Advice for military 707 pilot w/ 2000 hours
 

Hi,

I might be exiting the Air Force in a year or so, and am researching what I am going to have to do to get an airline job. I currently live in Atlanta and HIGHLY prefer to stay since I'm right by the airport and can live VERY cheap there which will help year one in the the regionals...

I am currently an Aircraft Commander (left seat) flying the E-8 (Boeing 707) out of Georgia with about 1700 hours flying multi-engine jets and another 350 or so in the civilian world in Cessna's.

I figure I'll have to go regionals and have a few questions:


1. Any recommendations for a good regional when you are living in Atlanta?


2. What is the normal time in a regional to upgrade to left seat? With my experience (about 2 years and 700 or so hours as an aircraft commander) will I have to wait as long as a less experienced co-pilot with less hours


3. I've heard you never move for a regional?


I'm expecting to have to eat a lot of "humble pie" in order to make the transition to the airlines. This website is pretty helpful, so thanks for any advice you give!

Expressjet has an Atlanta base. They're not bad to work for but its a longer upgrade there. Commuting sucks but the way regionals open and close bases, if you're married and especially if you have kids, no way I'd move for a regional. And at the regionals, its not humble pie you'll be eating. It's a sh-t sandwich.

ExpressJet would be a good fit for ATL if that what you are looking for. But you may as well apply to Delta as they have a slight preference towards military pilots. Although you probably would not get ATL as your first base with Delta, not sure about XJT as they still operate separately for pilots (ASA & XJT).

You could try PSA or Piedmont as they too are close to ATL with their bases.

All regionals are running fairly short upgrade times with a few like Skywest, Horizon, and Envoy running a little longer than others.

Assuming you are applying to majors also. If not, do that as well.

500 mil hours (in same cat/class) can be credited to the FAA requirement of 1000 hours of part 121 SIC time required to upgrade (so you can upgrade at 500 hours if your seniority can hold it). I don't know what Atlanta based regionals have a quick upgrade time, if any. FYI it took me about 10 months to get 500 hours at Mesa from hire date. Would have been a little quicker if I stayed in a junior base and got a line quickly. Upgrade doesn't matter much in my opinion for you though, as you have mil heavy PIC time. You probably won't be at the regionals long.

Another thought.
 

You don't need an ETD, Flow, pref interview. Be careful not to work for a regional that will restrict your ability to work at your preferred mainline carrier until the 'program' gets to your seniority number.

Hey dude I was an E-8 guy that jumped ship about a year ago with similar time. I bypassed the regionals all together and went straight to an MD-11 cargo job and now have an interview with Southwest. There is no better time to get out than now. Unless you blead blue and see yourself doing 20 you should get out at the first chance you get provided you've had some time to log some Turbine PIC. The great thing about being in your position is that you have logged the Turbine PIC that the Majors are looking for so you don't have to worry about making it to the left seat at a Regional. You just need some 121 stink on you and some more total time and you're golden. PM me your phone number and we can chat. We actually probably know each other.

your experience means nothing in terms of upgrades...the ONLY thing that helps is you can count up to 500 hours of your PIC time towards the 1000 121 SIC requirement for upgrade....FWIW you shouldn't worry about upgrading at the regionals. I went to a regional when I separated last year, got just over 100 hours and invited to interview at DL....now I'm just waiting on a class date.

The average military new hire at delta has 3100 hours and 2200 PIC. You can't get that?

But plenty of guys hired with less.

Must be since my number is the average since January 2014