Day to day on a regional?

difete

difete

New Member
Can any of you Regional Pilots be so kind to spare some time describing briefly your day on the line?
How do you bid for lines? Are these bids done every month?
Did you move to the domicile you were assigned when first hired? What was provided to you while in training, such as hotel? meals? transportation?

I am planning to apply to the regionals this summer, and would appreciate any insights and also any good advice from you all.

thanks.
cool.gif


PS: I am aware that different companies have different procedures. Please specify (if you desire) the company you are narrating about.
 
Skywest answers. . .

Lots of questions there in that small post! I'll do my best to answer all them from my experience here at Skywest:

[ QUOTE ]
Did you move to the domicile you were assigned when first hired? What was provided to you while in training, such as hotel? meals? transportation?


[/ QUOTE ]

When I was hired in '99 the company didn't provide anything- just books and study materiels. Room and board was up to us. I had two other friends and we all went in on an extended-stay type hotel suite. It was a popular place for Skywest newhires (SkyHarbor Suites for you SLC-ers). Nowadays Skywest provides a hotel suite as long as you're willing to bunk up with another newhire. No paycheck until your first revenue flight (about 6-8 weeks into training). Transportation is provided to all training events that occur somewhere other than SLC.

Bidding for your domicile is done somewhere in the first two weeks of training. Personally I had Portland as my first choice, then Sacramento, then Palm Spring. I was second from the bottom in my class (last four digits of SSN 9800) so I got PSP (some reason nobody wanted it). Three weeks later when the next class came in I was bumped to my next choice of Sacramento where I was on line for three months before getting to PDX. I commuted to Sac from socal until I was awarded PDX, then we moved there.

[ QUOTE ]
How do you bid for lines? Are these bids done every month?


[/ QUOTE ]

On the 10th of each month the company provides the lines both online and in print form. Bids are due the morning of the 17th and awarded that evening.

In SLC there are 186 lines for RJ Captain. I'm around 200 +/-2 with people coming and going every month. So that means unless 14 people above me bid reserve or forget to bid, I'll be getting a reserve line (like I have been for the last year-and-a-half).

[ QUOTE ]
spare some time describing briefly your day on the line?


[/ QUOTE ]
We have to be at work- "show time" 45 minutes before our trip begins- check in on the computer, read company messages, print up a trip sheet and flight release, meet the crew, walk out to the plane and begin preflight duties. A typical day is anywhere from 2-6 legs with 30-50 minutes between flights (some longer breaks thrown in here and there). Average about 8-10 hours on duty. We swap legs- between the Capt and FO- so we all get our chance to bounce a landing somewhere in the trip. There's a mix of 1,2,3 or 4-day trips. Usual work week is four on three off. On reserve I seem to get fragments of trips so a full 4-day rare for me.

Did I cover everything?
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

buck.gif
cool insight thanks for the info skywchris - so is it up to the captian on how or who takes t/o and landings or is it company policy to share or up to the PIC to decide..

basically how do you choose who lands and takes off?

Matthew
 
[ QUOTE ]
Can any of you Regional Pilots be so kind to spare some time describing briefly your day on the line?

[/ QUOTE ]

http://www.jetcareers.com/dayreg.htm
bandit.gif


[ QUOTE ]
How do you bid for lines? Are these bids done every month?

[/ QUOTE ]

We use a Pref Bid system. Basically, we put the things we "want" like days off, specific trips, layovers in a certain city, amount of hours, etc. into the computer, then the system goes through a massive matrix down the seniority list and awards trips based on your choices. Number 1 bidding gets everything they want (usually), and the last person gets nothing they want (usually). We start bidding around the 5th or 6th of the month previous, and bids close around the 12th or so of the month previous. They come out a few days later (hopefully!!!!).

[ QUOTE ]
Did you move to the domicile you were assigned when first hired? What was provided to you while in training, such as hotel? meals? transportation?

[/ QUOTE ]

I moved to my domicile, since it's the city I'm from! I was able to move home. If I didn't live in my domicle, it would be a 50/50 decision whether to commute or move to the base. I'm not really sure what I'd do.

As for training, during the portion of training in Chicago we weren't provided housing. We were provided a $450 housing allowance after the first week. That covered the 4 weeks of training in Chicago. We were provided housing in Minneapolis during sim training, however. No meals were provided at any time, nor was transportation (minus to/from Minneapolis).
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

[ QUOTE ]
buck.gif
cool insight thanks for the info skywchris - so is it up to the captian on how or who takes t/o and landings or is it company policy to share or up to the PIC to decide..

basically how do you choose who lands and takes off?

Matthew

[/ QUOTE ]

Completely up to the PIC, but usually the Captain asks the FO what flying they would prefer. At our company we swap legs, or do "turns", which means swapping at the outstation so we both land at MDW... it can get boring doing only MDW landings.

The captain can say "I'm flying everything", but that never really happens. It is recommended in our manuals to swap flying evenly.
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

Funny you should ask this. Al Steele and I are in the process of putting together a presentation called "A Day in the Life."

We've been working on it for a few months now. Hope to trot it out at Flight Safety sometime soon.
 
