Best regional jet outfit for a new FO?
 

I know this may sound like a complete oxymoron, but in your opinion who is the best regional for a new FO to work for?

Bonus question, Who is the most military friendly in the event Mil leave is needed?

Seriously? There are about 10 threads with the same subject matter. Cue the psa/envoy usuals...

#1 thing that makes a regional the best is if they have a base where you don't commute. Beyond that, none are great. Where do you live? Where would you be willing to move to? All will give you the time for military, it's required by law.

Work where you live. If you have a choice on more than one airline in your city, then a little research will help you make the right decision.

Unless you live in a Republic base...if that's the case, I recommend commuting.

Best regional...that's an oxymoron.

That's really like asking what's the best place on earth to live. Everyone's situation is different and there are far too many variables to give recommendations. My suggestion is to look at the pay scales, the ones with bases closest to you or ones you'd be okay moving to and then read everything single post in every thread about them.

Bonus answer: all of them are required, by law, to give you military absenses without retribution. I don't know that any have better perks than others.

Avoid gojet and psa

Best outfit...cut above shirts and avoid pleated pants. Wear your hat and undershirts.

The one that you don't have to commute.

You should have asked "Which Regional is the best for my situation" and let us know where you live. Then we can narrow it down for ya.

I assume you are a C17 driver, cool Plane! Saw Biden in ATL few weeks ago had his C17 with him and limo. hah

I dunno I like it here on the L-ASA side of ExpressJet (CRJ side). After interviewing at a couple places I like the people I've dealt with and the training department. Just got that southern hospitality that made me feel at ease and comfortable. Couple of my friends here go on Mil leave no issues. But this is my 2 cents and there are ppl that complain here too.

Not that you could be aware of my situation moon wolf but being active duty does not leave me with a lot of time to sit around and search threads.

Best regional jet outfit for a new FO?
 

For the rest of the folks that have been helpful, thanks. I live I'm Buffalo, NY so there is
Nothing based near me that I am aware of.

I have a wife and little guy back home and would prefer not to move as our finances so not support it.

I have done a lot of research of airlines and originally thought RP would be where I would like to start. Years ago I loaded bags for Delta and their pilots always seemed happy, seems like that's changed.

Nearby cities that are a easy one hop commute are LGA, JFK and DTW. CLE is a 3 hour drive and CMH is 5. It is possible to commute to IAD or DCA via US even PHL but US presence in BUF seems to be decreasing.

My list of best regional airlines for a new F/O:

Harvard School of Law
Virginia Tech School of Medicine
MIT
Cal-Tech
Stanford School of Business

Hell even ITT technical institutes are better "regional airlines."

Don't kill you love of flying by becoming an airline pilot. Take a different career path, one that makes you wealthy then buy and fly your own jet on vacations to the tropics...

This is a no-brainer man.

Why a regional and not a major?





.

Thought about Jet Blue?

I love how people just assume it's all rainbows and unicorns outside of the aviation industry.

Mustang, living in BUF...I would try to find a regional that has LGA as a junior base. I haven't looked at the loads but it looks like there is at least 7 direct flights a day to LGA. I assume you're looking at the regionals as a way to make you app look better for the Legacy carriers...have you applied at Jetblue? Are you flying in the reserves? I would avoid a double commute at all costs and would reccomend living near your Guard base. You'll make more as a part time pilot in the Guard than your first year pay at a regional. So it's a massive pay cut from AD but still manageable for a while. With any luck you won't be at the regionals for very long. Goodluck!

NYC is the most junior base for most airlines that have NYC bases. You should be able to pick out a few airlines and do some research to see which one you'd like to go to. Compass has a DTW base and has a lot of movement and quick upgrades. One thing that would keep me away from RAH especially in an NYC or ORD base is no cancellation pay. You can potentially commute out to work multiple times in the winter never knowing if you're actually going to get a paycheck. Their FO pay is also far below every other 170/175 operator.

