I've been hanging out general topics too much, or working too much, either way I'm a little late to the party, but here goes:
Understood, that’s a risk with every airline. Doesn’t your point just bolster the rationale to go to a higher paying position right away? Comparing apples to apples, meaning entry level 121 jobs, Sun Country seems like the best choice.
If you can get hired by Sun Country over a regional that is better. In every way, hands down, fight me. It would be a pretty unique scenario for a regional to be better than Sunny.
Given your resume and experience you probably couldn’t go wrong with the following priorities for a first 121...
1. Quickest place to get 1000 hours 121. With your leadership experience, diverse flying, and the military card, it is likely you’d be looked at by the better LCCs at 500 hours and possibly by better airlines than those at 1000 hours.
2. Quickest route to 121 PIC time. If you don’t land at a career place with 1000 SIC, even just a little PIC would bump you up.
Sun Country may or may not fit those bills, don’t know. Or base and initial pay might be more important. My biggest piece of advice for mil rotor guys making the transition is to begin with the end in mind. Do whatever you can to set yourself up quickly for the type of career airline (not necessarily a specific airline) you want to end up at.
This is perhaps the best argument here IN FAVOR OF going to sunny. There is a massive influx of flying and reserve is getting used a lot, it is also projected to be very short. If the projected hiring is met, there would be more pilots junior to me than reserve lines by the time I actually start reserve. Then it's just a matter of waiting for the new hires to finish training. As it were, projected hiring numbers probably won't be met in absence of a new contract so it might take a month or two extra. At this point I would be genuinely surprised if I spent more than six months on reserve. Hours are good and upgrade times are already low and dropping fast.
Itll really suck for everyone that lives in msp that suddenly find themselves based in cvg.
Is Amazon going to open a base there for SY pilots? Because I know sunny isn't going to. Just kidding, but seriously though, the new base thing got dropped like a hot potato. Also regarding the whipsaw thing, I get that, too. Fortunately for sunny they are more in a position to be used for whipsawing others than actually being whipsawed. Too me it seems too early to tell how that would work out. Sunny is in a curious position to be in the business of providing pilots, in light of the current in house pilot shortage.
Since we're rationalizing flying 737's for cheap, because its better than a regional. Why not going to Southern and fly 777 for cheap too?
Minimums
777 First Officer
- Hold a current unrestricted ATP certificate with an airplane category multi-engine class rating and English proficiency endorsement
- Have a minimum of 1500 hours of total time (Military conversion of .3 per sortie)
- Have a minimum of 500 hours of turbine time
- Have a minimum of 1000 fixed wing or 500 hours with a 121 carrier
On of my classmates left southern for sunny, checkmate! Joking aside, yours is a good point.
It only makes sense if you live in MSP and would rather build 121 time in a 737 than a CRJ. If you can get hired there before you upgrade at a regional then it is probably a good lateral move. As the OP said, they just meet the ATP mins. I would say it’s a good gamble to take, at least it would set you apart from the masses of CRJ CAs flooding airline apps... if they get a better contact, great. If they get bought by WN, even better! You really don’t have much to loose. Just be sure to study your butt off and be ready to pass that check ride because they are washing people out. Just my two cents.
Two really good points here. 1) It's a gamble, 2) for a lot of people its a gamble with a lot to gain but not much to lose.
Now out of all the things people have brought up this really could be a major concern, especially with the training contract. But on the other hand most regionals have the same issues so it still may not be a reason to go to a regional over SY. Things are better now but the first year or so my regional had the EMB-145 we were washing people out left and right.
I'm not sure where the idea that people are washing out left and right here comes from. The sample that I'm familiar with has been 80-90% success which seems pretty good. I would expect that to lower as the hiring crunch intensifies. The instructors are excellent and will liberally give extra help. Those who wash out tend to do so by their own decision. That being said, the learning curve can get to be very intense when you start to take a lot of pilots without 121 or jet or transport cat a/c time.
I'm not trying to downplay the negatives and downsides, it's just that many have already been said. And sure, it's fair to compare SY to a regional. It just makes it easy to see how much better it is in so many ways. Unless your first priority is job security. If that is the case OO should be your #1.
