Originally Posted by Excargodog

Everyone certainly DOESN'T feel they have to tie the knot. But generally speaking, it's the most successful way of maintaining a relationship and raising a family. Granted, kids aren't for everyone either, but if you intend to have them doing it in a marriage certainly contributes to family stability and success of offspring.

Originally Posted by BlueScholar

Cool! So yeah...nobody knows! And the ones who say they do know are lying or trying to sell you something! The best thing you can do is A- get your hours and required ratings as soon as possible, B- have a recession proof back up plan if the economy goes to crap and shelves your plan for a while, and C- live within your means and stay flexible so if you get hired by UAL you can easily move near IAH or EWR or SFO and increase your QOL. Or, if DAL hires you, move near LGA or MSP or DTW, or is AA hires you you can go to their junior base etc etc. Good luck! Nothing would make us happier than everything work out for you and see you boost our seniority by +1, and if you get what you want, that means we all already got what we want!

The other universeal advice is aviate and the other airline academy programs are NOT designed to provide legacies with pilots, it's to provide legacies with a stable pool of regional pilots for a few years until they need to call you up to prevent you from leaving for someone else anyways. So if you want to work for United, don't fly for a United regional partner. If you want to work for Delta, don't work for a Delta regional. If United hires a Mesa pilot, we gain 1 mainline pilot (yay!), but we lose 1 regional pilot (boo!!!). But, if we hire a Air Wisconsin pilot instead we gain 1 mainline pilot (yay!), and we also screwed AA over by stealing 1 of their regional pilots (yay!), AND we keep 1 aviate cadet in the UAX regional feed, so now Mesa/Skywest/whatever keeps their pilot who is making UAL money too (yay!). That applies to the other legacies too

Originally Posted by VacancyBid

This may be the best advice I have ever seen for an 18 year old looking ahead.

The way to have a good life as a junior pilot is to live close to a large, junior base. Even being on reserve on a busy fleet isn't too bad when you live 30 minutes from the airport.

I cannot tell you the number of people who for various reaons (90% the preferences of their spouse) will not move to where the action is.

So ... choose your spouse and commitments carefully. Always good advice, but in particular for THIS career, you need a spouse who is indepenent and willing to move. You DO NOT want a mamma's girl who is enmeshed in her extended family that all live within 20 miles of Springfield - lovely though they may be. You want a girl who will pick up and move to the big city and make her own circle of friends.

Originally Posted by Excargodog

As if you are going to stay a junior pilot forever? And as if the best quality of life for you or spouse/family will invariably be found at some junior base? There is a REASON those bases are junior, and it's because a large proportion of the pilot population considers their quality of life better elsewhere.



Everyone certainly DOESN'T feel they have to tie the knot. But generally speaking, it's the most successful way of maintaining a relationship and raising a family. Granted, kids aren't for everyone either, but if you intend to have them doing it in a marriage certainly contributes to family stability and success of offspring.

Originally Posted by B38MFishFinder

Thank you so much for the wholesome advice, everyone. I really appreciate it.
So the legacies would prefer to hire from ULCCs then, so as not to poach their own regional pilots (and to avoid having to pay for a 737/A320 type rating)?
Do you think there is a good chance that (even with hiring slowing down) someone with 1500 hours would realistically be able to skip the regionals and get hired at Spirit/Frontier/Sun Country/Allegiant/Avelo? Or has that historically not really been possible?

Originally Posted by Bahamasflyer

Nope they're not! Can't tell you how nice it is to come home to a quiet house after a 4 day....and then be able to pounce on a short notice premium trip on a weekend.

Originally Posted by Excargodog

And if chasing the $$$s IS REALLY your priority you (and they) may indeed be better off if you avoid having kids. Couldn't agree with you more. They definitely require more time and upkeep than even your most expensive toys.

Originally Posted by MaxThrust1

Historically it used to take YEARS to get hired by a ULCC (5,000-10,000 hours). It was a career destination for many. Heck, there were times when it was almost impossible to even get hired by a regional!

None of us can accurately forecast what the industry will look like by the time you get here, there’s a lot of variables. And to be completely honest, you may never receive the call from a legacy (plenty of people never had until recently). It used to be considered the career lottery. The advice you have been given is solid. Grind away and get your ratings/hours as soon as you can. I would like to add that you should do everything in your power to stand out from the crowd.

But to answer your other question, if you can skip the regionals, do it. But that may not be a possibility if it goes back to historical norms.

Best of luck

Originally Posted by B38MFishFinder

Thank you. Wow, that's crazy that ULCCs used to have such high time requirements! I sure hope it won't get that bad when it's time for me to start applying. What should I do to stand out from the crowd? MEI rating? Volunteering?

Originally Posted by SoFloFlyer

In no particular order:

- Get your degree
- Diversify your experience (MEI helps, but not a huge deal if you get on with a 135/9 op).
- Volunteer
- Take on more responsibility to stand out
- Keep a clean record. Busts happen, but try to keep those to a minimum (2 or less I’d say). Checkrides matter a lot more once you start doing type rating Ms and go to recurrent.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by B38MFishFinder

Thank you. Wow, that's crazy that ULCCs used to have such high time requirements! I sure hope it won't get that bad when it's time for me to start applying. What should I do to stand out from the crowd? MEI rating? Volunteering?

Originally Posted by MaxThrust1

Volunteering is a great way, plus you’ll feel good doing it! Also, once you get to the airlines, try to get involved in some way other than flying the line. (Interviewing, LCA, etc)

Hope to see you here someday!

Originally Posted by BlueScholar

For who? A 23 year old already living in base who will have a 42 year career and retire with single digit seniority number? It may be rough for a little bit but they will have an amazing career. A 62 year old commuting from their established home in Phoenix that they can't/won't leave? Probably gonna be lucky to crack 90% and hold a line on anything for long. A 42 year old with a military retirement to fall back on or a 35 year old mil separation who isn't getting that sweet check from uncle sam? Or a flight school student with 12 hours under their belt looking to see if it's worth investing in this career will all face very different challenges in the same hiring environment. The UAL 8 ball is going to be making ~120k a year in year 1 and ~190k in year 2, on reserve likely on some weekends and holidays. If you're within an hour of your base that's not bad. If you're commuting from SFO to EWR paying for hotels out of pocket it's not great. Is it better than similar seniority at any major or regional? Absolutely. Other legacies? Eh probably not. Again, it depends on many other factors.

The real answer is nobody has any idea what the world will look like in 6 years, and if they did know, they should be plowing every cent they have into the stock market, because they'll probably make more on that than a decade or two of flying. The practical answer is it's a bit like investing. You can try to time it the best you can, but you're as lucky to screw it up and miss a big boom as you are to miss a large drop. So you just jump in and hope for the best and everything will sort itself out.