it's kinda like having the lifestar pager for atlantic...

 

i spoke too soon with my earlier post. i just picked up a reserve trip for this weekend. 0540 show in kbos tomorrow...fly one leg to krdu...get to the hotel by 9 am...sit all day...the next day is busier with a kcle overnight and then i find my way back to kbos on sunday. the thing with reserve trips is they usually involve really long sits or non stop flying.

i prefer the long days of flying with shorter overnights...makes things go by a lot quicker.

 

Makes me glad I got the EMB-120. Sat reserve a whole 2 months of my short airline career. I'm sure if I had to pay for all the flights I've non-revved or jumped on, the amount would exceed what I made my first year. haha

 

Forgive me I'm just getting up to speed on the tread but; I actually like my airline. I got into ZK knowing full well what to expect, pay, MGMT, aircraft, schedules, WORK RULES, ect. It is what you make of it, nothing more. For most the regional is not a career job (unless you may be at SKW or Horizontal). ZK is deffiently one of those places you dont stay.

As for being paid poorly and being ****** on all time, that sucks. But from what I read here on APC and from the airline lifesyle that I grew up in things at the majors are changing also. The majors have better schedules, pay, equipment, WORK RULES, ect.

Honestly, moving from a CFI to an FO at ZK was a step up. We all have to pay our dues, and we all do it differently. Feel free to PM me fo r more direct questions!

Cheers

 

Well, I'll tell you right now, a week of a regional airline pilot really varies according to any number of given factors ... where you live, how senior you are, who you're working for, your base city, etc.

I've been with Colgan for almost exactly 1.5 years, and I will tell you that I truly love it there (awaiting comment from SAAB ). There are things that I would like to see changed, and some of them have actually happened since I've been there. Overall though, with one exception that happened at the end of June, the company has treated me very well and fairly. I have built up quite a bit of seniority in IAH and am now 9/40+ guys/gals there.

A typical week for me is commuting in from Dallas either the night before (if it's a REALLY early show the morning my 4-day paring begins), or the day of, and getting to the crew room to realize that there's really nothing to do before we actually leave besides maybe check the non-existant weather in the area, and stock pilot more load manifest forms. After a few min I meet up with my crew, and we head out to the lovely Saab-y-poo sitting out on the ramp waiting for us (yeah, we don't use jetways in IAH ... so if it's pouring down rain ... sucks to be us). I then proceed to do the preflight, and make sure the 15 year old girl is still in one piece with most everything attached, and then join el capitain in the cockpit and begin the lovely paperwork and begin the day ... work/rinse/repeat as necessary until your 4-day pairing is over ... or so one would believe. It's never a thought in my mind that when I complete my last round trip that I'm actually going to go home, because that way, when you get extended you're not nearly as pi**ed off.
Anyway, after I complete the eventual end to the 4-day pairing, I find out exactly what flight I'm going to take back home, and hope it's not Expressjet. No offense to any of the guys there (they have always treated me with respect and professionalism), but I always seem to get screwed out of the jumpseat at the last possible minute because there seems to be quite a few XJT guys/gals that live in Dallas as well that want to get back home. Once I eventually make it home, and enjoy my, anywhere from 1-3 days off, it's back to work/rinse/repeat as necessary.

I agree with everyone that says living in base makes life about 100x better, but the problem with living in Dallas is that you only have one choice ... and I didn't want to work there. The commute from DAL-IAH really isn't bad at all considering you have CAL, XJT, AA, and if necessary SWA to HOU and a $35 super shuttle to IAH. So, there's usually always a way to get there ... and worst case scenario, it's a 4 hour drive.

 

lol sometimes when i'm feeling dirty i hand fly those DPs that are "Runway heading to 5000 ft".

i've also figured out how to manipulate the A/P on the ERJ so that it has an CAT III autoland system.

 

That is what management wants you to think.... My friend; the old days of doing a few years at a regional and going to a major have just about completely vanished. Majors are going BK, shrinking, reducing capacity, or in Midwests case... outsourcing mainline flying to regionals. There are no longer enough jobs at majors for the people at regionals to have someplace to go after they "pay their dues."

For the VAST majority of pilots currently flying... whereever they are now will be their career airline for a long long time. If people keep accepting all the BS from management about cutting costs or else, then they will keep pushing the profession even lower. Face it, if the majors have work rules and pay scales that are THAT much better, why don't we? Smaller plane... yes... but they also have proportionally lower aqusition costs, lower operating costs, and importantly, lower fuel burns... the reason we get treated the way we do is because management has the majority convinced that they can NOT be profitable if we are paid properly and have a normal QOL. That is all BS of course, but the majority buy into it, and they continue to hire new kids with shiney jet syndrome who honestly think they will be here.... just a few short years before they get that dream job at the majors... meanwhile management continues to get rich at our expense.

The unions all suk! and exist primarilly to give the union execs a cushy job with some clout... they had one train wreck and the max duty work hours are about to be changed for train engineers.... we've been "trying" to get our duty hours and rest rules changed for decades with no success... so much for our unions and elected reps.

Like the vast majority, I fit in there too. I fly because I enjoy it, but I hate the company and everything else on this side of the hold short line. Once the door is closed, I'm happy again.

 

I don't know of any companies that require you to live within a certain distance. The requirement is that you show up on time or before. You can live in Europe if you want, as long as you make your showtime. That would be hard on a regional schedule, but you get the point. A "one-leg" commute on your own airline is the best case, but living in domicile is the best and safest choice especially until you can hold an easily commutable schedule i.e late shows and early finishes.

Someone asked about majors vs. regionals.. having done both, the differences not surprisingly come down to pay and days off. Then to a certain extent the quality of hotels. When I was at a regional, I never had more than 3-4 days off at a time. Now, I routinely have more than 10 days off at a stretch followed by 5 or so days on.

Obviously there are contract details that vary from major to major but differences are becoming less amongst like companies, with the exception of Southwest.

 

Go find a quality inn or holiday inn right beside a highway. Stay there for 18hrs. Don't bring your car. Then try to entertain yourself for the day/night. good luck finding a healthy place to eat. Better yet, get a smoking room with a view of that highway. Find some fat, old or gay person to eat dinner with. Watch them order water, and an order of fries. And listen to them ***** for 2 hrs. Then risk your life walking back to the hotel so you can inhale some toxic mold from the a/c machine.
Now do this for 4 days 3 nights. 4 or 5 times a month. 200 times a year.
Then the company will reward you with $20k/year for all your troubles.
Oh, you will work Christmas, Thanksgiving, all bank holidays, your birthday and weekends. But you will get a to say hello to all the fat trailerpark slobs that are boarding your 50 seat airplane. They hate you because you make $140k/year and only work 80hrs/month.

Go home to find that after paying your school loans, bills, rent etc... you have $40 for the month for food and beer.
Ahhhh but your an airline pilot!

 

Like alot of people said, the flying is great, some of the overnights are fun, and you meet new people. However, today was supposed to be my day off, and I just got back from the airport a few hours ago because yesterday I got extended!!