First year in the Airlines (review)

Jet

Well-Known Member
Well it has been a year since I first got hired by a regional airline (American Eagle). I can honestly say that I have no regrets in choosing to do this for a living and have enjoyed myself so far. I only managed to fly about 500 hours over the last year in a mix of the Embraer 135, 140, 145, 170 and 175 since I spent almost 6 months in training. I actually was only on the street about a week or so after being furloughed from Eagle and took a job with Republic. It took me almost double the time to make it through training at both airlines since the SIM and IOE were backed up but I didn't mind a lot of free paid vacations.

I was hesitant about taking a job at Republic since I would assume the risk of getting fired from a strike and I would take away bargaining power from the pilots towards getting a new contract by coming here but I did not receive any other job offers (probably because of my low TT) while I was unemployed. Surprising, I received a warm welcome and have flown with a great group of captains. Everybody (well not everybody but most) seems to be positive about the future with mainline finally getting ready to hire across the board.

I didn't have any problems living off first year pay (although I'm nowhere near 2nd year pay yet) and believe it or not I actually managed to save up almost 10k. Although I'm pretty cheap, don't have a student loan or car payment and keep a fairly tight budget but I did manage to enjoy a few steak dinners throughout the year. Both airlines paid for my hotel during training so I was able to save on housing for almost half of the year and Republic gave me a $5,000 hiring bonus so that really helped out. I'm now a line holder and typically fly around 84 hours a month and make about $2,350 a month before tax. I did have one month where I made $2,954 pretax on reserve but I flew a ton to do that. That does include per diem which a lot of people don't consider pay.

My experience at Eagle and Republic are different in so many ways. To start, the flying at each was not the same. At Eagle I left the base to fly to a small town (Baton Rouge, Mazatlan, Pensacola, etc) and always flew right back. Most of these passengers just got off or were getting on a mainline AA bird. At republic I feel as though I am replacing and not feeding mainline a lot of the time with flights like LaGuardia to Chicago. Instead of always flying back to the hub with payloads of connectors, we fly a round robin across the country only returning to the home base at the end of the 4 or 3 day trip.

I do miss flying the 145 but I am really starting to enjoy the 170. The automation and auto-throttles in the 170/175 can make you a lazy pilot if you let it in my opinion but the luxuries are enjoyable such as being able to stand up in the 6'6" cabin, the convenience of a forward lav and getting a left over first class free meal every now and then.

My lines have been great with about 15 days off and around 82-84 hours, although they are not commutable (start about 6-8 am on day 1 and finish as late as 11:45 at night on day 4). My average work day is about 8 hours (duty time not flight time) with a handful of easy 4 or 5 hr days and a handful of 12 hour days. I've been lucky enough to only have one 16 hour day. I do have a fair amount of sits between flights throughout the month from 1-3 hrs but a lot of the time it is a quick 30 minute turn. I make the best out of the down time by reading, eating, socializing with crew, taking a nap in the crew room or using the iPad.

My layovers had been about an average of 15 hours with some lasting as long as 26 hours. A lot of the time you will get social crew that wants to rent a car and go exploring (lots to do in Denver). As far as sleep I've been lucky to almost always be well rested on overnights with only two times over the last year that I did not have an opportunity to get a full nights sleep because of the a short overnight/long van ride combo. The hotels have been very nice at both airlines; Hilton, Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Radisson, etc. As far as I know, it is a myth that regional pilots stay at crappy hotels.

In conclusion, I woke up today at 4:20 am for 6 am departure and after one year, I can honestly say that I was still excited this morning to go to work even with the butt crack early wake-up (I thought the adrenaline would have worn off after a year but it hasn't)! This job isn't perfect, like every other job but I still recommend this career to anybody who has the ability to train without acquiring lots of debt, move around a few times (do not commute) and doesn't expect to get rich but only make a nice living someday.
 
Very positive perspective on regional life. As well as informational. Thank you for that.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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Nice post. Glad your happy about your job/airline despite the fact that many people moan and groan about life at the regionals as a FO.
 
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Jet - one of the most refreshing posts I have read in a long time. Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback on how life is from the inside.

Please keep us posted on how things go for you. Thanks again.

-J
 
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It's refreshing to see someone who isn't a total grump for once. Also, I like your expectations on your future income. It's wise to set the bar in the middle.
 
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