Hi there. I'm a relatively young guy, but in my few years I've learned to never trust anyone but yourself in making a judgement call. Only you know whats best for you. It's not a bad idea to get advice, but what I would do is ask questions without giving away what your really trying to get at. You want people to tell you what you want to hear without giving their personal spin on it.
If you're trying to get into Skywest, and you ask someone like me(6th yr RJ CA) I'm going to tell you what I think from my perspective. It might not be a good perspective for you. So I wouldn't listen to me. What I could tell you is whats going on here right now.
First off we have no movement. When we do, it will only be to get the senior guys where they want to be first. The thing you have to think about is SKYW has a lot of senior FO's that choose not to upgrade(this is beyond me) for QOL. More importantly, theres guys that are 100-300 out of 3000 on the seniority list that want the jet now. Those guys will go first, then the sr FO's, then the list goes on and on.
Hypothetically, if you were to count all these guys, thats probably 600-800 pilots that want the upgrade and can hold it. Typically, SKYW would run classes of 20-25 in a upgrade class. The 70 guys a class stuff that was going on two years ago will probably never happen again. So if you divide 700(avg of 600-800) by 23, thats 30 months to upgrade. 30 months is still not an accurate number because that is assuming they will run upgrade classes every month for 30 months? Probably not. It might take 60 months, it might take 10 months. As Doug, and many others on this forum say, you just can't predict this stuff and you never know.
I'm sorry if this message isn't what you wanted to hear. I just wanted you to know what is waiting for you so your not dissappointed. Should you quit? heck no. you just don't know whats going to happen. If its your dream, follow it.
Also, if you want to get to the majors Skywest is one of the top regional carriers that you could be "stuck" at while you do your time. It could always be better, but its a good place to start.
I can work anywhere from 10 days per month to 20 days per month if I choose. I can make anywhere from $65,000 to $100,000 this year, depending on how hard I want to work. I can drop just about any day that I want one way or another, we have a good chief pilot in ORD, (I think he backs the pilots which is rare these days) and we have a mgmt team that is looking for long term success not short term gains like some other carriers out there. While that may hurt your chances of growth, it will give you more stability. Something that you will appreciate in times like this.
My roommate is a EMB-120 Captain and is on long call reserve. He has 12 hours to report to base. He's not tied to the phone anymore. We woke up this morning, went on a two hour bike ride to Newport Beach, had coffee and a bagel, and came back home. He got called on our way back. He didn't have to return the call for an hour. When he did, they told him he has to do a repo flight tomorrow and thats it. Pretty easy job if you ask me. He rarely gets called. He's using his extra time to be a consultant for a private company. Since his flying job is flexible, his other job pays his rent and car payment. I have started my own business as well. While you are waiting your time, I would not just sit back and wait. Find other avenues to further your reach. I hope this doesn't sound like a lecture. My only intent is to give you advice from my learnings. I hope this helps.
If you have any questions, PM me.
irate:
