Doctor Block

787 to new hires? Not any time soon

Riverside

If you want international right away, go to an ACMI.

Andy

Well, there's this:


I have no idea what the future holds in this area, but traditionally, widebody FO goes senior to narrowbody CA. And traditionally any really junior seat will occur at SFO and EWR.
Traditionally, the 777 goes junior to the 787. I've flown both and it makes sense; the 787 is a sweet ride.

A newhire should be able to get a 756 once a bit more movement happens. Keep in mind that a junior pilot won't see a 767-400 except for OE because it pays the same as 777 and 787.

But let's talk big picture. Concentrate on getting hired.

If/when you get past that hurdle, concentrate on getting through training. I recommend picking the Airbus because it's easy to learn and fly; even I'm able to fly it so you know it's not that hard a training course. But the guppy's also a good choice.

Spend your first year at the company learning the ropes. Your goal is to be wallpaper ... blend in with the walls so no one knows you. If anyone of import knows your name, it's because you did something great or something bad. Odds heavily favor the latter.

Once you're past probation and know just enough to shoot your foot off, look at going to another fleet. I'd make the stop at 756.

I don't recommend going to the right seat of a widebody until you can upgrade to narrowbody Captain; it will likely happen a bit before you can go to widebody FO. That way, if you are not compatible with widebody flying, you can immediately upgrade to narrowbody CA without having to spend a couple of year miserable in the right seat of a widebody.

Just my dos centavos.

jetlag q

it was mentioned earlier, simply asking a question. appreciate the advice though.

GoCats67

Because of the way our training freezes work it is extremely unlikely that a new pilot would ever get the 777/787 as their initial assignment. However, getting a bid to one of those fleets while in your first year is a possibility.

Basically you will get your first assignment on either the 737,A320, or 756 fleet. With that you will be "frozen" from bidding within the same pay band or down in pay band for two years. This does not prevent you from changing to a different base, but does prevent you from bidding from 737 over to A320 or A320 over to 737. If you get the 756, you can lateral to other bases, but you cannot bid to either the 737 or A320 for the length of your freeze.

Now, that freeze does not prevent you from bidding up in pay bands. So, if you get the 737 as your initial assignment and a new vacancy bid comes out while you are in your first week of new hire class, you are eligible to bid for not only a lateral to a different base, but also any 756FO assignment or 777/787FO assignment you would like. For this reason there is always a chance that a 777FO assignment could be snagged by somebody very early in their time here.

So, the least restrictive initial assignment would be to either the 737 or the A320 and in either of those your QOL will improve more quickly as will your ability to lateral to a different base you may desire. The 756FO slots will also still likely be randomly available as initial assignments for the coastal bases as we go forward. An initial assignment to that fleet would still allow bidding up to the 777/787 and laterals to the other 756 Bases (IAD,IAH,ORD,DEN) However, the fleet itself is smaller and the 767-400 pays better, so when folks get senior on that fleet they may never leave, thus the movement is slower.

As far as the 777 goes, the junior bid holder on that fleet is about 750 seniority numbers from the bottom of the list. The next vacancy bid will come out at the end of July and close in early August, so that will give us our next update on how junior things will go. The next few bids will have Fall/Winter training dates as their target, so unfilled assignments on these vacancy bids will be what is used for the Fall classes

The good news is that movement is crazy right now, so you will have many options (once you actually get hired and start!!) However all this movement does make me obligated to bring up the old bidding guidance:

Gooselives

On 737 or 320, how long can someone expect to be on reserv?

jetlag q

thanks for your thorough answer it’s truly appreciated.

FlewNavy

Assuming EWR/SFO and that movement/growth continues through a genuine recovery - maybe a few months max?

Other bases is anyones guess but it could be years - hence the running joke - "reserve is a choice" - implying that if you don't want reserve in your current base you can always go to SFO/EWR.

futurepilotjr

Hey guys,

So what does initial training look like? How long am I in Denver, do I get to go home in between sessions? Say I start July 1, when should I be out of training?

Larry in TN

You can go home every "weekend". Whenever you have two, or more, days off, you get positive-space passes home and back.