Don't know if you're really skipping a step. Won't you be a little short on the PIC requirement for an ATP when the time comes? At the very least the 300 hour guy is gonna be short on PIC skills.

To be fair, it really is a gamble. The 300 hour might make it through training which is great (just don't f*#K it up when you get to the line. Those are real live people in the back paying your pay check). But I imagine failing out of a 121 program at that stage in your career is a serious black mark when it comes time to apply some place else.

Short of all the airlines getting together and raising ticket prices, in my opinion it cannot be fixed in such a cut throat industry. It is what it is, and that's the way it will be, or something like that.

thanks for responses everyone

Very well said. I'm 27 and thinking about being a lifer at SKW. If you know the right people and can do other things like sim, you can make a very nice living. We all want different things. There was a company email I got talking about a EMB CA who was retiring, 20 something years flying the EMB!!

illinipilot, i am just curious, did you graduate from U of I with a degree in Aviation Human Factors, i did in May and now i am CFIing in phoenix and in about 3 months will pass the 1000 and 100. just to let you know if you want to CFI here, i am averaging 120 hours and month (just got Multi students) and it is the exact same fleet as U of I. Plus they will give you two free CFI ratings if you work for them.

That's a good point about P.I.C. time for a ATP. I'd love to have a serious conversation about it but I don't even know how much you need.... More importantly two and a half years later I finally have 10 post and can pm people. Super excited.

Raising the bar at the regionals benefits both of these groups: the lifers get a job they can comfortably stay at and the fact that the regionals get more expensive prompts mainline to take back some of the flying they've outsourced, creating more mainline jobs for those who want to go to a major. Everybody wins - except for the people who don't want to put in time as a flight instructor. I think that's why they're looked on with a bit of suspicion: they're the only ones really benefiting from the current situation.

As far as the regionals always being a stepping stone: Yeah, you used to fly a 19 seat turboprop as a stepping stone to getting hired at a major to fly a 100 seat jet. It's a whole new ballgame with regionals flying 50-90 seat jets, and for regional pay and working conditions to remain as depressed as they were in the old days is inexcusable.

Thought I'd chime in as an extreme newbie.

I'm just finishing up OE at Pinnacle, and all I can say to those who get to skip the CFI step is that I'm jealous. I gained a lot of valuable experience as a CFI, and even had some fun along the way. I never wanted to do it to begin with though. If I had the opportunity to go immediately to the regionals, I certainly would have.

As far as QOL @ the regionals, maybe I'm not 'old' enough to speak up...but I will anyway. It has always been, and will always be management's job to try and pay as little as possible...while it has always been and will always be labor's job to try to get paid as much as possible. It all comes down to the strength of your position when it comes time to negotiate a contract. If there's aways a pool of pilots who suffer from some degree of SJS, mgmt will always be able to pay peanuts. I won't exclude myself from the ranks of the SJS folk. I know it is looked down upon to the extreme, but why else would people actually work for companies that pay what the regionals do...most of us are trading QOL for QOT (quality of TIME). I almost feel dirty for typing it, but it is the truth as I see it.

Turbine time is turbine time, it doesn't matter. Don't believe me? Ask the hundreds of people who never touched a jet until FedEx, or Delta, NWA, etc...

I don't know about everyone elses situation, but to me it didn't make any sense to go to any regional other than my first choice until I had enough time to get there. I did have several friends do the whole "smaller regional to get into the first choice" and low and behold...we all ended up where we wanted to be at with the regionals we wanted within about 4 months of each other. The difference was I made twice as much money and was home every night as a CFI. But, it's not for everyone.