okay...quick qs...if all i want is go to a regional right after school. get my fast upgrade, get my PIC and apply with a Mojor. Would Colgan be a bad idea??? For a regional i am not expecting to make a lot of money. Most regionals you dont make a lot of money unless you start looking at 8-10+ yr scales, and yet stil that money is ALL RIGHT. So why not go get your time and get the hell out of there. I am single, no debt, no kids, i am thinking about buying a new car, but thats not untill i graduate.

I've heard from some that you may end up at a disadvantage during an interview if all of your turbine PIC time is in props, but I've heard just as many say that turbine is turbine is turbine. I think the more important thing is to network... a good friend can be worth a thousand hours in this industry...


I wouldn't buy a car... your take-home pay each month on 1st year FO pay is pretty sparse... think instructor pay, only with benefits, because the difference in pay really just goes into your insurance and uniform.

how senior is houston. i live in SoCal, is it possible to comute??? We have bunch of CAL flights out of SNA.

Your CAL benefits won't start for 3 months after your hire date, and the benefits on CAL aren't all that hot. We have no commuter policy, so commuting is at your own risk. CAL flights are notoriously full, so you will likely be riding the jumpseat if you get on the flight at all.

Commuting is easier if you can work the USAir system, but it's still pretty rough, especially because of the outstation basing deal. It makes it so that you have at least a 2-3 leg commute to most places. You're really better off moving to your base with Colgan if you're not already living in a base.

As far as seniority goes, IAH is not hard to get. I wanted it at first, I didn't get it, but was offered it a couple of weeks after IOE. I turned it down since I already basically moved up to JHW and I didn't feel like making the 23 hour drive again.

GOT IT. AE is my number one choice, but i am not rulling out smaller prop guys also.

Getting IAH shouldn't be difficult, but getting to IAH is another story. No commuter policy + SJ8 Jumpseat on CAL (almost last to get the jumpseat) + CAL high loads + many CAL Socal commuters (SNA pretty bad )= not a good idea. Commuting West Coast to East is even worse at any company expecially Colgan. Why not look at Skywest or another West Coast operator?

How about XJT? They have LAX and Ontario bases now, they're going junior, and that may be commutable for you...

AE, SkyWest, XJT and maybe horizon are my top choices. The problem is that i dont have the 100multi, only 35. I would even consider e9

Whats your total time? Those are a few I am looking at too, what are your reasons for wanting those? I am trying to figure out what I wanna do also

CloudPilot57
i am around 400tt and 35 multi. when i get done with school i will be around 500tt. All of the airlines i listed, they all have bases in socal (except horizon). I have an opportunity to live for free in socal (my parents are moving away). The whole thing with e9, is that i can hold a liner faster and be able to make more of a commutable schedule. SkyWest is prob out of the picture, since they want 1000tt and 100multi.