Your Opinion of Regional Career

[kilomike]

Regional careers

Mustang,

I am speaking from the perspective of a general aviation pilot who did fly for a regional carrier in the past but decided for several reasons to return to my first love, flying small aircraft for pleasure. I am pursuing a different career path in another line of work.

Flying for the regionals can be very positive but it can also be a very negative experience. Things to consider--I'll list the pros and cons.

Pros: No routine schedule (blocks of days off), travel passes, flying with some very good people (Good captains made some of my trips very enjoyable), flying some neat aircraft, opportunity to travel and experience different places and people.

Cons: Long duty days, pilot fatigue, occasionally very difficult co workers whose maturity level is questionable, being away from home for several days at a time, and last but not least, low pay.

I will caution you that it is a long hard road full of obstacles and heartache.

However, I would encourage you to at least get your private pilot license with an instrument and/or multiengine rating. I always encourage people to learn to fly, for the pleasure of it. You will always be able to enjoy day trips and the classic $100 hamburger.
It's fun and for that reason, I'll never regret having learned to fly.

If you find that you still have the desire and the job market gets better, after having a private/multi/instrument you can easily get a commercial and CFII.

Best wishes, fly safe, and always enjoy the skies.

kilomike

 

[Mustang]

Great info from all of you. The perspectives given are valuable and much appreciated. I will take this one step at a time and check in every now in then with this great forum. I do have a chance to buy into a c172 at a decent price. May use this to build
my hours.

Thanks to all again for your views and responses.

 

[~~~^~~~]

I do have a chance to buy into a c172 at a decent price. May use this to build my hours

You have a great idea. I bought and sold three aircraft while building time and made money on each one. There is also much pride in ownership and possibly you can talk your employer into helping you defer some cost on trips that are incidental to your business.

All in all, getting my ratings did not cost much because of the profits I made buying and selling aircraft.

Owning an airplane is a lot of fun. Just pick a good partner and establish an account for maintainence and non-routine repairs. I roughly calculated the cost of annuals and an overhaul and divided them up by my flying hours and banked the money. That way the bills were never over whelming.

The 172 is a darn good airplane. Read some of AOPA's articles to ensure you are getting a good year model.