0 time to FO?
 

I've been doing a lot of research lately, and it seems like the legacy carriers all have a pretty well-described path from nothing to a right seat: affiliated flight school or university, CFI timebuilding, WO or affiliated regional, then flow to the big leagues.

SWA doesn't have RJ partners or affiliated schools, and it leaves me curious as to the different paths people take to get from 0 time to FO.

I'd love to hear stories or advice anyone can offer on their own experiences or what might be the most efficient approach these days. Time is a factor, as I'm already in my 30s and flying will be my second career.

Thanks in advance.

Like you said, time is a factor. In fact, timing is more likely the factor in question nowadays.

Step one is be able to get a medical. Once that's out of the way, you have several ways to do it between civilian and military routes.

I don't have the military background, so I'm out on that...but it's worthwhile looking into the options available there, including Guard, Reserve, Coast Guard, etc.

As for the civilian route, it's pretty cut and dry. You have to jump through all the hoops like the rest of us; the regionals are not an option until you have achieved the minimum hiring requirements along with your private through commercial ratings.

I'm pre-9/11 and a lost decade member, and the rules have changed since then, but the idea is to land a job where you can build time quickly--with the intent on building multi-engine turbine PIC time when able.

The regional industry is a good way to do it, and has recently become shorthanded and better paid. There is a joke in there somewhere, but the regionals beat the humor out of me.

Good luck.

Are there any regionals that SWA has a particular preference for, or that would best prepare a pilot for flying at a major? From reading the forums here it seems like they range from bad to godawful, and while I accept that I'll have to grind it out, I'd like to make sure I'm on the best path.

That also raises the question of getting into the regionals in the first place. The CFI vs 135 question gets asked a lot, I'd be interested in the opinions of SWA pilots specifically on that issue.

We seem to get a lot of Skywest guys. Envoy is ok and has a flow to AA, but that place may be drastically different from my Eagle days.

Also consider the corporate world path. There are a lot of vacancies with corporate pilots getting hired directly to majors and legacy airlines. Pay is going up significantly. I spent 20 years corporate didn't have to grind a single day of regional airline life. Just do your homework and make sure you choose the right flight department. If they're always hiring you don't want to be there. I start with SWA in February.

Thing about corporate is that you build time so much slower. Even if someone today wants to go corporate, I'd still recommend to them to fly for a regional until they get a good base of experience, and some turbine PIC if possbile. It's also much harder to make the crossover to a major from corporate. SWA (and Fedex) seem to like corporate pilots, but at the other majors it's much more difficult to make the crossover from what I've seen.

The other problem with Corporate is that they pretty much want you to come out of the womb wanting to be a Corporate Pilot and ONLY a Corporate Pilot. You don’t want them to find out that you’re using them to build experience to eventually move on to the Airlines. They generally despise that and won’t want to hire you. I agree with others on this thread that if your goal is WN or any other Airline for that matter, you’re much better off going to the Regionals. As others have said ExpressJet, Envoy (AA flow through), Skywest, Republic all are pretty decent Airlines and offer fairly quick upgrades. The good news is that there has pretty much never been a better time than right now to get into flying. Your chances of getting a decent Regional job with very low Flight time is very good and your career progression to the Majors will be a fraction of the time it took most of us on this website to get to our respective Airlines.

This. ^^^^^^^^^^

I'd recommend checking the info on Expressjet and a quick upgrade before deciding to join the "sinking ship". There are plenty of better choices nowadays.

Absolutely. As a former COEX/XJT’er I agree. I only mentioned ExpressJet because WN hires a lot from ExpressJet and the OP asked which Regionals WN likes to hire from. I agree that the upgrade is probably a lot longer than some of the other options out there though. Thanks for clarifying that.