What is the real story?
They haven't told me where im going yet.

 

What are you hearing. I am trying to make the right decision here and my information seems wrong from the posts here?
Thanks

 

I worded that badly. Skywest is a great company with great people. I know some very happy people there. The Brasilia is a great plane and i would be happy and lucky to fly it.
I am really looking for some constructive advice.
Regards

 

I know that upgrades at Trans states is about 6 years right now. Gojet was hiring street capts until recently, thus its more plausible to have one year upgrades there. Gojet is owned by Trans states (if you didnt know that) and ive heard of them doing this before. If you choose Trans states just make sure you know what airplane youre getting before class. If its a crj, youre at gojet. If its erj, 6 year upgrade. Id skip it all and take skywest.

 

Go to Compass. They're expected to start interviewing next month. It's the only regional with tons of movement going on in the near future almost all tied to Delta hiring.

With that said If you can live in base then I'd say that's the one to go with.

Don't chase the upgrade because it never pans out. (I can't say never but it's rare that you'll upgrade as soon as everyone says you will). I was hired at a different regional the same time my friends was at SkyWest and he started out on the Bro. That was 6 years ago. He's now based in SLC on the RJ and will take the first upgrade class he can. He's nowhere near an upgrade class. At the time I was hired at my current airline upgrades were at around 2 years, if not less. I'm going on my 6th year and we're losing planes so there's no upgrade in sight.

Things change by the day at the airlines so live where you're able to drive home at the end of a trip and pick the airline with better work/pay rules. Things like leg-by-leg pay, cancelation protection, 75-100% deadhead pay and decent reserve rules make a big day to day difference.

It seems like someone is a little sensitive about their turbo props on property. Don't judge SkyWest by that guys' remark about the props and you being "too good" for it. I have some friends at SW and they're great guys.

 

Thanks Even with the lashing i recived, i'm really glad i posted this cause my information seems to have been bad from the majority of the posts.
Thanks

 

I wouldn't base any career decisions on opinions on an anonymous message board!

Make a chart of the pros and cons of each company. TS Inc=possible quick upgrade, but get treated like dirt. Faster career progression. SKW=stagnant but a good place to spend your career if you get stuck. Treated well and paid well.

DON'T base your decision on bases or upgrade times. Things change in an instant in the regional industry. Just because you can be based near your home as a newhire, doesn't mean you won't get displaced to East Jesus in a year and forced to a 3 leg commute. and contracts end. I keep hearing GoJets may not be flying for Delta too much longer. Upgrade times could easily spike. SkyWest is very stable.

 

To the OP;

Starting in less than two weeks FO will require 1000hrs as a SIC in 121 operations before being able to upgrade (I don't know your background). You will spend at a minimum two month in training, then you will be the bottom reserve guy. Lets say that on average you fly 75 hrs a month, it will take 14 months before you obtain the 1000 SIC. Realistically speaking while on reserve you will likely average 50 hrs a months thus pushing your shortest time to upgrade to the two year mark. Regionals change rapidly, the one that seems like it's good now might not be in the near future. The regionals will see consolidation as there aren't many SCOPE clauses that require separate certificates. From people at SKW I have heard great things, there is no secret that due to the lower cost contracts around in the industry SKW will have to make an adjustment, but they are likely to be abetter place to work than most if not all. Flying the BRO is only going to give you more experience and increased QOL while making the same as the RJ.

Compass has a young pilot group and they are about to have a significant amount of turnover. As long as that pilot group is not merged with TSA or GoJet they will continue to do well. If TSH decided to do some consolidation then you will see things deteriorate as the attitude of these regionals is very different.

 

Not necessarily good advice but something to consider. I'm sure there were a lot of FOs at Comair who decided to place location as most important in their decision. Didn't work out so well. I'm a Northwesterner and made the hard decision to pass up Horizon. Great company and great location but I upgraded here in two years. That's a lot of retirement funding and doors opening while those that chose Horizon are falling behind in both however much they like where they live. Good luck with your decision and I hope it works out for you.

 

I thought the whole point of going to a regional was to do your time and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. If so, you need to go to the place where you will fly the most (least time on reserve) and the one that will get you that lucrative PIC turbine time the quickest. No-one has a crystal ball but it safe to assume you will upgrade quicker at TSA than you would at SkyWest.

However, if QOL is at the top of your list and you are happy to grow roots at a regional, then SkyWest would be my first choice. Only problem with that is, if you are a 10 year captain at a decent company and life is dandy, will you still want to make the jump to a major and start all over again?

I fully expect to be called names for this comment, but the crappier the regional, the quicker you will get to where you ultimately want to be. Get in, fly your ass off, do your time, and get the resume out there. A year on reserve is pretty much a year wasted. You get credit for hours flown, not years served.