It comes down to specific airline. I only have knowledge of Skywest and Mesa. At Mesa there is no interview as such. The recruiter will call you and talk and get to know you. He'll offer you a class date and that is it. The only thing with Mesa is you have to sign a 1 year repayment contract and the low starting pay. To be fair though, Skywest is the same the first year. At Skywest you may get the Brasilia so an expensive jet sim course will do you no good.

Kiwi, I thought SkyWest didn't have a training contract? Am I incorrect?

Good points. I didn't consider the possibility of a prep course not having any real application once assigned to an aircraft type. I guess we're going to have to give this some more careful thought.

BTW, just curious.....are you, in fact, a Kiwi or have some other connection to NZ?

Thanks for taking the time to provide the info.

you are correct. Skywest does not have a training contract. I am a kiwi, though have been here 24 years.

wjsx, where are you at? Maybe we can get some folks to link up with you and give you some good ole fashioned mentoring.

Nothing beats being able to sit across from a dude who's been down the road you're trying to travel and give you some advice and mentoring.

Another thing to consider. Try and save some money to pay bills. There are weeks that you are in a hotel studying and life goes on. If you have a wife or family member to do that for you, all the better. You will eventually get passes to jump seat home but that is even hard as a new hire. I have friends that couldn't get there sims finished, so it took longer to get to IOE.Can take 3 months or more. Just my 2 cents.

Whats the best way to prepare for....The sim ride that some regionals give during the interview process?

ANSWER: Find a non-regional airline job.

Thanks for the suggestion, John. I think it would be very helpful. I just PMed you with some details.


That's a good point, kiwi. I've been aware of the financial stresses that come with first-year FO pay, but the extra costs associated with going through training are something else to consider.

I'm a little unclear about your comment about not finishing sims. Is it that because of financial restrictions they had to interrupt their sim progress, or that because completing the sims took longer than expected, that increased the time they had to support themselves?

Thanks again to both of you for input.

What?

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