At ASA lines are bid on every month, most bid online. Bidding online provides the ability to sort out the lines with any preferences you may have. Such as weekends off if you have that type of senority to hold. Or the people who commute might bid for 4 day trips in order to avoid finding a place to say between trips. Once your awarded a line you can attempt to swap, drop or trade trips, but again all in senority order.

I was instructing in the Atlanta area before I got hired on so things were pretty easy for me when I found out I'd be flying the ATR which is only based in Atlanta. Even so during training we were provided with a hotel room which is right across the street from Flight Safety where most of our training was done. Meals we were on our own as well as transportation. At least in my class it seemed several people had a vehicle so even those who did not have one could easily bum a ride.

As far as day to day on line the most typical type of trip seems to be back to back two days. Seems to work out well since you aren't away from home for more than one night. Most have 3 to 5 flights per day and seem to be divided into either very early trips or trips that start in the afternoon and end late. Personally I get wore out getting up at 5 am or maybe even earlier so if able to choose I'll take getting off later in the day.

Hope this helps out some!
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

Skywest Chris, thanks a lot. You answered exaclty what I needed. Next time you are flying around LAX and you check in on our company frequency I'll try to say hi to you.
cool.gif


Thanks for sparing some time to help me and other guys in these forums. Also thanks for the other pilots who contributed to the this topic. Any others that will like to add information about their own expiriences, please feel free to do so for the benefit of other young aviators climbing up the ladder to being pro-pilots.

Once again thanks.
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

I fly out of KSLI (Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base). Where do you fly out of Matt?
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

[ QUOTE ]
I fly out of KSLI (Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base). Where do you fly out of Matt?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I don't fly out of anyplace just yet.. next month I start my PPL.. I'm looking at places at Van Nuys, Camarillo, and Burbank Airport.

I do hang around pretty much every SoCal Airport though.
tongue.gif
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

SkyWest and others.
How many nights of your trip are you in your domicile? For example, if you have a 3 or 4 day trip is it common to be in your domicile for the night for any of those days?

I had talked to a regional pilot a year ago who was mainly feeding the domicile from smaller towns and was at home a lot a night during his trips.
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

A 4-day trip means you're out of domicile 3 nights a week. There a few domiciles here at Skywest that are majority "locals," home every night. That's probably what that guy was doing.
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

Thanks for the great posts. I've enjoyed reading them and they have answered some questions of my own. I'm curious as to how pilots know generally what trips they can bid on and expect to win, as I've often heard it's important to bid within your seniority. Any help would be great!
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

[ QUOTE ]
I've often heard it's important to bid within your seniority.


[/ QUOTE ]

I never lived by that. I always bid what I wanted. If I got it, great, if not, oh well.

The only way you're ever guaranteed NOT to get a great schedule is if you don't bid it.

Basically, when you're new, expect to work weekends, holidays, non-commutable trips, and generally everything nobody else wants. However, always, always bid what you want. Because what you want may not be what anybody else wants! Not everybody cares about the same things when it comes to bidding, and sometimes people senior to you can 'forget' to bid. Yes, this does happen. My dear husband would have a line this month if he had bid the SRLs! However, he didn't
banghead.gif
and is therefore on reserve for the month, and someone junior to him who would not otherwise have gotten an SRL, did! In seven years, I never forgot to bid....
argue.gif
, but I digress.........




(SRL - Supplemental Regular Line, an unpublished line of time that is bid after the initial bid award and includes lines built out of open time)
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

Relief Lines, SRLs, Build-up Lines.............everyone's got a different name for them.




But you have to bid them to get one!
mad.gif


(Can you tell I'm a little irritated dh 'forgot' to bid.......He's the one who's actually gotta DO the work & deal with reserve for the month, but geez, life is so much easier with a line!)
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

[ QUOTE ]
How many nights of your trip are you in your domicile?


[/ QUOTE ]

My airline "Oustation Bases" which means all of our aircraft and crews are at an outstation. We end up flying the first flight into the hub each day. The up side is, if you live in base, you're home every night. That is a very nice thing if you have a family at your base.

We have morning and afternoon trips. We are also one of a few stations in the company with 2 airplanes. We fly two different runs (New York and Washington-National).

Our morning trips start within 10 minutes of each other. If you get NY, its a 0520 show, 4 legs with a Providence turn in the middle and you're home by 1300. If you get DC, its a 0530 show, 6 legs with a GSO turn in the middle and you're home by 1500. You can imagine that's a long day.

Our afternoon trips are similar. Our NY trip starts at 1220, has 4 legs with a Nantucket turn in the middle, and you're home by 2200, maybe (NY is notorious for Flow Control Delays). The DC trip starts at 1425, has 2 round-trips to DC and you're home by 2100. That one is a piece of cake. (I'm doing it all month)

Basically, you're home every night, except for the junior folks that get our one overnight a week. It used to be in New York, but this month, it's in Manassas, VA. Oh well.

Hope this info helps.
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

I've heard relief lines, too. Just never heard SRL before. I think they were relief lines at Eagle.
 
Re: Skywest answers. . .

[ QUOTE ]
Al Steele and I are in the process of putting together a presentation called "A Day in the Life."

[/ QUOTE ]

Would that be the same Al Steele that was recently at Colgan?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top