In your experience, why are some pilots are regionals “lifers?”

GypsyPilot said:
But there are also lots of really motivated and experienced RJ CAs that are not moving on simply because of bad luck. I was stuck for many years myself, and despite trying everything I could think of it seemed like nobody would call me.
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How many years were you a regional captain before you moved on to Purple?
 
You also have to remember that when you have conversations with a "lifer" they may not be painting a completely accurate picture of their background, or of the quality of their application, or of how aggressively they are updating/getting professional help/job fairing/etc.

I'd wager that most folks who have a skeleton or two in their closet don't generally bring it up during casual cockpit conversation. I have a professional black mark that I'm quite embarrassed about, but which I don't discuss with probably the majority of Captains that I fly with. So, what my record looks like from the outside may be quite different than how it looked on an actual application on file.
 
Hacker15e said:
You also have to remember that when you have conversations with a "lifer" they may not be painting a completely accurate picture of their background, or of the quality of their application, or of how aggressively they are updating/getting professional help/job fairing/etc.

I'd wager that most folks who have a skeleton or two in their closet don't generally bring it up during casual cockpit conversation. I have a professional black mark that I'm quite embarrassed about, but which I don't discuss with probably the majority of Captains that I fly with. So, what my record looks like from the outside may be quite different than how it looked on an actual application on file.
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That’s a good point for sure.

I also think there are some that have ego involved, and enjoy being a big fish in a little pond. No doubt there are lots of reasons for not moving on from a regional.

I will say that everyone I personally know that was very motivated to move on has done so... Not necessarily one of the big six, but some really good places like Kalitta, JetBlue. Spirit, etc.
 
I suspect the simplest reason is there are many more regional pilots than there are openings at the majors. The competition greatly exceeds the number of available jobs at the majors and always will. Not everyone can or will be a success story

I honestly don't believe people who claim to not want to go to the majors because they "can't afford a pay cut" or " weekends off", I always figure those people just can't get a call and don't want to admit it. I can't imagine anyone voluntarily forgoing an opportunity to escape the regionals.

At the same time there plenty of pilots who think they're entitled to a job at mainline and so don't put in the effort- all the outrage about the requirement for a college degree (which as far as I can tell has existed for decades at most carriers), etc. These types often have bizarre conspiracy theories about how mainline "only hires gays, women and minorities"- I remember a jumpseater I once had who had been at ASA for 20+ years (although he'd recently gotten hired at AA), and he claimed that Delta hires a lot of (of course) "female minority" pilots with bad records if they sign a promise never to upgrade.:rolleyes:
 
GypsyPilot said:
That’s a good point for sure.

I also think there are some that have ego involved, and enjoy being a big fish in a little pond. No doubt there are lots of reasons for not moving on from a regional.

I will say that everyone I personally know that was very motivated to move on has done so... Not necessarily one of the big six, but some really good places like Kalitta, JetBlue. Spirit, etc.
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I know a handful of guys who have turned down interviews at places like JetBlue and Alaska because they want to "hold out for" Delta, or they believe that they "deserve" to work at United after all these years, and "won't settle."

I can't understand their logic. I haven't exactly had trouble putting food on the table working at Azul, and airlineapps didn't magically shut off as soon as I moved up the food chain.
 
Yakob said:
I suspect the simplest reason is there are many more regional pilots than there are openings at the majors. The competition greatly exceeds the number of available jobs at the majors and always will. Not everyone can or will be a success story

I honestly don't believe people who claim to not want to go to the majors because they "can't afford a pay cut" or " weekends off", I always figure those people just can't get a call and don't want to admit it. I can't imagine anyone voluntarily forgoing an opportunity to escape the regionals.

At the same time there plenty of pilots who think they're entitled to a job at mainline and so don't put in the effort- all the outrage about the requirement for a college degree (which as far as I can tell has existed for decades at most carriers), etc. These types often have bizarre conspiracy theories about how mainline "only hires gays, women and minorities"- I remember a jumpseater I once had who had been at ASA for 20+ years (although he'd recently gotten hired at AA), and he claimed that Delta hires a lot of (of course) "female minority" pilots with bad records if they sign a promise never to upgrade.:rolleyes:
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Bro, I've got bad news for you; there are a large number of legacy pilots who believe this, even when they're straight white dudes.
 
