Is it true Spirit won't cover the ATP costs? Contrary to what the Seek ad says?

I'm not on FaceBook so I can't check but several airlines have pilot-recruiting FaceBook pages where questions get answered. Might see if Spirit has one and ask. And LinkedIn...I think Spirit put out some info there about E3s.

They will not cover the cost of the ATP-CTP course, approx $3500 USD.

They will cover the rest.

Ok thanks CC.

• Spirit will cover the full cost of your FAA ATP conversion .... False advertising!! :}

Silver Airways is now trolling for E3s. But, FAA CPL, MEL, IR appears to be required. No mention of how much Silver will do toward the ATP. This will probably cut down on the number of Aussies applying ? This listed under "minimum requirements":

FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate - Multi-engine, Land, Instrument Ratings

https://workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/...=silverwebsite


https://www.silverairways.com/career...ce=SkyJobs.com

Given that 99.9% percent of Australians on E3's that hold an FAA ATP would be flying jets, I doubt they would leave their current jobs for a paycut to fly a turboprop. My prediction, Silver will get ZERO applications from E3's. Real dip****tery considering that all the regionals are paying for the ATP.

in saying that most turbo prop operators aren’t paying for ATP
- Silver Airways as mentioned above
- Connect Airways (WMA)
- Ravn Alaska

To name a few …. I am sure there are few others that we don’t know of as of now.


*** Question for regional guys who are already flying in US ***

Also with regionals with $50 an hour at 75 hours min pay guarantee makes you $3750 a month… take home after tax and insurance is $2600 approx.

Is this survivable salary? Are people struggling with rising cost of living as the salaries aren’t going up at regionals for now?

Most regionals are paying a bonus in the first year, eg. Gojet is 20k paid monthly no strings attached. During training and for an extra month afterwards hotel accom is covered, which all helps in the first year. Not sure exact details of PSA/Skywest/C5 etc. Once flying realistically you're going to be crediting more than min guarantee (Typical credit window for lineholders is over 85 hours) and per diems do help too, typically $4-800/month. I think as a rule of thumb most use 1000xmin guarantee.
Commuting is very easy here too so you could avoid the most expensive places.
Year 2-3 you're already looking at an upgrade or moving onto a LCC etc. with a large bump in hourly.

You're probably correct about that.

But I'm a little puzzled by the requirement for FAA CPL. They say in the ad that the company provides the ATP-CTP course and the rest of the FAA ATP is taken care of during the training process. Many Aussies came to the regionals right off the boat with no FAA tickets so why wouldn't Silver do it the same way if they're seeking E3 candidates ? The process works well and has a long track record with the FAA.

"Company-paid ATP/CTP Course, iPad, Known Crew Member, and parking in-base"

You guys need to launch the Test Aussie to contact Silver and ask questions.

Commuting can be pretty soul crushing though. Nothing worse than getting back from a trip and not being actually home. Unless you have a really good reason to do it, I'd say you'd quickly find it's not worth it.

First-year regional salary is always a challenge in the US even for local guys. When I started it was $38 per hour.
Most regionals have a signing bonus. Probably factor that into your budget as well.
Allow two years for captain upgrade.
You need to bring enough money with you from Australia maybe 20-30K AU to cover lean times and to set yourself up.
You will need a car eventually.
2nd year FO life gets easier, 75 hours is a min guarantee. Usually, there is the opportunity to make more money on overtime 200% or 300% rates depending on how hard you want to work.
In my first year, I usually would bid for lines that credited 90 hours. It was fatiguing though.

You guys need to launch the Test Aussie to contact Silver and ask questions.[/QUOTE]



Test Aussies have already been launched… I know couple of guys with 1500 hrs who applied to Silver almost a month ago and have sent follow up emails.

No acknowledgement or response from them so far… looks like they are collecting resumes and saving them for a rainy day!

$20k -$30k is a fair bit of money to have… don’t think a lot people might have that sort of cash lying around unless they pretty much sell their stuff here and be sure of making it through type and line training.