I know that sounds easy, but...the number of people with Ivy League degrees, whose net worth is enough to own and operate a turbine aircraft, is extremely, extremely small. To attain that level of wealth requires that you either be a very successful entrepreneur, or in the C-suite at a Fortune 500 company. It also requires many decades of 90-hour workweeks, usually with endless days on the road.

I say this as someone with two Ivy League degrees, my own (piston) aircraft, and nearly two decades in Fortune 500 style jobs. Heck, I'm writing this from a cube at Google*. But none of my Princeton classmates have come anywhere remotely near that level of wealth, and unless you get very, very, very lucky and work very, very, very hard for multiple decades, the odds of getting to the point where you can afford your own turbine aircraft are very slim. Realistically, to own even an entry-level jet (call it $2M acquisition and $400K/yr operating costs), you'll need a net worth well north of $10M and a yearly income in excess of $2M. There are very few people in this world who can touch those numbers.

Bottom line: If you just want to fly, I'd agree that there are better options than the airlines. Do a non-aviation job for money, and flight instruct on evenings and weekends, maybe pick up some charter gigs. But if you want to fly jets, I have never seen an easier time for pilots to get into the right seat of a jet, if they go to the regionals. It is many orders of magnitude harder to rise into the rarefied ranks of turbine owners, as it is to get a job in the right seat of an RJ...

*And yes, I'm leaving that career to go fly for the regionals. Call me insane, but there you have it ;-)

Right on! I built a lucrative law practice. I'm leaving the day-to-day in the hands of a young associates while I fly jets for twenty-something bucks an hour.

I hardly ever meet any pilots who have actually left the career. The one I personally know left the regionals to take an ATC job so he did stay in aviation. I've met plenty of pilots who worked other great careers before making the jump to the regionals though.

I think a lot of pilots like to talk tough on the internet about hating their lives and leaving the career but hardly any ever do.

I left a stable and very comfortable paying job with a BS/MS from a top tier school to go to a regional. Sometimes the paycheck sting gets me a little blue, especially when talking to my former coworkers. Other than that, I am magnitudes happier than I was in my previous life and would only encourage someone whose dream it is to fly for an airline.

I hear you!

There are only so many afternoons you can spend in a cube, staring longingly at the big iron flying overhead, before you say 'Enough is enough.' (In my case, anyways.)

And, thankfully, since non-aviation jobs don't have an airline seniority system, if you realize that the airline life just isn't what you had hoped it would be, you can always go back to your former industry without starting over at the bottom...

I would go with any one that's not parking all the airplanes. Period.

Nicely done!

Yep. I went to a top 10 ranked school in the US for earning potential, and graduated with honors. Did the rat race for five years, and quickly determined it wasn't for me. I make far less now, but am much happier at the airlines!

Yes, everyone is required to, but not all are friendly with it and there are many ways to screw a military guy over if he has to leave. You've never had to deal with that. How do I know you've never dealt with it? You wouldn't have made that statement. It's a widespread problem. I don't meant in the airline industry specifically. I'm talking all around, you'll find companies that either don't know the law or they are fully aware of it and do things to get around it. I've seen guys not get hired because there was a chance they'd have to leave for a deployment. Of course that's not what they were told. The guy doing the hiring was military and told me thats why he didn't hire them. I told him he was a hipocrite and he didn't understand why I said that. There are some real tools out there.

For some reason I found this really funny:D

Very well said.
Same boat here: getting ready to leave a very well paid engineering gig in a Fortune 500 to fly for peanuts. I just hope the regional stay will be as short as possible.

Thanks, that's what I needed to hear!
Anyways, outside of the crappy regionals, pay isn't that bad.

One more, thanks! My only regret is I waited way too much.

Hi,

Those of you who left good paying job for regional and are happy, how long have you been at the regional??? I'm genuinely curious.

