Same for Endeavor. 9 years in and I won't break $40,000 this year unless I re-upgrade.

I think pilots tend to overestimate their pay sometimes. I was an fo at xjt for 5 years and I think I made 41k when I was a senior fo. But I didn't bust my butt. I just flew four 4 days and went home. Pay doubled when I upgraded, then almost cut in half when I moved on. Unfortunately pay cuts are common with moving on.

I would advise the op to go to the first regional that calls. Skip the 135 freight, it's not worth it anymore.

Take home after taxes or before taxes?
Thanks Cap,

I made 46 third year pay at eagle, it did include the first half of the bankruptcy pay out.

...and if one tries to commute to any Republic base from anywhere near or west of the continental divide, you will hate life.

Hey, Songman, if you don't mind my asking, I would think that with the serfs revolting at the regionals (largely because of the terrible pay and working conditions) that you'd think twice about making the move; so what's your reasoning for thinking that now is the time?

These "no" votes are intended to tell management to "stuff it," but new hires coming through the door, more than any other factor, really hurt our ability to encourage management to do better.

Believe me, I feel your pain, I have 4000 hours of dual given myself. I'm not saying that you shouldn't make the move, just give it a few months.

Songman you do realize that you have left hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table by CFI'ing over the years. If you would have CFI'd for 2 years and then came to the regionals 10 years ago you would have been a captain in 2 years, since upgrade was short at some regionals, making $70k and now you would be a 10 year longevity captain making $90,000. Also, most don't consider it pay but regional pilots get 4 to $6,000 per year in tax free per diem.

For those of you claiming to make 50+ as a junior regional FO make sure you tell the OP what kind of schedule it took to make that scratch. I'm guessing max credit, min days off. No thank you. Its possible to make good money as a junior FO, but will have NO LIFE outside of your airline. QOL is king, my friend.

Man, that is a looooong time? Are you trying to be Rod Machado?

If you can, wait until the summer is over. This will be the crucible. Will regionals be able to meet the high summer demand? They are going to have to junior man (pay overtime) like hell to even hope to do it.

And they still won't be able. Pay peanuts, you get monkeys. There is kind of a stand-off going on now between Congress, the Regionals and the Majors. Just how bad those parties will let it get is anybody's guess. If you do apply now and go to training right away, you'll be in the front row seat to see the summer meltdown!

I made 37k first year, and just shy of 49k second year. I did pick up quite a bit of premium pay, but it wasn't nearly as readily available as it is now. Mostly I'd pick up either turns, or CDO's. 2 hours of block for 6 hours of credit works well, as does 2 hours of block, 6+ hours of pay at 150%, and still having almost all of both days off on either end. Some of the CDO's are awesome.

Currently, premium pay at my company is being offered at 200%, so you could do even better than I did.

I was also commuting for about half of each year, so that cut down significantly on the amount of extra flying I was willing to do.

So yes, I did fly on some days off. It's hard to turn down $240 for two hours of work. If there was one thing that I'd say is the most important piece of making okay money at a regional, it's not commuting. Do whatever you have to do in order to not commute.