Hacker15e said:
You also have to remember that when you have conversations with a "lifer" they may not be painting a completely accurate picture of their background, or of the quality of their application, or of how aggressively they are updating/getting professional help/job fairing/etc.

I'd wager that most folks who have a skeleton or two in their closet don't generally bring it up during casual cockpit conversation. I have a professional black mark that I'm quite embarrassed about, but which I don't discuss with probably the majority of Captains that I fly with. So, what my record looks like from the outside may be quite different than how it looked on an actual application on file.
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The opposite of this is also true.

I've run into a few guys who were able to get the call to a legacy carrier at an incredibly young age, with seemingly thin qualifications.

Then you get talking and realize they're actually an astronaut at the age of 24.
 
jtrain609 said:
I know a handful of guys who have turned down interviews at places like JetBlue and Alaska because they want to "hold out for" Delta, or they believe that they "deserve" to work at United after all these years, and "won't settle."

I can't understand their logic. I haven't exactly had trouble putting food on the table working at Azul, and airlineapps didn't magically shut off as soon as I moved up the food chain.
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I’ve always viewed career progression like nonreving. Take forward progress when you can get it because you never know how fate is going to kick you in the ass later on.
 
From my experience it seems that there is a window of opportunity in which to make something happen. It begins with meeting the level required to move on and ends with losing the will or desire to "start over" for any price.

There are a lot of people I've flown with in my short time where I am now who definitely had the desire and motivation to move on at one time but then, as often is the case in this business, things happened and they were stuck where they were. They learned to live a good life, have a good attitude about it, like their job, and now have maybe 10 years left and ask themselves "why bother?"

Some of them are even better pilots, leaders, and people than your sorry ass, introspectively speaking. ;)

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Are we sure this is a self-aggrandizing type of statement or a jab at being on the outside of the bell curve average of newhire flight times? Lets be honest, when a legacy says the average civilian newhire time is 5,700 hrs, you'd have to agree that pretty much anything above 12,000 hrs is on the outside of the bell curve. It's a game of averages. Now I'm NOT saying guys with 12k+ hrs will not get a call. But I can see their point when it comes to the statistical chance of being in that bell curve of average newhire flight times.
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Southwest still seems to prefer guys well north of 10k hours.
 
GypsyPilot said:
What regional airline has three city pairings? Mine had me flying all over the US, Canada, and Mexico. It also prepared me very well for my current job, flying heavies all over Asia.

There are certainly those that get stuck because they didn’t finish college or whatever. But there are also lots of really motivated and experienced RJ CAs that are not moving on simply because of bad luck. I was stuck for many years myself, and despite trying everything I could think of it seemed like nobody would call me.

I finally was able to get a couple shots at moving on, but I was very lucky. I had a few key people in the right spots at the right time that were able to make some things happen for me. Not everyone will have that happen, especially if you’re unlucky enough to be in the lost decade RJ zone.
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I flew with plenty of Captains who stuck to the ATR for decades and never flew north of Virginia until they were forced off. Some guys were so stuck in their ways they couldn’t handle the FMS on the CRJ and were forced to resign.
 
mastermags said:
I flew with plenty of Captains who stuck to the ATR for decades and never flew north of Virginia until they were forced off. Some guys were so stuck in their ways they couldn’t handle the FMS on the CRJ and were forced to resign.
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agreed, I left my last job because I had an influx of 55+ y/o pilots who had decades on a beechjet and couldn't handle a modern FMS much less hand fly.

3 times I've been told to "Go F*** myself" because I didn't sign them off for their checkride. 3 times. 1 Guy just got up and resigned.

I loved that job until that crap starting happening
 
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We had quite a few “lifers” at my regional because for a long time our QOL of life was great, home every night, pay was decent, and none of the majors were hiring. Now I can count on one hand how many are left.
 
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