A couple Skywest Q's...
 

Hey all,

I was curious if any Bro drivers out there could shed some light on the schedules? General "fun" factor of the flying, how the trips are built (all early shows, late shows, etc, etc), daily flight time, daily duty time, hotels (nice, bad, really bad), layover cities in general, how long you layover. What are the junior domiciles for both FO and CA spots? Anyone commute/drive from Orange County to the PSP, SAN, SBA, or SBP domiciles? Is it pretty easy? I'd be driving in from the Anaheim/Orange area.

And, if any Bro drivers out there could PM me, I'd like to see if you could send a bid package so I could get a better idea of the type of flying.

Lastly, I'd eventually want to end up in DEN on RJ. I was thinking of staying somewhere junior to DEN and upgrade to start building PIC, then when I can hold DEN CA trasnfer over. My question is, what is the DOH of the junior DEN CA?

Would it be wise to, and this is saying if I got the Bro initially, to upgrade to Bro CA to start building PIC, then when I can hold DEN RJ CA transfer over in however long it takes? My logic behind that would be for building PIC vice sitting around in DEN where I'd really like to be, but as an FO.

Thanks for the help!

Junior DEN CA is sitting at about 3.5 years right now I believe.

That's a whole lotta planning!

From Orange County, you could easily commute to any of the SoCal domciles. Even driving to LAX and just jumpseat on the Bro to work (you can get a monthly parking pass at LAX for about $100 /month).

Upgrade on the Bro is about a year (or less).

Tony, congrats on the SAPA deal. I hope that if ALPA does get voted in, people like you get involved to keep the guys who are in it to screw the company out.

The Bro was fun to fly. Obviously, the bigger the base the more variation in schedules there is going to be. The jet probably gets longer breaks so you can eat. It seems like we would go all day on 20 minute turns. And, I had a crappy commute so I usually ended up with poorer paying trips.

I can't imagine upgrades staying low, unless we get some new flying. Contrary to what most think, we are losing around 20 per month, not 30. So if you get hired and your seniority number is 2900, and you have to be around 2000 to be a captain, I figure around three years or so to move up 900 spots. That is the way I figure it, take it for what it is worth. And like they said earlier, 3.5 years to be a junior guy in Denver. Good luck and I hope this helps.

12 hour duty days with 8 legs and no breaks sucks. The flying is fun though. The beds at the Rogue Regency in Medford are too hard. its 4 am and maybe I'll write more after today's trip. last day of a 4 day. woo. :p

Right now it seems fairly easy to get just about any base within a few months as a FO. Don't plan on doing many long legs in SoCal, just lots of legs. You'll get worked down there. Not that we have that many 'long' legs anywhere. Many people in my class got to where they want within two or three bid periods once off IOE. Commuting usually isn't a big deal, just a hassle. SkyWest doesn't have a commuting policy unfortunatly so if you're going to fly to youre base leave yourself a good three flights to get there.

That's all I got for now. Off to race the Eagle Saabs. :D

Sounds good guys, thanks for the help.

I figure with Skywest putting most of the ex-CFI's into the Bro I should expect that, it's not a bad thing, I have all of my family and high school/college friends in the OC area so it'll be nice. I just wish the damn DEN domicile wasn't so senior or still had the Bro, that would be awesome. It's all a trade-off I guess.

Any word on how long they want to keep the Bro's in service? I've heard 3-5 years from friends, potentially even longer if they can't find a replacement bird for the Bro.

Did you wake up early to look at this website? If so, the bro is making you crazy!

actually parking at LAX is $15/month for the regular employee lot, or $30/month for the one with the more frequent bus service. that's unless those have changed very recently.

to the guy hoping to commute out of SNA, just keep in mind there's no parking at all at SNA. skywest bases no pilots here in the OC, so we get no employee spots. and there's nowhere to park. hope you have someone that can drop you off so you can go to work. it's annoying. but that's the price we pay to live here, i guess.

hah, yeah. I'm back finally and beat. 3 days off until the fun starts again.