cgarunner

Hello all. I'm considering Skywest in the next few years, transitioning from a Coast Guard helicopter pilot. My first choice of domicile is Denver or Colorado Springs. I know it varies, but how long do you think I'd wait for a CA schedule working no more than 15 days? Is 10-12 days/month possible? Or are there schedules that keep you home most nights (aside from reserve)? I'm looking at long-term QOL (which I define as time at home) vs. helicopter EMS, which I could roll straight in to working 7-on/7-off at $60-70k/year.

trip

Why sell yourself short? Get in and get your 1000 hours 121 time and go to any big airline, make lots of money, much better schedules. You will not have any great QOL at any regional anytime soon. Most lines are 90 hours now, lots of work. You make a lot more then 60K at a regional but will work 16-18 days a month average. If you super senior you could in theory work about 12 days a month. You can bid local trips in domicile and be home every night, depending on your seniority of course.

cgarunner

I have young kids and my priority is time at home. I'm more interested in QOL than money. As for passing on the majors, I'm concerned that it would take much longer to build the necessary seniority in a major to bid decent schedules. For Skywest, what realistically qualifies as "super senior" enough that I could bid local trips?

trip

[QUOTEFor Skywest, what realistically qualifies as "super senior" enough that I could bid local trips?][/QUOTE]
CRJ CA In COS, 20 years. DEN, 15 years for a CRJ CA "all local" line. You could get senior in 3-5 years in the right seat but youll be capping out around 60K. Set your sights on a Major, get used to the fact that your going away on a trip for several days if you want to fly the airlines.

R0GER BALL

I left the cockpit for the "home every night gig". Felt just like you. But.... Flying called me back. I figured out how to make it work and it's been awesome ever since. Put your skills to work at Skywest.

Not the advice you're looking for but wanted to share. Good luck!

Utah

COS is a maintenance base and doesn't have "hub flying". Hub flying allows for local pairings easier than a outstation/maintenance base/domicile. Typically at the outstation domiciles, COS, BOI, FAT, and PSP, pairing construction is different than at the hub domiciles. Most trips have early AM shows in order to operate the first flight of the day and 1-3 days later,return on the last flight of the day, releasing around 9-11pm. COS has a lot of three day trips like that.

Denver has a much better pairing mix, however the previous poster saying 20 years to hold pure locals on the captain side is correct.

Supposedly, pairing construction is built with a little bit of input from the crews at each domicile.. In order to have a lot of locals, you need to add a number of standups/split duties to cover the overnights at the outstations and reduce the number of 2/3/4 day trips. SLC CRJ flying is like this. 70-80% of the flying are the shorter local/split duty trips and we have a small number of 2/3/4 day trips. Holding locals only is possible as a junior line holder. Why does SLC have so many shorter trips? Very few commuters based at SLC. A domicile with a lot of commuters will prefer 3-4 day trips.

10-12 days a month is highly unlikely until you are really senior in your seat. Top 5-10% in domicile. Most of the pairings here seem to credit around 5-6 hours a day. The company will want to assign you somewhere around 88 hours of lying a month. Seniority allows you bid a lower amount and possibly have that lower amount awarded. Good pairings might credit 7-8 hours a day. There aren't a lot of those. You can see where this is going.

Theoretically, we can drop PBS awarded trips in to open time if there is adequate reserve staffing. We never have adequate reserve staffing though. That's the way management runs the company. The other option is to post your flying into open time and hope another crewmember picks it up. It may be possible to reduce your schedule like this.

rswitz

ERJ FO in DEN. I grossed 80k my second year. (Lots of 150% OT) I bid 50%. Can't hold locals yet, but I get all the days off I bid for.

The QOL will change drastically once i do the CRJ upgrade, but I'm hoping to do 100k+.

dualratedchoppa

bit off topic question about reserve, if youre on Short call they need to give you a 2 hour notice, if no ones on RDY and someone cancels inside that 2 hours what happens? what is your right as a reserve pilot?

TFAYD

they call you and ask you if you can be there sooner - you tell them that you try your best but cannot commit yo less than 2 hours

trip

Yes- answered above. Avoid the “can you hurry to the airport and then call us back senario”, that’s testing the waters, not how it works. Hello, OK, what’s my assignment and what’s the show time? Not less then two hours from the call. Check you schedule online to make sure it’s actually there. Keep it professional.