Take the worst of what's said with the best of what's said and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. If I lived in DEN/LAX and I had to commute to PHL with the current schedules I would be depressed too. I commuted to work at AWAC for the first 2+ years and now I live close enough to PHL to drive. I wouldn't say I live in domocile but it's close enough. The schedules used to be better. We've done a lot of transition in the past 3 years so I would expect things to be difficult. Did the company drop the ball on anticipating the mass exodus yes. Are they deliberately making the schedules bad, I don't believe it. If they made easier schedules right now they would have to junior man more which would result in just as many pissed off pilots. Are they hiring a bunch right now, yes. Will the schedules improve? Probably a little. Are we as good as the next regional? I think so.
Express Jet is a good place to work but I would rather be at the bottom of 800 pilots than at the bottom of 1500+. Express Jet is probably more stable right now but you're going to be an FO for awhile is my guess.
Yes we do use the flash cards to study. They are mostly system cards I think. The thing that will get you through training is limitations, memory items, checklist flows and callouts. I'm not sure about the other training notes. I don't believe I've seen them.
This is the only regional I've worked for and it hasn't been that bad. Our paychecks don't bounce. We stay in decent hotels. Our planes are maintained well even if they aren't clean. And we still have some good people working here. As you can tell I'm a glass-is-half-full kind of guy and I haven't had it that bad here. It's a regional airline and that's that.