Regionals or 135

[Jamis81]

I fly with a guy that has two job offers, one for a regional, and one for a part 135 cargo company. He would make double the money at the Part 135, but would live on a pager, with 8 days off a month. Or make half the money and know his schedule even it was on reserve.
He's trying to figure out which offer to take, but it made me curious, what you do?
Are the regionals the best way? or would the money trump everything else. Anyone out there that has gone both routes?

 

[SEVEN]

I fly with a guy that has two job offers, one for a regional, and one for a part 135 cargo company. He would make double the money at the Part 135, but would live on a pager, with 8 days off a month. Or make half the money and know his schedule even it was on reserve.
He's trying to figure out which offer to take, but it made me curious, what you do?
Are the regionals the best way? or would the money trump everything else. Anyone out there that has gone both routes?

Did the 135 gig for a few years. Like having a schedule now that I have a family. Pay is worse at the regionals until upgrade. But for me Quality Of Life was better than living on a pager with crummy work rules and broken airplanes.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

121 Imo.

 

[Flybet3]

I fly with a guy that has two job offers, one for a regional, and one for a part 135 cargo company. He would make double the money at the Part 135, but would live on a pager, with 8 days off a month. Or make half the money and know his schedule even it was on reserve.
He's trying to figure out which offer to take, but it made me curious, what you do?
Are the regionals the best way? or would the money trump everything else. Anyone out there that has gone both routes?

121! After doing 135 I can tell you that being on a pager or even cell phone sucks. If it was 135 scheduled cargo then I might say maybe, but you'll get a bit more at the regionals. Yeah pay is a bit lower, but so many more bennies. Secondly if your buddy could live in base that's even better. Good like

 

[Rough67]

121 ...

 

[landlover]

135 cargo! quick upgrade, more money.
jet PIC is king!

 

[Flybet3]

135 cargo! quick upgrade, more money.
jet PIC is king!

Jet PIC doesn mean squat unless you wanna go to another "better" PIC 135 job, which at the end of the day they all suck the same. Or unless you know atleast 3 people at a major and you have outstanding credentials.
Think about it this way, you take a 135 shi**y cargo job. You maybe upgrade after 12 to 18 months. Then the industry takes a hit and now you get stuck there b/c no one else is hiring. Trust me on this, the PIC time will come. Dont be an idiot like a bunch of these younger guys and start CHASING the upgrade. You get "greedy" and you'll regret it.
If anything I would say take the 135 gig b/c you'll make a bit more money, but geesh man! QOL is king, not PIC, QOL. Most of the guys I know that flew cargo for Cherry and Ameristar get their PIC and dont even get hired at any major, they get picked up by a local crappy/ok 135 operator and are still stuck with maybe maybe maybe 4 to 5 days off in a month! Go to the regionals you'll make low money the first year but you have some potential of making OK money by the second or third year. Plus flight bennies and at some regionals 12 min days of in a month.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

It all depends on the companies you are talking about. Are you comparing Mesa to USA Jet or are you comparing XJET to any of a number of dirtbag 135 outfits out there. It makes a huge difference in QOL. At XJET and I am sure a number of other upper end regionals on 2nd year pay you can be making almost $40-50,000 with perdiem, bonuses, and such. By third year pay you will be upgrading at some and be making $80,000. I would say you will be hard pressed to find a 135 outfit that can double that pay. I am a fairly junior captain and still managed to get three weeks off in a row with a vacation. If I am sick I call in. My 401k match is I put in 4% they put in 6.5% of my salary which is pretty good and only gets better. FLight benefits are nice because my parents get to see their grandkids much more often.

I am one and have seen a lot of 135 guys who have come over to 121 to make their resume more competitive. Never seen one go from my company the other direction.

 

[Flybet3]

It all depends on the companies you are talking about. Are you comparing Mesa to USA Jet or are you comparing XJET to any of a number of dirtbag 135 outfits out there. It makes a huge difference in QOL. At XJET and I am sure a number of other upper end regionals on 2nd year pay you can be making almost $40-50,000 with perdiem, bonuses, and such. By third year pay you will be upgrading at some and be making $80,000. I would say you will be hard pressed to find a 135 outfit that can double that pay. I am a fairly junior captain and still managed to get three weeks off in a row with a vacation. If I am sick I call in. My 401k match is I put in 4% they put in 6.5% of my salary which is pretty good and only gets better. FLight benefits are nice because my parents get to see their grandkids much more often.

