Does anyone know when Envoy will be looking at hiring street FOs again?

I am an Army helicopter pilot and applied as an RTP candidate (had my ratings, was short ~100 airplane PIC hours). I got invited to interview -- however -- I have since flight instructed well past my ATP minimums and apparently disqualified myself and now need to reapply as a first officer candidate... however, they're not taking first officers. It's a little frustrating that they would take me when I was unqualified and willing to spend up to $23,000 towards timebuilding, but now that I put in the time and effort to flight instruct and meet ATP minimums while saving the company over $20,000, I am now disqualified.

Anyway. I'm hoping to get hired with a January start date, otherwise I need to look elsewhere for employment.

Please don’t put your career on hold.

Sounds like you’ve got a solution for your problem.

Don’t wait for Envoy to call. Go somewhere else, you can always re-apply as a DEC if they’re hiring them at the time.

They want guys in the RTP program because they can’t leave without a large financial penalty. Management knows they have a retention problem.

Heads up guys don’t put on the golden handcuffs and spend that bonus money until Your sure you made the right decision.

All good advice. Is it really that bad living in base at Envoy? I can definitely see why it'd be rough for commuters...

I’d submit that, if you’re within driving distance of making a two hour call out, life is just fine. You’ll hear plenty of complaining from guys who are on their first real job of any kind, but so long as you play the game things are a-ok.

No, living in base makes things very doable. RSV can actually be a decent deal if you live in base and move up from the very bottom of the RSV list. You get paid 75 hours, fly less than half of that, and most of the time end up spending the night in your own bed more than a jr line holder ends up spending in their bed. What makes this job a living hell is commuting, and even worse, commuting to RSV. Commuting to RSV at Envoy is a special kind of torture.

I own a house < 30 minutes from O'Hare so any QOL concerns about reserve or from a commuter's perspective is null. I want to go somewhere where ORD is junior for FOs & CAs and Envoy is one of the few that fits the bill.

Living in base there's nothing substantial to complain about. Just show up and fly your line, head home when you're done, know the contract and don't let crew scheduling jerk you around. Life is simple flying ~4 days a week and being home at least 3 full days.

Main complaints from new hires are likely due to commuting or getting stuck on an airframe/base you didn't want.

I think the expectation of "everyone commutes, its not a big deal" is a false idea that many new hires get sold from either recruiters, their friends, or online. Commuting sucks and makes the job much more difficult, especially if you're on reserve. To some people its worth it, but its not easy and really adds a lot of stress and time away from home.

As far as getting assigned a base/airframe you don't want... This is a risk that they should've known coming into the airline day 1 of indoc. and happens at every airline. That being said it could mean being stuck commuting (or moving) for 2+ years until you can upgrade into other equipment.