PreciousCargo

I'm at a part 61 one school. Going to fly after work and stuff. I pretty much fly when I can. I have no problem with the school I am in. Just thinking it would be better for me to pay for this on my own. Be a free guy.

FlyingKat

Well PRIA is designed to address 121 issues not 61. But like someone else suggested I would talk to someone at the FSDO to make sure they can't ding you. Paying for it yourself is always best unless you can figure some way to make more $$$. I've hears some guys actually make money off the RTP program if they come in under budget. Good Luck.

Excargodog

Third cup of coffee down and I still don’t understand the issue. Your original answer to my question:

...lead me to believe that the problem was your school. Your response to FlyingKat:

So I thought it was your school but it’s really TSA? Or is that wrong?

So now I’m confused (and have to pee from all the coffee). I guess I really need to understand what your plans are and what your assumptions are. Entry level FO pay sort of sucks everywhere - offset some places by bonuses or RATP support. (Yeah, I know, used to be worse, had to push the aircraft from one city to the next, uphill both ways, in the snow, while surviving on PBJ from the local food bank)

And here is where your plans are important. Nobody plans on making a career as a regional FO. Making a career as a regional captain IS possible, and probably even enjoyable, but it’s sort of a default if you don’t move on to a major and moving on to a major is what most aspire to. But if that’s your plan, I would suggest you consider these as a priority:

1. Get in to the game. Get your conversion hours, get type-rated, and start flying the line.
2. Go where you can get hours. Read the Horizon threads if you want to see what NOT to do. Guys there with a year since hire still on reserve with a couple hundred hours of 121 time. That is NOT the path to career advancement. Go somewhere they’ll fly your butt off.
3. Go somewhere you can upgrade fast. Not just somewhere that you can quickly GET 1000 121 SIC, but somewhere there will be upgrades available when you do.
4. Take the damn upgrade. Yeah, I know, upgrade eligible guys get the best damn FO schedules possible, but unless your career aspirations are to be a regional FO, and they shouldn’t be, take the first upgrade available.

$4000 may seem like serious money now but it really isn’t. And the difference between someplace that pays their FOs $35 an hour and one that pays them $50 hours is only - at most $15,000. A quicker upgrade is worth that even while employed at a regional and every extra year you spend futzing around at a regional is another year you WON’T be getting top end major pay assuming you get there.

We are three or four years out from the peak of a huge retirement wave that will force hiring at the majors.

Futz around too much and you’ll miss it. Futz around even a little and you will be behind hundreds, maybe thousands, that you could have been senior to.

My recommendation?

Don’t futz around.

ninerdriver

If you're going to work at a place like TSA at which you can expect to fly plenty anyway, then there's no need to live in base. You might not have time off enough to pick up extra flying, and you won't be sitting enough on reserve to worry about sitting at home versus sitting in a crash pad.

If you're willing to move anywhere, find a cheaper place that's an easy commute and start there. ORD would probably be easier, since you'd have AA and UA to choose from. Lots of flights are the key, especially two early options to base and at least one late option out of base.

I live a short flight from NYC with options on two airlines. It works great for getting back and forth to work, and I get to live where I want to live.

Cue the "if you don't live in base, then you're doing it wrong" patrol...

PreciousCargo

I can understand why I was misleading. Yeah I was worried about TSA. Not the part 61 school i was attending. But you lay out some very good points. I was worried that TSA wouldn't lead me to a place where I could move onto a major in a couple years and be stuck there for 5 or 6 making crap pay. With all of that said in guess it would be wise not to futz around. Thanks for you're insight.

PreciousCargo

How much time away from home will I be doing at this company. I figured living in base might make life a little easier for me. But I'm willing to listen to what you or anyone else may have to say.

ninerdriver

I don't work at TSA... I'm just giving you another option versus moving to an expensive base. It sounds like you'll fly a lot, but I'll defer a definitive answer to TSA folks.

rickair7777

Yeah that's ridiculous. You're not in 121 training, you're doing 61 or 141 and for PRIA purposes there's no "failure" of that kind of training program. You can only fail the written tests or checkrides, dropping out is not a failure.

Unfortunately, you might have to sue them if they dig in their heels on that.

PreciousCargo

With all of the advice inhave gotten in here and other sources I'm pretty much deciding to keep what I have going with TSA

AirlineMerc

Out of my class of 7 at TSA, there are 2 left working for the company in approximately two years. So....you can take that as pilots are getting what they need to move on very quickly....and that TSA isn’t a place that inspires pilots to stick around for long.

I don’t know if you would be forced to pay back the company for your RTW costs if THEY terminate your contract. I would definitely be ****ed if they did that after I held up my end and they decided not to continue my employment.

Disclaimer: I am not one of the two out of my class left. I am one of those who became “outside of the training footprint”, now making almost double at another airline what I would have been making at TSA, will upgrade the moment I decide I’m ready for it and put my bid in, and found a place that is a much better fit QOL and career wise than I ever would have found at TSA.