Very true." The I can handle a short term period of poverty before things get better" mentality should be a thing of the past. The regional FO position is now a almost a career position.

Just don't come on here and ***** if you go overseas and see your kid 5 days a month.

Wrong. At least there were places to go after you 'paid dues' at the commuters. Oh yeah, Most guys earned a position as an FO at a "regional" back then.

Are you high or did you graduated high school in '95?
Things now are much different at the commuters. For one the introduction of the regional jet and two the mass proliferation of said jet at the commuter level. The commuters have grown more than 3x their orginial size and more commuters that did not exsist before have come into the biz. Since there has been a mass transfer of flying to the commuter level, the stepping stone that the commuters once was to the majors has been dramatically slowed down and in some cases even halted. In '95 you could not get a job much less an interview with 500 hrs, to be competetive is was more like 2000 hrs.
So explain to me how its the same other than working at the commuter level sucks.

I think what he meant was that the regional end of things SUCKED... when I started at a regional carrier in 1992 it sucked.... pay sucked... work rules sucked... oh yea.. and there was little or no movement then either ... i spent 3 years on the bottom of a 1000 person seniority list ..with chance to upgrade...

The regional side of things has seen pockets of good times with fast upgrades and lots of movement... but that has not been the norm.

Oh... and in 1992 when I went to work for Flaghship Airlines ( AE )...I had 1600 hours nearly all ME turbine time...... and I was the LOW man in a class of 18. The more it changes the more it stays the same....

Who said I was going to commute to the US? You guys are all delusional, just because you bend over and take it, it doesn't make me any less of man than the rest of you here...

And you are better than me because your persist thought all this BS and in the end you will better off with your bus driver wages...

Thank you! This is exactly what I meant. Before starting at a regional, I worked as a CFI, flew skydivers, and generally grubbed around FBOs looking to pick up a flight. Had to bust rear just to get a job at a regional than then wanted you to pay for your own training. Thankfully I got around the PFT at ASA. The legacies still had pilots on furlough and were only just recalling and hiring. Upgrade took years.

If anything, I guess most of you are right. It's not the same. The guys entering the industry 2002-2007 had it easier. Straight out of flight school into the right seat of an RJ. Wild growth and SJS. Now that it's time to pay the piper for that growth with contraction, its no longer all fun and games.

Sorry, I guess I have no charity for anyone who enters this profession without understanding that the music was starting to stop and that bad times were coming. Now they're here and the regional guys are going to be in the same turd pile that the legacy guys had to endure 2001-2006. But it will change. The industry will evolve and continue on. The pay will still suck, there will still be whipsawing, and management will still continue to BOHICA the employees, and 10-12 years from now the regionals will be right back in the same state as they are today. Unless cabotage is approved, then we are all hosed.

AT least we are all in this together :), for better or for worse I have so much respect for us, what we do/who we are, we are one of a kind ;)

Ok group hug

Agreed and good luck to you my man.

I hope to follow suit in the future.

Moze na piwko w tym tygodniu jakos? heh