zflyingguy

Hey everyone,

With the slow down with hiring going on. I thought I would give an update on my time with Envoy so far. Feel free to message me if you have questions or want to know more.

First of all I interviewed at the end of September of last year and pretty much couldn't get any real updates. on timeline of when I would go to orientation until about three weeks before. I eventually got into the January orientation where I was towards the bottom because I was an off the street FO in my orientation group there was about 75 people most of which where cadets and DEC's. Because of being towards the bottom I didn't start indoc until two weeks late. When Indoc started there was only a few DFW FO slots which I wanted since I live in the DFW area. I did get PHX as my second choice which in the end was a great option. Since I was PHX based they sent all PHX FO's away for two more weeks because they didn't need us really until May. I finally started training in Late February, I will say overall I found the training to be great only a few instructors that I didn't really like but I'd say anyone can really pass training as long as you put in the effort and study. One of the nice things about being pushed back to a later class is that I was senior so lucky to get one of the new e-170 sims Envoy has and got a really good time slot, it also helped I had a great sim parter which was defiantly a great help. After about two weeks of Sims we took the MV and checkride I was making myself more nervous that I needed to be looking back at it Envoy did prepare me well for both events and passed with no failures. I past my checkride in mid April in the morning and later that day I was already scheduled for my first IOE trip later in the week. We also had a vacancy bid come out around the time of my checkride which I was awarded DFW with a transfer date in the beginning of July.

Since I was PHX based I had my first IOE trip out of PHX with a bunch of west coast flying. The trip went great and I felt like I was ready from all the training I received. My check airman that I flew with was awesome and I had no issues really flying that first trip. A few days later I did my second IOE trip this time out of DFW. I flew with another awesome check airman it was a three day trip out of DFW with thunderstorms everyday which was a great learning experience especially since I was with a experienced captain. On the last day I only had one flight back to DFW which was my IOE line check I was a bit nervous for the flight but my check airman said I would do great and he saw nothing that would be a concern. Now that flight was defiantly a good test with an ATC reroute do to storms a full load a passengers and thunderstorms all over the southern US. But at the end of the flight my check airman said I did a great job dealing with everyone and using my CRM skills and got the sine off. I finished IOE with 26 hours you need 25 for FO's and 50 for captains. By the time I got home I looked at my schedule and I saw I had my first reserve block in a few days time out in PHX. You do get a couple of days off between IOE and your first day of reserve.

I will say timing is everything because, people durning training said I wouldn't be flying much out of PHX. However, with me starting in late spring early summer I honestly got more flying than I think I was going to get. In May I got about 40 hours and in June it was about 35 hours. I will say I wasn't looking forward to commuting out to PHX to DFW but for the couple of months I wasn't really that bad. The flying though out of PHX is awesome some of the best overnights I had where; GJT,MRY,SEA, BOI. We do lots of other west coast cities turns and do a little bit of Mexico flying to. I have noticed that Envoy does keep more reserves in PHX and tend to deadhead them out to other based when the weather is worse in other parts of the country. For me I was once deadhead out to ORD & DFW to cover flying out of there. Overall I really enjoyed my time out in PHX and if we have a PHX TDY later in the year I might take it.

Now that I'm back in DFW my quality of life has gone way up and speaking to other people who are based and live here it's probably one of the best regional jobs you can find. I do know people who are junior to me who are currently ORD based who were awarded a line in ORD for this month. I'm thinking I'll be a line holder by the fall because we still have more FO's being transferred to DFW through the summer and early fall. We will have to see how the industry is in the next few years but I do not mind at all staying here and waiting for what comes next. I have met a few captains who have always been with Envoy and who got hired when it was American Eagle and they have no regrets of staying due to their quality of life. Hopefully this gives you all a look on what Envoy is like, if I had to do it overlain I still would have Envoy as my number one choice of regionals.


P.S. Sorry for my spelling and grammar there’s a reason I wasn’t an English major.

okiepilot918

May I ask what your hours and experience were? I am hoping to start applying soon when I meet ATP minimums. Curious what the outlook is for non cadet program FOs like myself.

zflyingguy

I was just hitting my ATP mins when I applied and got the interview. It never hurts to apply but also see if you can attend one of the recruiting events that Evnoy will be at.

zmds

Very large backlog of CJOs right now, with no immediate signs of clearing the batches.