progress

[/QUOTE]It’ll come back to you and if you apply the same rigorous study habits from the military to your 121 training you will be ready.[/QUOTE]
- that's the plan, thanks.

Perfect, thanks!

Can anyone speak to:
- SkyWest
- Envoy
- GoJet.....
- CommuteAir

- Frontier
- Breeze
- Avelo

CommuteAir has a training department that wants to see you succeed and will go the extra mile to help you if you show a good attitude. My only gripe is that training quality can be inconsistent depending upon what instructors you have. The seniority list instructors are better than the offline instructors.

Add SkyWest to top notch training dept. Im on my 3rd airline and they’ve been the best by far.

yes to skywest. Well run training dept.

I echo this sentiment exactly.

The problem with SKW is everything slowed way down, from interview to LOE, could be six months to a year if you apply today.

I can't agree about AA. I have many friends there and they say despite all the other problems their company has, their training department is top notch.

Republic is great. Personal experience.
PSA is horrible. 1st hand accounts from friends. High attrition, poor organization, Bad APDs. Though my understanding is that improvements have been made in the last couple years by the new director of training.

That's all I got.

Thank you, I think they would be best shot at an in-domicile base, too.

I'd agree.

Also simply due to their size (and the high turnover in the regional biz), they train far more pilots than other regionals, and most of the majors, so they can't afford to waste resources (or trainees).

I may have said this to the OP before, but doing a DEC program after not flying for that long would be some serious sketch. As badly as the regionals might need you, there are regulatory limits on how much extra training they're allowed to give.

I have a good friend who was in a similar situation to you, former navy pilot, came out right before 9/11 so couldn't find a pilot position when 9/11 happened. With the current pilot shortage he decided to go for it. He went and got current at a local airport, just took him a few hours, it came back quickly. He submitted his resume to a number of regionals this fall because he didn't have enough turbine time for majors or what ULCCs were saying they required (although that has changed now at some). He got several CJOs and decided to go with Mesa because they offered the quickest start date. And with things getting backed up on FO training that seemed like the priority, get flying as soon as possible. He had some reservations because there is a lot of negative comments about Mesa historically, but he has said the training is very good. It has exceeded his expectations. There are delays between SIT and SIMs, a couple of weeks, and there is possibly a delay to IOE, not sure yet. But after his experience, I wouldn't hesitate to sign on there if they give you a good start date.

That part of my comment was 100% sarcasm. The post I replied to said class sizes over 30 are always bad and smaller is always better.
AA, Delta, United all have classes way over 30 and no-one can say they have bad training.

Second'd Mesa. I flew with a captain there who hasn't flown for 20 years and had a career change. Decided to go to the regionals at about 55 or so years old. He succeeded at Mesa.

I'm a PSA "washout", and Mesa sets you up for success. Instructors there are active line pilots and teach very very well. Everyone is so nice there, the fellow students, line check airmen, captains, instructors, APDs, etc. No one is out to get you there and everyone, from the instructors to the APD's wish nothing but your success. The line check airmen who did my IOE, I felt like we became brothers at the end, fantastic guy.

There were VERY few failures there that were well deserved and not debriefing items; such as initiating a turn on the missed, before the missed approach marker. Or initiating a decent when you weren't supposed to. Even the students themselves admitted they needed to be failed. You never see anyone there complain that a check-ride failure was not deserved. The APD's are honest, and the small honest mistakes you DO do, it is just a debriefing item in the debrief room... and you tell yourself not to do it on IOE, get your ATP cert, and walk out the room... its just a small lesson learned. That's all.

Highly recommend Mesa, I'm happy here, and we have junior FO's who break 130k/year with a line; junior captains who break $180k/year with a line, senior LCA's who break $300k/year with a line. APD rates are through the roof. We are all also in the Aviate program, so looking forward to the United flow.

Nothing like PSA at all. The training quality and department is so much better than PSA. They actually care about you at Mesa and are happy to have you part of the team.

I personally had a great experience with the Air Wisconsin training department, despite the earlier post to the contrary. To each their own, I suppose.