Also post Covid the amount of sign on bonuses have reduced significantly. I remember C5 and some others offering bonuses upto $60k spread over 2-3 years.

I sold my "pride and joy" Euro-trash GTI in Australia to afford to come over here. I don't regret it. :)

A few musings for all you potential new guys.

Your sign-on bonuses are taxable. You're going to lose ~30% of it. But you don't necessarily have to pay the tax on it straight away. When I started at CommutAir, they had a $22k signing bonus, contingent on you staying 2 years. Depending on your contract, you don't have to pay tax on it until that money is actually yours, ie after 2 years. YMMV.

Commuting long term blows. Being that more than likely none of us has an attachment to any particular part of the US (extended family etc), you're going to want to live in base. What this realistically means is, anywhere within a 2 hour drive of your base. For example, there are some very cheap areas within 2 hours of Newark, like Allentown PA. When you're only doing this drive 4 times a month, it's very manageable. This applies more or less to every HCoL area that airlines tend to have bases at.

When I first came to the US, pay was $38/hr. It sucked. I have friends who bought their wife and children with them too, on just that one income. It sucked for them too, but they survived. The regionals are significantly more comfortable now that they're all $50+ now. It doesn't sound like a huge difference, but it is. After 2 years, when you're either a regional captain or LCC FO, the QoL you will have here easily beats out what's achievable at Virgin or Jetstar.

The US really is all about what you can make of it. For those of you still on the fence, the water is very warm, and it's getting warmer by the month. Good luck y'all.

To add onto what Drop said above, commuting is an easy option if you live within 1.5 hours flight time AND you have at least 4 flights a day AND it’s only a one-leg commute AND it’s on an RJ (JS priority will go to the hoards of mainline guys also trying to commute). Otherwise a 1.5 hour drive is about as far as I’d live away from base. I just swapped a 1:15 drive to ORD, to a one leg commute to DEN and it sucks. But I’m locked into it for another 18 months.

Are you able to expand a little more on this? As someone who works for VA and is considering the move, I am genuinely interested in any further details.

Thanks!

Sure,

CommutAir for example pays $90/hr now for captains. So call the yearly salary $90k give or take for easy numbers. But the money isn't really where the QoL is at. It's in your ability to bid your schedule. If you want overnights somewhere, want 10 days off in a row, only want to do morning flying, stack all your flying into big days but have 18 days off... whatever it is, if your seniority allows it you can bid for it.

I flew with an Orlando based Frontier captain back in February. Something he likes to do is bid for entire weeks off at a time, then sits in Philly and waits for overtime to drop. He claimed he grossed $400k last year. His story, so naturally I can't verify it, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. He's also single, obviously this may not work for everyone.

My point is, if you want to work more and clean up, you can. You want to cram all your flying into as few days as possible and have 18 off, you can. It's entirely dependent on your seniority though, and what I've described are obviously towards the top end of QoL.

Lastly, I believe the current opportunities aren't the ceiling for E3s. As an example, CommutAir is sponsoring it's Aussie captains on green cards. There are T&C's, which I'm not privy too, but they are allowing the Aussies to now opt into the Aviate flow for United. More or less wait until you get your GC then flow to UA. I also wouldn't be surprised to see the likes of Southwest starting their own program. Since the likes of Spirit, Frontier and Atlas have legitimized E3s, I don't think other carriers picking it up is that far of a stretch.

That, in of itself says a lot. If you qualify for Silver you qualify for the other regionals, if they want to play those sorts of games, ditch them. Applications to most of the regionals will see a reply email in days.

You are absolutely right…. Their rational is since very few will apply for this gig their application would have less competition compared to regionals.

As an example when Avelo (not a regional) opened their E3… they received 900+ applications from Aussi’s and only 24 got offered a spot… all with type and time on CASA.

Big question is has anyone actually done any interviews with Breeze apart from Video questions recoding one… like online HR/Tech interview that likes of C5, PSA are conducting?