I am one and have seen a lot of 135 guys who have come over to 121 to make their resume more competitive. Never seen one go from my company the other direction.

This ugly secret squirrel does have a good point. USA jet is one of the exceptions. Good pay, good company, my only beef is living up in Detroit (what a suicidal dump) Then you got yes XJet, CHQ, AE, HORIZON. Just stay away from the crummy operators (cargo) Cherry Air, Grand air, Ameristar, look at USA jet, IFL, Air Cargo carriers for the OK ones. Stay away from TSA, MESA, GOJETS, and hmmm...someone help me name a few other not so good regionals. But squirrel did give ya some good pointers.
Another thing you can do in the airlines like squirl said is if you're sick, call in sick and no biggie. Try to do that with any 135 operator, you'll go from being a pilot to a questionable employee in only 4 days. Guaranteed

 

[Flybet3]

I am one and have seen a lot of 135 guys who have come over to 121 to make their resume more competitive. Never seen one go from my company the other direction.

Oh I've seen them go from a Regional to 135, but they always come back or got to the fracs.

 

[ubpilot]

I did both, and by far I choose regional.

 

[Flybet3]

I did both, and by far I choose regional.

foooooooooo reals :beer:

 

[Philerup]

Go regional. I went cargo, only because I thought I would like it more than passenger hauling. The problem with freight, as mentioned, is lack of connections. I know people who have left here and gone to regionals nd other freight haulers. No one in my 3 years here has gone to a major or LCC. If I had gone to a regional I would now have contacts at the majors and LCC's.

Pick the job that most resembles what you want to do for the rest of your career. If you want to spend your career on the wrong side of the clock, go to 135 freight. You will be in a good position to transition into 121 supplemental, and will probably get into bigger planes faster.

Go to a regional and you will not get into the big planes as fast but your schedule will more closely match your bodies natural timeclock. You will fly nice clean planes and get experience with glass and FMS. You will meet lots of likeminded pilots who are moving up, and if you befriend them you have a connection at an airline that has flown with you and can vouch for you.

I am in freight and do not want to debate who makes the better pilots. What it all comes down to is who you know. If you have a good connection, go for the fastest turbine PIC. If you are like me and have no family or friends in the airlines, go to a regional and start networking. That was my biggest error in judgement. I looked for a job that I thought would be cool and pay more than the regionals. Now I am sorely lacking in any connections to an airline.

 

[EMB170Pilot]

besides, you dont want to be 1 of those pilots with a lot of 135 jobs on his/her resume do ya?

I've seen plenty of those resumes

 

[landlover]

guys have left aji to go directly to swa, netjets, flex, gemini, jetblue, omni, continental main line. just met a fedex guy that left aji in early 2000. that silly comment about not making connections working for a cargo company?? huh? what rock do you live under? have been offered recommendations to all the companies listed above, save fedex.

 

[Philerup]

Good for you landover. I haven't. I have been at my company for 3 years an only a few pilots have left, mostly for the regionals. It is my opinion that the regionals offer better opportunuties for networking.

 

[landlover]

Jet PIC doesn mean squat unless you wanna go to another "better" PIC 135 job, which at the end of the day they all suck the same. Or unless you know atleast 3 people at a major and you have outstanding credentials.

ups often hires guys with zero internal recommendations, pic doesn't mean squat!! hahah thats rich. thats why just about every major requires at least 1000 hours of this worthless jet pic time.

 

[Philerup]

AJI, is that Amerijet? If they have that kind of track record maybe I should come to work there. What is the story there?

 

[CopilotDoug]

Go to a place where you could see yourself spending a large portion (if not your whole) career. That way, if things do go south, you're prepared. And when the time does come to move on to a bigger and better operation, it's a nice surprise.

Don't naively walk into either situation thinking you'll only spend 'X' number of days before moving onward and upward.

 

[Inconceivable]

My wife is doing what Seven said.

She's home every night, off on weekends, and making twice+ what she would at a regional. In a year or so, she'll head off to a regional where the upgrades are a little quicker.

So she trades 1000h of Turbine SIC for 1000h Baron 135 PIC--but she knows about ice, thunder, leadership, and all those "abstract" concepts the 500 wunderkind are lacking. When she upgrades at minimums she will at least know what the time is.

Plus she can now fly my lazy 'bus driving @ss under the table on instruments.