One should go into a regional with the plan of getting out as soon as possible. If that means PIC time, plan accordingly.

Right, so 1400-1500 pilots means PSA will need 700-750 captains, the amount of pilots you already have on property. All growth captains aka "quick upgrades" have already been hired. Any upgrades after that will be due to attrition only.

Anyone hired today will undoubtedly see a lot of movement and a quick rise to senior FO, but not a quick upgrade.

It sounds like the only quick upgrades will be at TSA or Compass. Although, I've heard that unless your on property in the next few months at TSA, you've probably missed the train...

Good point, but a lot of FO's are getting picked up elsewhere.. New hires are getting current and moving on or get hired just to wait to hear back from Delta or the like. That will only increase throughout the coming years.

Your math is correct, sort of. That would be absolutely true if there is no attrition. However, with 15-20 a month (which is what is expected per month for the next year), that would mean that someone hired today would be at about 50% up the seniority list in one year.

If you are hired today, your seniority number would be ~1000, with ~800 active pilots. Attrition of 15 per month, you would move up 180 in the first year. That would put you around the 600 mark. Also, with ~25 people per class finishing training every two weeks and hitting the line, that would mean in that year, you would have 600 pilots behind you.

As long as the classes stay full, people hired today will upgrade in well under 24 months.

Also, once the flow/ssp/whatever you want to call it increases this summer, the number leaving each month will increase even more. This increase has already been increased, and is supposed to be 10% of the pilot base each year. During the initial negotiations, it was 48 per year, as the pilot group was about 480 people. With a pilot group of 1000 now, it should be 100 per year.

I would expect the attrition numbers to stabilize at 18-20 per month, with an occasional high of 30.

How difficult would it be to commute from Central Florida area to a regional like PSA? I am new to this Part 121 business and am trying to figure out how that will work when you are on reserve for probably the 1st year. Seems like it would be a nightmare considering the the closet domicile is CLT for me. The only regional that has a base in Florida is Silver Airways and I don't hear alot of great things about them. I guess Florida is not the state to live in if you are a regional pilot.

Can anyone giving me an idea of what a normal day would be like for someone like me to have to commute that far? Are you on reserve for consecutive days or will they give you a day off in between which would really stink because it wouldn't make sense to commute home only to have to come back the next day.

Thanks for the response and question. After reading most of the posts it seems they are all similar with some differences but living in base is a must.

I will be moving back to Florida in August. West coast specifically.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Definitely have helped narrow it down to living in base as a first priority. PIC time is not really a concern but more just keeping current and getting some 121 time.

I think I should have done a bit more research (ok, that is an understatement because I only searched crew bases and then hit the submit button on apps!) about these companies.

I submitted my app last night for several companies, this morning I got a call from Republic asking me to verify my hours and then an invitation to interview at HQ. It sounds like I should disconnect my phone and run?