How to apply to Great Lakes?

[eight8kcabpilot]

Food for thought... By the time you have enough experience (i.e. multi time) to get hired by a regional that pays more and flys jets, the upgrade may be 5+ years. At places like Great Lakes and Colgan, the upgrade is always going to be pretty fast. Usually around a year. PIC turboprop is A LOT better than SIC in an RJ. The best way to apply? I'm not really sure. When I applied to Great Lakes, I was faxing a resume once a week until they called me after about four weeks.

Here are some pros and cons:

PROS:
1.Quick upgrade time. Turbine PIC is important.
2.Fun flying. You get to FLY the airplane instead of pushing buttons
3.The pilots at Great Lakes are exceptional
4.Good experience. Cruising around thunderstorms at FL220 in the mountains will teach you a lot more than flying around thunderstorms over Florida at FL350.

CONS:
1.F/O pay. About 15K per year.

Captain pay also sucks, but only compared to other airlines' captain pay. I think it is around 27K per year for 2nd year captains. However, every captain there is planning on going somewhere else so the PIC time is more valuable than the paychecks they earn.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[TEXAN AVIATOR]

I was in your shoes a couple years ago. I really wanted to work at Great Lakes. Everyone I met said to hold off. In retrospect, I'm glad I did.

Very well put, hold out for a decent company. Don't by any means think GLA is going to put food on the table. Have you seen the payscale?