See post #6 and then MOVE to your base. Rent, buy a cheap house, rent a house. Once you get to a major you can buy a more permanent residence. Think LONGTERM; You are an airline pilot you can fly home to see family. I don't understand why so many guys/gals limit themselves. Unless your spouse has an awesome job and can't relocate or you have a million kids in school go to where the best opportunities are.

 

If somebody wants to move, or is willing to, then your argument has validity. For some people, overall quality of life is more important. Drive to work, it's a life changer.

 

I live 2 hours from TYS and moving is not a good option for me (i would be a mid 40's career changer). How feasible would it be to 1) get based at TYS after training and 2) drive the two hours to TYS long term?

Thanks for all the info.

 

Which company?

 

Sorry; wrong thread, but PSA.

Thanks

 

Commutability, pay, days off/vacation, quality of schedule/life, upgrade times, and. . .

What happens if oil prices go up again? Are the airplanes going to be parked by the majors?

What happens if the pilot "shortage" becomes worse? Is the airline going to be able to staff, or is it going to shrink?

Nobody knows for sure these things, but they should be in your risk assessment matrix. Decide how much of a chance you want to give these events and how severely they would affect you in the chance they did happen.

 

As is stands right now today CLT is most senior followed by TYS.

Its hard to predict what DCA will change. Except for people that live in base it would be naive to think that someone wouldn't give up TYS to go DCA if it meant holding a line.

 

Generally majors don't seem to "prefer" any regional over others. The only place where that comes in is flow through agreements, but flow is always metered so it's more to the advantage of the major than the pilot. Flow (1) helps attracts pilots to regionals they might not otherwise consider, and (2) keeps them there longer while they wait for their number to come up.

This is good to know, but I probably wouldn't ask a potential employer during an interview...they might think you expect to need extra training.

Get this kind of info from the forums.

Wrong.

Three of the bigs require PIC time (SWA/FDX/UPS). All of the legacies place heavy emphasis on it.

Some of the LCC's routinely hire folks without TPIC.

This is good to know, and probably OK to ask. If you flunk out, another regional will be along shortly but that will always hurt your major prospects.

 

Agree with what you said but wanted to add that UPS just dropped their PIC requirement (still preferred though). Guessing it's like most places...the no PIC time applies only to people with significant other stuff on their resume.

 

FX has also dropped the PIC requirement this last year.