I have been flying commercially for five years now and I'm currently at an impasse as to what my next career move should be. To my own detriment, I have never been good at spending time on the message boards and studying the airline industry in terms of what the the majors are looking for in flight experience and how best to get hired. My goal is to make it to a major eventually, and I would like to get input and thoughts from everybody here about what might be the next best course of action for my career.
I'm currently flying the Metroliner for Ameriflight, getting about 40 hrs/month. I currently have 2900TT, 1300Multi, 600Turbine PIC. I am presently looking to move on to something else (for various reasons I don't need to go into here and now). My primary dilemma is whether to pursue charter or get into a 121 regional. I have recently applied to Skywest and ExpressJet, and am waiting to hear back. My reasoning for considering a 121 regional is that I thought the airlines might want to see some 121 crew and jet time in applicants. I have heard some say that regionals are a great way to transition into a major, and that this would be a more likely way of getting to a major than from the corporate side, while on the flip side, I have heard some people argue that Skywest would not be a wise move after Ameriflight as it would be more of a horizontal transition rather than a move up in career. If the regionals paid a little more, I would hesitate so much, but with a wife and kid (and one more on the way), the 50% pay cut has me pretty worried. I could stomach it for a time if I were sure this was a good career move, but I'm not positive of that. For that reason, I would lean toward a charter job for the improved paycheck, but I'm worried that a bunch of flight time at a no-name charter is going to make getting noticed and hired by a major much more difficult.
My other concern is the 1000Turbine PIC issue. I'm currently a year away from that at my present job, and have understood that it is an important milestone to hit. However, I have a couple of former CFI's who have gotten hired on at majors in the last year with absolutely no turbine PIC, but they both had a lot of jet time from regionals. So, this also has me confused.
Here are my pros/cons for Skywest(my first choice regional) vs. Charter:
Skywest PROS
- 121, crew experience
- good flight time and good schedule
Skywest CONS
- could get stuck in a Brazillia? CON?
- potentially long upgrade times
- 50% pay cut first year (with wife and a kid at home)
Charter PROS
- better money up front
- guaranteed jet time
- potentially shorter upgrade time
Charter CONS
- probably less flight time than SW
- more 135 experience doesn't round out the resume like 121
I know this is a lot of info, sorry for the brain dump. I have a lot of thoughts floating around in my head right now. Any advice, thoughts, or things you can think of that I haven't considered are greatly appreciated. At this point, I'm pretty nervous about making the wrong move.
Thanks in advance!
I'm currently flying the Metroliner for Ameriflight, getting about 40 hrs/month. I currently have 2900TT, 1300Multi, 600Turbine PIC. I am presently looking to move on to something else (for various reasons I don't need to go into here and now). My primary dilemma is whether to pursue charter or get into a 121 regional. I have recently applied to Skywest and ExpressJet, and am waiting to hear back. My reasoning for considering a 121 regional is that I thought the airlines might want to see some 121 crew and jet time in applicants. I have heard some say that regionals are a great way to transition into a major, and that this would be a more likely way of getting to a major than from the corporate side, while on the flip side, I have heard some people argue that Skywest would not be a wise move after Ameriflight as it would be more of a horizontal transition rather than a move up in career. If the regionals paid a little more, I would hesitate so much, but with a wife and kid (and one more on the way), the 50% pay cut has me pretty worried. I could stomach it for a time if I were sure this was a good career move, but I'm not positive of that. For that reason, I would lean toward a charter job for the improved paycheck, but I'm worried that a bunch of flight time at a no-name charter is going to make getting noticed and hired by a major much more difficult.
My other concern is the 1000Turbine PIC issue. I'm currently a year away from that at my present job, and have understood that it is an important milestone to hit. However, I have a couple of former CFI's who have gotten hired on at majors in the last year with absolutely no turbine PIC, but they both had a lot of jet time from regionals. So, this also has me confused.
Here are my pros/cons for Skywest(my first choice regional) vs. Charter:
Skywest PROS
- 121, crew experience
- good flight time and good schedule
Skywest CONS
- could get stuck in a Brazillia? CON?
- potentially long upgrade times
- 50% pay cut first year (with wife and a kid at home)
Charter PROS
- better money up front
- guaranteed jet time
- potentially shorter upgrade time
Charter CONS
- probably less flight time than SW
- more 135 experience doesn't round out the resume like 121
I know this is a lot of info, sorry for the brain dump. I have a lot of thoughts floating around in my head right now. Any advice, thoughts, or things you can think of that I haven't considered are greatly appreciated. At this point, I'm pretty nervous about making the wrong move.
Thanks in advance!