Maximilian_Jenius
Super User
XJT?
Gonzo
Well-Known Member
All kidding aside, I think most people under 4-5 years are/were happy at their regional. Between 9/11, age 65 and 2008 crash a lot of guys ended up spending a lot more time at the regionals than they were ever designed to be. The Business model is set up to have high turn over.
Beefy McGee
Well-Known Member
A lot of us spent a lot of time at the pre-1500 hour rule levels if our training timeline was off a bit, schools going out of business, etc resulting in missing the chance to get hired at 500/700/1000 hours along the way too. Just trying to get to a regional took forever.
Beefy McGee
Well-Known Member
Gonzo
Well-Known Member
What is "forever" because if it is taking more than 4 years to go from 250 hours to 1,500 working full time you might be doing something wrong.
Beefy McGee
Well-Known Member
No, it was waiting to get your money back during the legal proceedings after schools went under (unable to resume training due to money tied up) and some time sitting in Iraq or some other awesome place while non-military peers back home got hired at 500 hours because companies hired at 500 hours back then. I logged 1600 hours in a bit over two years once all the ratings were in hand.
Not a gripe, just how it worked for me. Would rather not have every possible future glitch/setback happen to me for the rest of my career, unlike how it went for me pre-121.
ctab5060X
Well-Known Member
FYI... the 150 plane fleet at PSA would be more of a setback for your career than what you have already gone through.
Beefy McGee
Well-Known Member
How so? What's your reasoning? What am I missing?
ctab5060X
Well-Known Member
Take a look at the past 10-15 years.
If you have any desire to fly anything more than RJs, an increased number of RJs is not the answer.
wheelsup
Well-Known Member
Sounds about right to me, year 4 moving to 5 is where I stated getting antsy and bitter-ish.
wheelsup
Well-Known Member
Some of us were hired at 2000 hours into a commuter in that same time frame. Believe it or not, 1500 hours and 100-300 multi were the norm for most of the jet companies in the mid 2000's. And pay was half of what it is now.
Anyone coming up through the ranks now has it amazingly good.
Beefy McGee
Well-Known Member
Long term, sure. In my (selfishly self serving) short term view, more planes here means more captain slots and opportunity to upgrade rather than the stagnation that seems to be setting in. I'm not that young, and it's many years to flow for me if I want to wait around. I'd rather do three years as a FO and eight years as a captain, rather than a much longer FO time between now and then. Purely for financial reasons, to save for retirement, etc. Not to mention to start building PIC. If I don't build that PIC, I won't have much chance of moving on anywhere else much before a flow date anyway, same as the industry has always been.
The way things have gone in the past decade, I don't have a lot of faith that making it to mainline is much of a sure thing. When they get too low on pilots at the regionals, I expect flows and SSPs to end, and the military pilots will still be the preferred hiring pool anyway. I see smaller regionals to a point, full of pilots who get trapped there because they don't get out in the next five years. Some regionals will go out of business or consolidate, but their pilots will backfill other regionals or move up to mainline, for a while. Lots of senior regional guys and lots of military pilots will fill the slots at mainline over the next several years, and after a while the rest of the regional guys will be stuck at their regionals for a long time because their parent company won't hire them and cut their own cheap feed. The trick is to know which regional to work for to have a shot at getting hired by the mainline that isn't your parent company / partner. There's no way for me to make it to AA within the next 11 years unless things change, but maybe someone else will hire me to steal me from AA. If I am able to upgrade and get the PIC time. Or maybe I will be here the rest of my life; there are worse jobs that pay less. I will still have a decent life if I never leave here.
In any case, the OP asked if I liked the regional gig. To his point, it's not a bad gig compared to a lot of things out there. No one shoots at me, we stay in hotels rather than tents, it's not boring, I can pay bills and then some, and I get a couple days off every week.
Beefy McGee
Well-Known Member
I was around 1900 hours when I got hired. Not sure which decade you did it in, but I made less than $20k after taxes last year. As expected, I knew it would suck financially going in. How does that compare to the first year rates when you did it? How does inflation factor in those calculations?
SFCC/UND
Well-Known Member
I hear we are filling classes, but not sure how many. The pilot group voted down PBS, so not much moving there. And company wants to raise the pay I think to 40 something first year.
Burrito
You ARE Freaking out. Man.
PSA has treated well for the most part. Currently living in base, round 1 line holder, I work when I want to work. I'd like to get involved in more union work or training department to have something different to do.
I think we'll eventually get to 150 airplanes, but who knows. They do need to raise the pay and I think DAL is the first company to figure out that the new normal is going to be 50K first year for FOs if they want to recruit. Our management is stubbornly resisting that fact but I think they'll figure it out eventually.
But I also think in 3-5 years we're also going to see 700/900/170/175s on mainline certificates because that's the only way they'll staff them. As it should be.
I think we'll eventually get to 150 airplanes, but who knows. They do need to raise the pay and I think DAL is the first company to figure out that the new normal is going to be 50K first year for FOs if they want to recruit. Our management is stubbornly resisting that fact but I think they'll figure it out eventually.
But I also think in 3-5 years we're also going to see 700/900/170/175s on mainline certificates because that's the only way they'll staff them. As it should be.
Burrito
You ARE Freaking out. Man.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Air Canada do this with their E175s (And CRJ-100s!) for a time?
saxman
Well-Known Member
I'm content but ready to move on. Been on the CRJ for 9 years and upgraded almost a year ago. Been furloughed twice and made a lateral move too! I will say that I no longer feel like the new guy and most things I've seen so far as captain are things I look back on from 8 years in the right seat.
I think I am feeling the effects of the pilot shortage. My schedule is awful. I'm never home. It's affected my personal life. Luckily I have a girlfriend that is understands my lifestyle. (No, she's not a FA) But certainly glad I took the first available upgrade and hope that it leads to great things.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think I am feeling the effects of the pilot shortage. My schedule is awful. I'm never home. It's affected my personal life. Luckily I have a girlfriend that is understands my lifestyle. (No, she's not a FA) But certainly glad I took the first available upgrade and hope that it leads to great things.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
wheelsup
Well-Known Member
Endeavor pays $50k your first year, you made a choice to go to a crappy low paying commuter. Those existed back then when I did it too, fast upgrades were nice but not for $15k as an F/O.
