Looks good on the drawing boards, come back and report on your progress in a few months!

 

How long did it take for you guys to get the call after you sent the email?

 

The only thing that will happen 3 months into it will probably be a little less appealing is it becomes more of a job than a dream. Money wise it will be the same getting by, but not the same disposable income I'm used to now.

 

how fast to hold Tampa?

 

I'm guessing a year which coincides with a buddy I talked to today that has been there since May.

 

Ya i sent a resume today and I want tampa too.

 

If you are ok with not getting it for a year or so then you are good.

 

Here is a good look at what to expect.

AE Regional - YouTube

Minus the the good looking FO. They also make more than GIA FO's so..... Just be aware this is far from a glam job. I've had a lot of family members who fly chime in on all this with me.

 

So $1160 to $1260 per month and the wife pays for insurance. You are still going to need 80-85 hours per month to cover those regular bills. If the car needs tires this month, tack on another 15 hours.

Yes, you may be able to fly 120 hours. But I have yet to meet anybody who can sustain that kind of load for very long. If, and that is a big if, you can average 7.5 hours per day, you could hit 30 hours in four days: four 12-15 duty hour days. If that is the case and you commute, your three days off yield an evening, a full day, and a morning at home each week. More realistically, it will take five days to hit 30 hours leaving you 24-36 hours at home. Home visits like that for too many months lead to divorces.

If you commute, there will be NO disposable income. I am not expressing any opinion about GIA as a company. I am only saying that commuting to a job with such poor pay is not smart. If you lived in base, maybe I could see it (effectively at least one more day at home each week and no crash pad to pay for), but commuting is just crazy.

Now that Commute has ratified a contract, GIA is the lowest pay (if I am wrong, please correct me). Rather than go there, why not wait for a company that either pays fairly well or at least has a base you can drive to?




(About the training contract, I have signed one every where I have worked, so I am not inherently against them. But 24 months? At three times the cost of a type rating? That is ridiculous.)

 

I agree, the contract is quite steep, and designed to people there because they might otherwise leave.

My question is regarding not being able to sustain 120 hours a month. I routinely fly 100-120 hours a month working 6-7 days a week as an instructor. I'm not being a smart a$$, I was seriously wondering if there is any reason why flying that much at an airline would be more difficult than instructing.

I'm not waiting for another regional simply because I don't have time. I have applied to every single one and talked to recruiters, chief pilots and CEO's. No one, except for Great Lakes and Pacific Wings, wants to give me a shot because I can't go to Canada. I can't go corporate because who needs a pilot that can't go to Canada. The Canada thing is going to take another 1 1/2 - 2 years to resolve. I'm just not content building 2000 more hours of piston time that nobody is going to care about. While I'm not ecstatic about GIA's history, from what I've heard things are looking better and they're giving me a chance to prove I can handle the part 121 experience. The pay sucks but as soon as I make Captain I'll be back to where I am now, and if I'm going to fly 100 hours a month, I'd rather be getting experience that counts.