Not anymore. Please check out the CBP thread in the Military forum for details.

USMCFLYR

 

Give up. Especially if you have a family. You will be gone for most of the year making un livable money first year and poverty the rest until you upgrade then the QOL will go right back down again. Anyone that has a family right now trying to start a second career as a pilot should have their kids taken away by child protection and should be given psychiatric help. Look at what wizepilot wrote

THANKS FOR YOUR IMPUT AIRWILLIE that is what happened to you???

 

Yeah.. that's the right attitude!!! What if stevie wonder gave up because he realized that he is blind!!!!

 

I often wonder if people who make these comments are trying to weed out the competition with other pilots..... I am 42 and have finally landed a 121 job flying twin turbines... It is not a huge company but within the next 24 months I expect to pick up 1400 hours of turbine ME time with a 121 operator.... this should position me well to pick up a FO job on one of the regionals which is where I expect to spend the rest of flying career.

 

Your post confuses me......let me see if I follow you on this one; You are flying twin turbine for a 121 operation and then hope to move to a regional as as FO after you rack up sometime with your current 121 operator? ...........I am still confused

 

Why not stay where you're at until you have enough time to apply at the majors?

 

If your goal is a regional career, age 40 is not too late.

However...even more so than major airlines, regionals are very unstable and in most cases unlikely to provide a good career home. Here are the reasons...

1. Domicile Portability: Majors can move their contract regional feed around the country with no notice. You might get lucky, but odds are your domicile will change more than once. You have to be willing to commute or move your family. Majors are much more stable in this regard, their hubs rarely change.

2. Feed Contracts are Not Forever: When your contract is up, you have to recompete for your job. In the past these contracts often ran for 15-20 years, but that is changing...majors don't want to be locked in for more than 3-5 years going forward. When it comes time to compete, it will be brutal:

- Regional growth is stagnant or worse. As major compensation drops and fuel prices rise, smaller jets lose their economic advantage. It will likely be a game of musical chairs going forward, with the 50-seat chairs being taken out of play on a regular basis.

- There will always be some new kid at a startup willing to do your job for less, out of self-interest or ignorance. He will be at the bottom of the longevity scale, while you will be at the top. Wonder who will win that bidding war.

- The bottom feeders will always be on the prowl. Hopefully congress will require an ATP, which will help eliminate poverty wages but it will be very difficult to improve or even maintain compensation at the regional captain level. Bottom feeders purposely make working conditions intolerable to ensure high turnover and keep labor costs low...wanna spend your career like that?

3. When things change for the worse you are locked in place by the longevity pay scale, aka golden handcuffs. Switching companies will cost you ALL of your seniority, longevity, pay, vacation, and QOL. Regional bankruptcies are probable over the next ten years...what are going to do if you lose 10-15 years seniority and are faced with starting all over at whatever regional will hire you?


Basically a regional career probably only works if you have one or more of these things going for you:

- You are very lucky.
- You have outside/independent income or at least a backup skill.
- You have enough self-respect to walk away from the industry when it gets bad enough.
- You have no kids and a spouse who has a portable, lucrative career.

 

Forgive me for being clearer..

I just landed a job flying for a small 121 operator and start class in Oct.... Over the next two years I expect to pick up 1400ME hours (Turbine).... and then intend on moving to the regionals.

I had never really considered the majors but will look at them in a few years and see what they will want from a hiring perspective. My PLAN was to get hired by a regional and spend the rest of my life there (because of my age), ever since this downturn and no jobs I have looked high and low, I did find a few things in the CORP world but they sucked big time....

Having secured the 121 position I guess my future options are much better now... I did not even consider that....

 

Where are you at, Jon?

 

You would think that people that are where you're going telling you to give up would mean for something. Really, I could care less if you want to fly in fact more seniority numbers for me as you will be below me, the more the better. It's the truth. Just wait, you will realize you should have given up.