Hello guys,
I have my SIC is a 29 years old kid, very sharp and I am pushing him to get a job with the regionals and flying the E175 or E190. He keeps saying that the salary the first year is around 65k with bonuses and the second year drop drastically. Is that true?
Someone told me that you fly the maximum hours allowed and around 20 days a month you can make up to 100k a year

Make sure you read the fine print. Some regionals that are advertising huge first year pay are actually including some items that don't really go in your bank. Some of the bonuses are really good. Having said that, $100,000 on second year pay is extremely unlikely. $100,000 is possible of they upgrade to captain and work really hard and get a bonus, but unless they are coming from another part 121 carrier or certain part 135 jobs, they probably won't even have the minimums to upgrade to captain by second year.

I do know junior captains at my company making upwards of $125,000 a year and senior captains making between $160,000 and $200,000 a year, so there is the potential to make a good salary, but don't have your expectations too high for the first couple of years.

ra4000,

You list your locale as Italy but didn't provide much detail about your protege so it's not clear where he's from. That will be a large detail re flying here. Does he have the legal ability to live/work in the US ? FAA licenses ? Total flight time ?

I live in us and he is American
He got around 3500 total time
Cj's type rating and now the company will send him to a GIV type and sign one year contract. I suggested to go at the regionals. He want to have a career with the majors. Currently his annual salary is $90k,no family

ra4000,

Kind of a tough call. While he'd have his choice of regionals if he wanted to go that route, it's hard to say if having time in a regional airplane (and Part 121 experience) vs a G4 would improve his chance at a major. I'm not qualified to have an opinion on that. I know the majors hire corporate pilots but I don't know how many.

I do imagine the paycut at a regional would be painful for a while ! Has he considered places like Frontier and Spirit ?

I keep telling him, now he can deal with a pay cut, doesn't have any family (no wife no kids). I don't want to see him get stuck in 135.
In a long run 121 is much better

Tell him to goto a wholly owned regional with a flow to mainline. Whether he needs the flow or not is another story but at least he's guaranteed a slot at mainline one way or another.

I am with you on that.
I keep telling him.
The obstacle is the salary.
He told me that he got a friend working for 7 years at Envoy, 40k a year and still an FO.
So I would like know what are the actually salaries

ra4000,

Your friend may already know this but look here to see regional airline profiles including pay rates. I have no idea how accurate they are:

Regional | AirlinePilotCentral.com

If he joins Envoy now he will be a captain in 2 years or less. There was very little hiring done after the current group of captain upgrades going through now, so the date of hire to captain will drop like a rock.

If he's single like you say tell him to man up and do the necessary evil of a wholly owned regional. First year pay is about 60k.

If he tries to stay the corporate route thinking that pic time will get him picked up by a major, then he will watch everyone else that joined a wholly owned pass him by into a mainline legacy. Just tell him to look at the numbers, AA's classes are 70-75% wholly owned flow throughs and almost all of the remainder is military.

Greetings Experts. This is my first post so forgive my ignorance.

A brief background : Me: Australian non-pilot, living in Colombia, married to a Colombian, adopted three Colombian girls. The eldest (who's very smart) has just graduated from H.School at 16, and SHE is fast tracking English now, to then move on to pursue (with our help$$$) her career as a Pilot (Commercial). I started researching forums and found this one with 10 pages of very interesting and useful info. Thank you all, in advance !

But, may I bore you all with several questions ?

1. Now, in the current Trump era, VISAS to enter the USA would seem to be a shot in the dark, moreso if you're from South America. Jerry is ! Or am I wrong and there are ways for flight training students to get in still ?

2. If you could get a (student) visa, where does one look for flight training ? There are so many schools in so many states, and add to that, Universities; with fees ranging from $75000 to well above. We of course have to add housing etc to the costs... Any recommendations ?

3. The growth numbers mentioned in the past posts (2016) showed significant growth numbers for pilots in the years ahead. Is that still foreseen ?

4. If not the USA as the location for flight training, would you recommend Australia or New Zealand ? Being a Australian citizen I "should" be able to get her a visa there (though my own govt is becoming as xenophobic as the US).

5. It's been recommended to us by local AVIANCA pilots, to do the theoretical studies here (good school they say is the AAA in Medellin) in Colombia, then accumulate flying hours in the USA. Does this seem to be an option, experts ?

I'd greatly appreciate ANY suggestions from any and all.

Single, no kids, no wife? And he's worrying about the pay vs. doing the best step for his career. Why bother trying to help him if he won't help himself?

The TP freight feeders are squawking about pilot supply. Not entirely unexpected to see some supply pressure at the entry level considering the amount of hiring further up the chain.

I'm not sure why the military would be in any position to influence the FAA or Congress to act for change on the civilian side (the military cares about the military...not things in the airlines). If the military thinks increasing the civilian supply side available to the airlines will stop the airlines from lusting after the mil pilots (and/or the reverse), they're mistaken. Perhaps I've missed something:

"However, Bernstein believes pressure from the military, which itself is feeling the pilot shortage, could lead Congress to act.

In February, US Air Force general David Goldfein told reporters that military pilots tend to leave for the commercial sector as soon as they reach the 1,500h mark.

'I suspect that if the military keeps up this pressure, Congress will have no choice to act', says Bernstein."

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...shorta-435110/

Update on PSA's effort to get new blood onto the system:


"Dayton, Ohio-based PSA Airlines and Pensacola's SkyWarrior Inc. celebrated the agreement in an announcement at Pensacola International Airport early Wednesday."

"The airline will pay as much as $23,000 to help each of the 15 helicopter pilots the school hopes to train every month, said Greg Sigler, vice president of SkyWarrior Inc."

http://www.pnj.com/story/news/milita...ots-/99208970/

Mesa now has a cadet program:
Mesa Air Group

Mesa's MEC has filed a lawsuit against Mesa for contract violations concerning new hire bonuses.

This doesn't address the pax regionals but the freight feeders are sorta-kinda similar in the grand scheme. A pilot "shortage" is alleged:

Where have all the pilots gone? How a looming shortage may curtail e-commerce | Air Cargo World

I'd forgotten all about Key Lime Air (haven't heard them mentioned in ages) but they're looking for people:

https://www.bestaviation.net/jobs/li...er-based-8379/

For two years I worked in the same building as Key Lime. They definitely are feeling the hiring crunch but so are many part 135 operations. I wouldn't call them a regional, as their business model is quite different than the 121 regionals but they are definitely struggling to staff all the flying. It doesn't help that they increased their contract to a 2 year commitment.

Z,

Understand. I made the executive decision to thrown some TP feeders/operators into the "regional" discussion since so many of them are headhunting like regionals are.

Trans States Airlines is adding military rotor wing pilots to its list of headhunting targets:


http://www.transstates.net/careers/P...-to-Wings.aspx