I have already spent over five years in the right seat of an RJ and have three interviews scheduled, just tryin' to make the best decision possible because "baby needs a new pair of shoes."

 

Yup but I was covered on both ends. My sister and bro-in-law live 7minutes from the airport here in CMH so I decided to just take the 145. I could have taken the CRJ but would have had to wait a little over 2 months to get it. Things aren't bad.

 

Nothing you said is correct. Upgrade is sitting around 2yrs currently and that is expected to hold for awhile. The aircraft/certificate/base preference have nothing to do with how fast you upgrade. We are one a master seniority list. Regardless of which certificate you're on you'll upgrade just as fast. 145 guys upgrade to 170 left all the time. 170 right guys go 145 left sometimes. When you are up for upgrade you can pick which aircraft you want so long as there are available slots. Many guys chose to stay in the 145 currently because the pay difference isn't worth uprooting their family and moving somewhere else.

Also there are roughly 1900 pilots currently. Don't know where that 1000 figure came from. No worries though. I was 1854 when hired and after 2 months was sitting at 1757.

I haven't heard of anyone being hired below the 1000hr TT min yet. I do know someone who had his MEI but not the 100hrs.

Inbluskyz where are you living? Are you currently with Eagle? We don't currently have a base in Dallas so that's something to think about. Another reason I chose CMH is because we have 7-8 flights a day coming from IAH to CMH. It's very easy for me to commute. Believe it or not I actually like it. It's a 2.5hr flight and I always get a nice nap in after a day of work.

 

was hired 4/05 and was awarded stl 140 capt. as of oct. 1st. that's 2.5 yrs to hold captain as of NOW. CRJ is going a month or 2 junior to that. 170 is 3-4 yrs senioriyt depending on base. I don't know where people are coming up with this 1.5-2 yr crap. I was hired at around 1200 on the master list and currently around 1050...that's after 2 yrs 3 months and 90 shuttle america pilots being thrown ahead of me due to that integration. Don't know why, but a lot of FO's hired recently (in the last year or so) are bailing so that may be why some of the newhires have moved up so many numbers. Averaging 10-20 for attrition a month.

 

I don't know anyone pushing 1.5yrs but there are some 12-14 month guys. Why do people think it could even go faster? Because some 40 guys left last month on to greener pastures and the J4J contract is about to end pusing more guys out.

 

If you want to upgrade to CA AND be based in say ORD or ATL.. upgrade will be longer. That is what I meant

 

1900 pilots should (in theory anyway) equate to roughly 800 CA/FO's.. should, just guessing though.. and at the rate hiring is currently going, someone hired today may have quite a few people ahead of him by the time he hits class.. so thats where it came from

 

No it's not. It may be what you thought you meant, but ToiletWater knows better. His 2 months of line operations have made him an expert in all things 121.

 

To the original poster...don't get your mind set on the 170...I was hoping for it just because I lived near DC for 4 months and liked the area, and was hoping to be based there again. I received the 145 class, and am happy for it. Then again, I live in FL and will have to move regardless. If you already live near a base, that may influence your decision on equipment type. But really try to base the decision on class dates and base reserve time instead of equipment type. Most folks I've spoken with from the last several interview classes are in the 145...some asked for the 170 and got it, but the class dates were usually a month later...that doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Upgrade times at any airline are subject to change...drastically. Here's the deal at Republic, today.

Most junior guy awarded an upgrade class is a May 2005 hire. However, there are plenty of FO's above him holding out for a better deal (base, equipment, hell some guys stay FO's until they can hold a line as a CA and THEN upgrade to avoid any reserve), so don't let that fool you. Between May 2005-August 2006 there's only about 300 pilots on the seniority list. Should things continue the way they have, upgrade will probably hover around 2 years for those guys (still adding aircraft, high attrition, low number of pilots to upgrade). AFTER August 2006 upgrade time will probably increase unless some significant growth occurs. The reason is between August 2006-Present there's over 500-600 pilots in that portion of the seniority list (almost twice the pilots hired in almost half the time). It takes a long time to upgrade all those guys. Also, eventually we're going to stop adding 175's for US Airways. Looking at dates is good, but you need to know how many people have to get outta your way as well...

Now...we are also phasing out the Delta 135's with no announcement of replacement. The rumor mill has been pretty quiet except for people thinking that we'll see 170's or 175's replace them. But if nothing comes of it...well, that's 15 less aircraft to upgrade into.

Also keep in mind as the company gets bigger, you're getting more and more lifers on the property. Not everyone wants to go to mainline, I had several in my class that were planning on making RAH a career for whatever reason.

If everything stayed the same way it is RIGHT NOW...someone hired TODAY would probably expect an upgrade of 3+ years.

Of course...that could all change tomorrow too...