so you're ready to make the jump to the
regional airlines and get your first
airline pilot job but how do you choose
which regional to pick it's different
for everybody in this video I talk about
the three most important factors to
consider when you're choosing your
regional airline pilot job coming up 963
heavy sliding 100 zero maintain one zero
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for takeoff hey crew what's going on
welcome back if you're new to the
channel my name is Kelsey I'm a 747
pilot in this video I'm talking about
regional airlines and how to pick the
best one for you
because it is different for everyone as
far as for what their goals are where
they want to go in their career so let's
get into it there's a lot of different
regionals out there you have Mesa
Airlines Endeavour Airlines PSA go jet
airlines or Wisconsin
commute air the list goes on and on so
how to figure which one is best for you
can get a little bit overwhelming it's
not all about pay it's not all about
flow it's not about one thing in
particular I'm gonna cover three things
that I think are the most useful for you
that will help you as far as for making
your decision so these three things are
really in no particular order they're
just the three things that you should
really take into consideration when
you're picking your regional the first
thing is your commute time look at the
different bases at each regional half
where you're living now where you'd be
happy living and the time that it would
be to get to those different bases if
you can avoid commuting to work it is
going to make the quality of your life
significantly better and when I say
commuting
I mean jumps eating or catching a flight
to go to work if you have to drive an
hour that is gonna be catching a flight
and the reason is is because you don't
necessarily know what flight you're
gonna get you may have to go in a day
early you may have to stay an extra day
at your base when you finish the trip
late at night if you finish 11 o'clock
at night there may not be a flight home
so finding one that's driving distance
from a place that you either are living
now or would want to live
is what I think would be the most
important factor because if you can
drive to work it is going to greatly
improve your quality of life when you're
at the regionals so the second factors
pay obviously pay is going to be a
factor more or less most regionals we're
going to end up paying something similar
one may have a higher hourly wage the
other may have a bonus there's a lot of
different things to to consider when it
comes into pay don't just look at this
guy this airline is paying the most
second year hourly pay so I'm gonna
choose that one it's not always just
that hourly pay that's going to be the
factor in it you might have bonuses or
different things keep in mind that if
they're paying a bonus that bonus could
go away so you could get a bonus that
says in three years you're gonna get
this amount of money well things should
change and that bonus could go away the
regionals are competing against each
other to get you to come to that
regional so one might have a little bit
more pay the other may have another
benefit like paid for hotels or other
things to factor in there but your
take-home pay is going to be similar at
most of the regionals some are not
paying that great others are paying a
little bit better but that's the other
thing to keep in mind what is the pay
when you're factoring in everything the
third thing that I think is really
important to consider is your upgrade
time how quickly can you upgrade and how
quickly can you upgrade in that base
that you're picking so you'll have bases
that are going to be a senior base or a
junior base what that means is
essentially the seniority of the people
that have been at that airline and where
they are so you can have a base set a
junior base so for example you could say
this airline has Miami as your junior
base and that means that not a lot of
the senior guys are at that base which
means you could go there and upgrade
relatively quickly and hold that base of
Miami
you could have Miami be a senior base
and what that means is it may be a very
old base at that airline so you have a
lot of guys that have been there for a
long time who are at that base and the
upgrade there may be three or four years
before you can upgrade at that base now
keep in mind that number is always
changing you're having people leaving
you're having some guys that are
retiring the seniority the debate at a
base may change but that's something
definitely to keep in mind when you're
weighing out everything is what is the
seniority at that base and the upgrade
time at that base
the reason upgrade is so important is
because a lot of times when you're
trying to go to your next step in your
career they want to see that you've
upgraded to captain and usually they're
gonna want to see at least a thousand
hours of turbine P I see captain time
1:21 captain time so having that ability
to upgrade and move on in your career is
important so factor that in as well the
regional airlines right now are creating
something called flow and that flow
basically means you have a guaranteed
interview or a guaranteed job at a at a
larger airline if you spend X number of
years with them and that number is
always changing that number of years is
always changing the one thing that I'll
advise you to is some advice that I got
when I was early in my career was never
chase a flow and the reason is because a
flow can stop at any time I've flown
with guys when I was at the regionals
that had spent 12 or 13 years chasing a
flow to American as an example and they
had spent a lot of time of their career
waiting and hoping that that door was
going to eventually open now in today's
market things are definitely different
that flow is definitely happening
quicker but as I always talk about is
things can change from one day to the
next so flow is definitely something to
consider but don't go into it based on
the idea that hey no matter what this
job is definitely going to happen for me
in two years I'm gonna have this job at
this place the other thing to consider
with flow is that sometimes you can get
to that airline that you want to go to
quicker outside of the flow as an
example you'll have a regional airline
that will have a flow to airline X and
as part of getting that flow to airline
X you have to spend two years at that at
that regional airline and then you're
qualified to get an enter
view with airline X now airline X may be
requiring only 2000 hours of total time
and maybe a thousand hours of turbine
time just as an example you might be
better to go to a different regional
airline spend a year there get some 121
airline experience and then apply and go
to that airline X because you're not in
that flow alright crew that wraps up my
opinion of what I think the most
important things to factor in when
you're choosing your regional airline
job is and then comment section below
let me know what is the most important
factor that you're considering when
you're choosing your regional airline
job I look forward to hearing from you
until then keep the blue side up
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