Excargodog has the key piece of advice: work with reality and go where the jobs are

Regionals are no longer really interested in FO’s

So figure out another path.

For part 91 jobs, press the flesh. Talk to the counter girls and line guys. The airlines are sucking a lot of experienced corporate guys out leaving jobs available.

And get yourself on an income driven repayment plan.

Yeah, for a first year pay of $40-50 an hour with a 70 hour guarantee. That wasn’t a helluva return on a $300k investment even back then.

Definitely in agreement there…

There has definitely been a sweet spot. Timing is everything, unfortunately you just don’t know when the RIGHT time is until it’s after the fact. Even if you do, there is usually not enough you can do to control your own timing.

If you really want a regional job I would apply to all of them, not just Envoy. It’s a fairly competitive market now that the pay is so high. A lot of guys with 121 and/or turbine time are applying to the regionals now. You need an unrestricted ATP to get your app through the door at ACMI or LCCs so I’d recommend getting into the right seat of anything with 2 engines as quick as you can.

R-ATP is only good for getting you into a regional prior to 1500 TT. Otherwise it’s pretty useless. Unfortunately it sounds like you went to Riddle and paid over 2x what you could have paid at just about any other University flight school.

This is not true at all. I am a 1000hr R-ATP candidate in class at a regional right now. There are several others in my class as well.

Yep, I don't regret it (yet), but young 18 year old me was impulsive and wanted to "go to the best aviation university in the world".

Turns out it didn't matter lol

-$300,000

Don't beat yourself up. They market like they do because laypeople believe it. Get yourself on an income driven repayment plan and move on.

yea.. I'm starting to find that out..

I refinanced my loans last year, I don't know if I can do income driven repayment since I've agreed to the $1,800/m for 15 years.

At Sun N Fun this week Envoy recruiters were telling people to apply within 200 hours of ATP mins.

And Endeavor said they weren't booking FO new hire classes until at least the end of the year.

Keep updating your airline apps app, I think FO’s are seeing class dates again. And explore the other options listed above.