I’m a CJO holder that is coming from a regional. As class approaches, I’m trying to plan out where I see myself going and settling down in the next few years. At my regional, the climate and culture at different bases is drastic. At the HQ base, everyone is incredibly stuck up, entitled, and the rest of the bases loathe flying with an HQ based crew.

My base is the opposite, known for a great group of pilots, we kind of ‘do our own thing’.

My experience in the military is rather aligned with this, the further away you get from the flag, the better the climate and culture is.

My question is if United is a big enough company that this doesn’t exist or if there are nuances about different bases. If so, what’s the widely accepted best climate/culture base?

Thank you for the insight!

 

I’m curious as to which regional this is. A lot of times things like this aren’t really exclusive to aviation. This in my opinion is a society problem , and an airline pilot groups exist within that society.

United is over 18,000 pilots….so you bet there are traits, trends, and stereotypes. One very noticeable thing is the volume of “older” pilots. There is nothing wrong with this but compared to the regionals, where it is rare people stay until retirement, there are just a lot more. Just as in society older people act differently than their counterparts in their 30’s.

In my experience there is a HUGE difference between Wide and Narrow, naturally this isn’t a CRM issue as you would never fly together, but when people do switch fleets, you become known as the plane you last flew. Example: “Oh, I’m doing a two day tomorrow with that 78 guy that commutes from _____” yet this an Airbus.

It is interesting to hear you had some military time, you will also notice United is more of a military culture, again there is nothing wrong with this, it merely is a reflection of the fact that the pilot group is made of more than half prior military. Whereas obviously at a regional the percentage is tiny, and at ULCC/LCC it’s bigger yet maybe 10-20%. As you probably have noticed from your societal experience non military people act different than military people.

As a non military person I have noticed a difference between military pilots who flew as part of crew and those in a single seat, again nothing wrong with this difference……just that it is very noticeably different.

Now to your question the domeciles: Yes of course there is a difference.

 

well ... there's Guam. That's different.

Then there are CLE, MCO, and LAS which probably have a different feel but you're committing to outstation 737 flying forever. I would advise against picking one of those small bases if you are agnostic about where to live.

Among the CONUS hub bases, the more frequently discussed difference is WB vs NB. The cliche is true - it's a different airline. Even if you yourself say you never, ever, evereverever want to fly WB .... your fellow pilots do. The more WB options a base has, the less competition you have for good NB flying. So to that extent, SFO and EWR are the winners.

 

IAH is definitely more obsessed with personal appearance and physical fitness than other bases.😂

 

Also moderate, rational political views.

 

Usually attached to someone with a mustache, a gut, a cell phone holster and either snakeskin cowboy boots or tasseled penny loafers.

 

I think to a certain extent base personalities reflect their surroundings. Where is the spouse's family? Pilots who love the outdoors often gravitate to west coast bases or DEN depending on their passions. Midwesterners like ORD & CLE, East coasters, NYC & IAD and Southerns/Texans IAH, of course. After raising the kids and saving some money living in low tax states and being able to commute to your base changes pilots' perspectives. To everything there is a season and at United for every pilot or stage of life there is a base and a fleet.

 

Well HQ at United is of course ORD, but I don’t think you will find that they have any “HQ based crew” type of a vibe at least in the narrow body.

Furthermore from at least within our work group DEN would be the HQ as that is where our training center is and all the upper management within flight ops have their offices there. When I fly with DEN crews, it is likely they have at some point or another worked at TK or at the very least have many friends who do or did. I don’t find them to have a side stick up their buttocks, as it then the AIRBUS would give the aural “DUAL INPUT”…..but perhaps maybe less talkative above ten then say EWR, ORD or SFO….this could also be due to age and/or seniority. This may also be just the anxiety of flying with crews based in different domiciles and less shared experiences to talk about.

 

I find that LAX and DCA seem to be laid back as bases… IAH is a whole another Animal, DEN and ORD are big bases. EWR….

 

These are all great inputs, thank you all for taking the time!