And for those of you who left solid/professional career and been at the regional for many years, how do you like it after all these years? does it not feel like "just a job" at the end of the day for you now that you have some years under your belt?

I only ask as I read many on this forum who states that fun of flying quickly fades away and it just becomes another job.

Thank you very much!

Stay away from Endeavor

They say money can't buy happiness but I find it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle! :eek:

That being said, I've been in aviation as a career since 1991. Did the CFI gig, flew checks single pilot in MU2s, owned a flight school, became a regional FO and CA (company liquidated), did the fracs (Flex), and left for one of the 142 schools to teach a few years ago. I really only planned (like anyone can plan in this business right?) to stay at the 142 two years and then go back to flying. I got lazy. Home every night was great. The salary would achieve six figures in a few years, okay 401K match (not stellar by any means). Liveable. Doable. Then the corporate mentality went into overdrive. My official program manager position was eliminated. I was tasked with things I had no passion for and did not want to do to fill a void, "we need someone to teach XXX, and it's you."

Oh, you know how to do Powerpoint? We need these courses rewritten. Twelve hour days looking at a computer screen was not what I signed up for. It was miserable. At the end of the day Friday I would hear, "We're going to need you to come in on Sunday and teach International Procedures (for the 4th Sunday in a row).

At some point you realize you're trading your time for money. And the time is finite. It's the most valuable resource you have (not the bank account, new cars, boat, airplane or whatever). As I've written on these forums I'm qualified for the majors but can't get there without the recency of experience afforded by the regionals. Yes, it's a financial bite but I'm right there with you guys. Except for me it's like starting over. I'll be honest I enjoy $80 bottles of wine and craft beer. It's now Sutter Home and $2 PBRs. But they taste so much better at 2am when I don't have to worry about someone calling me about the Powerpoints.

Well said.

Very well said! What you said about "time" is very true!
A very well compensated desk job is almost all the time a never ending job. For me, typical day is 8am to 5pm all meetings with people booking even my lunch time. It would be politically incorrect to decline those lunch time meetings. And then 5pm comes and realize you have 200 new e-mails in your inbox plus whatever powerpoint presentation to work on. Yes, I am home every night, but tired, stressed out and my little one doesn’t get to see me that often. Most of the time she’s already sleeping. The work day often extends to 11pm, midnight or sometimes 2, 3 am and still need to show up the next day fresh and the same thing starts all over again! Yea, 6 figure salary: very nice but at what cost?

I 2nd this

You gotta start blocking out your lunchtimes with made-up meetings with incomprehensible acronyms, like 'PNR Review' or whatever. Nobody ever asks what that is because they don't want to look like they don't know ;) And then, go eat your lunch in peace...

Yeah, about two years ago I had an interview with a regional just prior to a six month deployment. I told the regional about this, and that was no problem as they were hiring into a pool. Well my base called, and I needed to come in for some darn last minute requirement prior to the deployment....well that happened to be the day of my interview. I contacted HR via email (as we had been emailing back and forth prior). All they said was "Apply again in six months." No, "can we reschedule", "be safe." Nothing.

Then when I got back from my deployment my current employer, also a regional, refused to get me recurrent or pay me!! I told them not only was what they were doing immoral, but also ILLEGAL..I included links to USERRA websites. I contacted the union...nothing. Finally after a couple months of futile attempts to handle the problem at the lowest level, I contacted a USERRA rep. THEY WERE AMAZING. They were prompt, polite, and kicked some butt.

Morals of the story....
-Veterans still get crap, despite all the teary, sappy stuff a company might advertise. Plan accordingly.
-Do your part to notify your employer before and after being on orders. Do this early as a courtesy, but also immediately before leaving and after returning. I'd probably notify a minimum of two people per contact.
-Email saved my rear. Everything was docmented for the USERRA rep. Save ALL emails both outgoing and incoming. You show that you did your job and that the company acknowledged you.

End rant.