Playing devils advocate. As fickle as the folks are on this board, I was just spewing nonsense.

Look, you know as well as I do that there is no other regional better than Envoy if you want to go to AA. This year alone, Envoy pilots have held 68% of the class slots in new hire AA classes. 68%! That's better than AAG said they were going to do.

AA, combined with LUS both have massive numbers of retirements from 2015 well into the 2020's. Like we've said before, unless someone discovers the fountain of youth, then those pilots have to be replaced. With Envoy holding 50% of the class slots, where else would you want to be?

How's the training department these days? Those were pretty troubled waters when I left in 2011. Lots of FAA scrutiny, lots of busts.

There are still a few bad apples but almost everything is AQP these days. In my experience AQP has been very professional and a great learning experience. The old style of check rides is a thing of the past.

Not for initial in the EMb and the CRJ...a type is a checkride except for the 175

All the bad apples are gone. We have a few that are known to be thorough but definitely won't fail you undeservedly. The biggest plus with the AQP training we have now is Instructor Uniformity. If one guy has more busts than the next, he will get additional attention and instruction. Currently our AQP program has a 98% pass rate on the first try.

To say things have changed from 2011 would be a HUGE understatement. A lot less pressure when you go to training now. Don't get me wrong, you still have to prepare and be ready, you just don't have to worry about some rogue chip on his shoulder instructors who is out to show you how much smarter he is than you.

That's good to hear. When I left, the sims were backed up for 3 weeks due to unsats. The FAA in-house guy on the CRJ side was sitting in on just about every PC he could and it was a very nasty environment. Quite a few check-airman resignations due to the pressure they were being put under to fail people. If things are as you say, I may actually consider coming back if things fall apart with this gig I'm in now.

Night and day in the training department. I've had a couple AQP's now and I still have a hard time overcoming the pre-training freak-out that I'd built up over my time here. Just like it has been said, studying and putting work in is required, but the feeling that you're playing Russian roulette with your 121 training record every time you set foot in training is going away.

How will reserve times look in each of the bases once the hiring starts to pick back up? I know commuting to reserve is hell, so just wondering. I have heard it would likely still be a year or more even with the added places and pilots. Thanks.

It is impossible to tell right now. It depends on movement. Vague enough for ya?

Not so much if you work at Envoy. We provide hotel rooms for all commuters any time you need one. Go to any other Regional and you are paying out of pocket for hotel rooms and/or crash pads. That is hell...and gets very, VERY expensive.

It's not an issue at Envoy. Keep all your money as the company provides you hotel rooms. Makes commuting much easier and less painful.