Run, Run, Run from the regionals.
Hey bud,
This is solely my personal opinion, but don't even mess with a regional right now. Being a herc guy I have seen guys part ways to the regionals (in a hurry for life), and others stay bumming at the guard.
The guys I have seen that go to a regional never seem happy making under $20,000 for the 1st year and hitting the guard when they can. They quickly fall behind co pilots in their units as far as progress and it seems like they live a life on the road. Every one of them that I have seen has upgrdaed so much slower then guard bums. Sure you can take mil leave, but that can be a very delicate situation providing legit orders to prove your need for the mil leave depending on the regionals specific military policy.
I got hired by a regional with a "hurry life" mentality and the fact I stayed at the guard has been the best thing I ever did. We will be at war for quite a while and the need for airlift will be critical as long as we have troops on the ground. I would fly your butt off, pick up guard trips and take a mobilization as soon as the oportunity arrises. You can even deploy with other units if your unit is not in the current deployment cycle. The money is way better and your long term pilot skills and situational awareness will develop exponentialy compared to hauling peeps straight and level on vanilla regional runs.
I got back from "The Rock" 2 1/2 years ago and have upgraded to AC and am building PIC time towards the critical "1000 PIC" what seems like the big number. Look at the regional upgrade times. Where are they moving with pilots? Yes they are expanding and need pilots but their turnover from the top is not that huge. It could take 5 years to upgrade to get that PIC time going.
Long Story Short...Be the best **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** tactical airlifter you can, because you need to be on your game taking off out of Bagdhad, at night on NVG's, when the bad guy is waiting to try and put a SAM up your A#$. PM me if you have any questions. Late. 40's