I doubt it will slip further. New hire ERJ classes have resumed and are going on right now.

 

lol thank you for that correction! Definitely wouldn’t put it past them to delay it again.

 

hello all,

Currently, i'm flying as a part 135 SIC and about to start training in May. Would I still be able to fly part 135 on my days off while sitting on reserve?

 

nope

filler

 

No, it's not practical, but is also specifically prohibited by Skywest to do any flying for hire outside of your job with SKW without written permission by management.

 

Some questions:

Skywest's ad banner (on this page) says that there are $40,000 in bonuses for Direct Entry Captains. However, on the website it only lists a bonus of $7500 if you have a CRJ or ERJ type rating (which I don't). Where are the supposed $40,000 in bonuses coming from?

How does Skywest expect to compete with other regionals that offer DECs full credit for all 121 experience (not just 10 years) and $100,000 in signing bonuses?

Lastly, how does vacation accrue? How much vacation does a 10 year pilot get? What's the max?

Thanks in advance!

 

There were a few DEC’s in my class and they chose Skywest because of the domicile options. Money isn’t everything for a lot of those DEC’s.

 

can’t speak to vacation accrual. As I understand it, The bonus pays out over 24 mos as follows:
$5K upon completing IOE
$5K at IOE + 6 mos
$10K at IOE + 12 mos
$20K at IOE + 24 mos

 

I would be careful with SkyWest and signing any contracts. They are a pretty shiesty company overall and will nickel and dime every pilot they can, your schedule will be rough for a long time (20 year captains complain about how bad their schedules are,) crew support doesn't know what they're doing. If you are forced into being at a regional for a bit before finding a better higher paying company skip the bonus so you don't have to pay back whatever they give you (which will be taxed about 35%).

 

Vacation accrual is based off hours worked. Credit 100 hours and you'll earn about 5 hours of vacation time. The accrual rates vary with years of service. We bid for vacation quarterly. Currently we are bidding for June thru August. The bid for September thru November won't occur until July. Vacation is paid out at a rate between 2.5 and 4.2 hours per day. (reserves must use 4.2 hours). If you are awarded a week, you can cancel days you don't want. Let's say you only want 5 days of the award. You can then assign a daily vacation rate between 2.5 and 4.2. You'd use between 12.5 and 21 hours of vacation time. Those hours would be factored into your PBS bid for the month. Transfer domiciles, upgrade, or transition, and you lose your awarded vacation. You also can't take any vacation until after 12 months. It may not even start accruing until after 6. Unless you are senior in your domicile, you can forget about vacation over the summer or holidays. We have nowhere near enough vacation slots for the amount of vacation time accrued.

Looking at the seniority list, the amount of DEC hired over the past year is shockingly low. I figured the number would be much higher.