SkyWest ?’s
#711
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2011
Posts: 290
Good evening ladies gentlemen,
I am shopping for a regional. 1550TT. 680 turbine, with 200 some odd of it being 135 PIC. Have some Q’s.
How far out are class dates? Are you still sharing hotel rooms during training? (From what I understand they’re 2 separate rooms, in a room, not like your standard double queen)??
How is the pilot group and morale at SkyWest?
How does management handle it if you miss a commute? How many times will they allow it before you get shown the door?
How long did it take to start being able to pick trips you wanted/actually liked?
i understand these are loaded questions that may yield some very different answers. Just trying to get a general idea.
I am shopping for a regional. 1550TT. 680 turbine, with 200 some odd of it being 135 PIC. Have some Q’s.
How far out are class dates? Are you still sharing hotel rooms during training? (From what I understand they’re 2 separate rooms, in a room, not like your standard double queen)??
How is the pilot group and morale at SkyWest?
How does management handle it if you miss a commute? How many times will they allow it before you get shown the door?
How long did it take to start being able to pick trips you wanted/actually liked?
i understand these are loaded questions that may yield some very different answers. Just trying to get a general idea.
If you're on the CRJ, reserve time will be minimal. DFW and ATL have the longest reserve times, but still no more than 5 months after IOE. Any other junior base will be reserve maybe a month or two. You can fly a lot and upgrade relatively quickly if you want, around 18 months from DOH. If you don't want to upgrade, it takes about a year to get trips that are really good. But the trips before then still aren't terrible. After that you get to start picking the best trips because of many upgrades so your seniority moves quick.
Cant speak for the ERJ side.
I would say overall, if you live in base, or close with a 1 hour commute to a juniorish base, Skywest is pretty good. You can fly a lot, upgrade quick, then fly a lot and move on. Lots of Skywest pilots moving on right now. Almost all of the crews are pretty cool and we stay at a mix of really nice, to pretty nice hotels. A couple outlier crappy hotels that hopefully they are working on, but that's rare.
No regerts here. I'm sure there are regionals with better work rules on some things, but Skywest is pretty dang stable and easy to just show up and go with the flow and get the job done and go home.
#712
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2018
Posts: 427
I definitely agree with you. This may have just been a fluke, but when I went through training most of the SIMs were vacant throughout the day. I found that quite odd, but maybe it’s becoming an instructor availability problem just as much as it is a SIM problem.
#713
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2017
Posts: 114
I'll just provide a few inputs I guess. Morale is pretty good. Its worse on the captain side because they have to fly more, cant drop trips etc. But the company is very stable, don't really have to worry about losing a bunch of flying and being shown the door like some other regionals.
If you're on the CRJ, reserve time will be minimal. DFW and ATL have the longest reserve times, but still no more than 5 months after IOE. Any other junior base will be reserve maybe a month or two. You can fly a lot and upgrade relatively quickly if you want, around 18 months from DOH. If you don't want to upgrade, it takes about a year to get trips that are really good. But the trips before then still aren't terrible. After that you get to start picking the best trips because of many upgrades so your seniority moves quick.
Cant speak for the ERJ side.
I would say overall, if you live in base, or close with a 1 hour commute to a juniorish base, Skywest is pretty good. You can fly a lot, upgrade quick, then fly a lot and move on. Lots of Skywest pilots moving on right now. Almost all of the crews are pretty cool and we stay at a mix of really nice, to pretty nice hotels. A couple outlier crappy hotels that hopefully they are working on, but that's rare.
No regerts here. I'm sure there are regionals with better work rules on some things, but Skywest is pretty dang stable and easy to just show up and go with the flow and get the job done and go home.
If you're on the CRJ, reserve time will be minimal. DFW and ATL have the longest reserve times, but still no more than 5 months after IOE. Any other junior base will be reserve maybe a month or two. You can fly a lot and upgrade relatively quickly if you want, around 18 months from DOH. If you don't want to upgrade, it takes about a year to get trips that are really good. But the trips before then still aren't terrible. After that you get to start picking the best trips because of many upgrades so your seniority moves quick.
Cant speak for the ERJ side.
I would say overall, if you live in base, or close with a 1 hour commute to a juniorish base, Skywest is pretty good. You can fly a lot, upgrade quick, then fly a lot and move on. Lots of Skywest pilots moving on right now. Almost all of the crews are pretty cool and we stay at a mix of really nice, to pretty nice hotels. A couple outlier crappy hotels that hopefully they are working on, but that's rare.
No regerts here. I'm sure there are regionals with better work rules on some things, but Skywest is pretty dang stable and easy to just show up and go with the flow and get the job done and go home.
#715
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2009
Position: Left Seat
Posts: 392
I don’t think so, but call your pilot recruiter for this type of issue.
#716
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2016
Posts: 180
Good evening ladies gentlemen,
I am shopping for a regional. 1550TT. 680 turbine, with 200 some odd of it being 135 PIC. Have some Q’s.
How far out are class dates? Are you still sharing hotel rooms during training? (From what I understand they’re 2 separate rooms, in a room, not like your standard double queen)??
How is the pilot group and morale at SkyWest?
How does management handle it if you miss a commute? How many times will they allow it before you get shown the door?
How long did it take to start being able to pick trips you wanted/actually liked?
i understand these are loaded questions that may yield some very different answers. Just trying to get a general idea.
I am shopping for a regional. 1550TT. 680 turbine, with 200 some odd of it being 135 PIC. Have some Q’s.
How far out are class dates? Are you still sharing hotel rooms during training? (From what I understand they’re 2 separate rooms, in a room, not like your standard double queen)??
How is the pilot group and morale at SkyWest?
How does management handle it if you miss a commute? How many times will they allow it before you get shown the door?
How long did it take to start being able to pick trips you wanted/actually liked?
i understand these are loaded questions that may yield some very different answers. Just trying to get a general idea.
Morale depends a lot on who you ask. I love it here, but I came from the military. Some guys have some pretty unreasonable expectations and are unhappy. Yes, sometimes I actually have to work for my pay, but I feel like we’re treated very fairly. A lot of complaining on websites, not really much in the plane, and often/usually crews go out together on overnights.
As far as the commuting thing goes, again, just try to behave like a good employee. If you miss 3 commutes in a month, your plan for getting to work isn’t working and needs to change. Stay in touch with your chief and have a plan to get to work on time in the future, just like any other job. There isn’t a set number. You get a ton of latitude if you’re professional and stay in close contact with your chief. If you miss 20+ days of work in a year with no excuse and refuse you talk to your boss about it? Well...any company is going to show you the door.
As far as getting good schedules that’s so hard to predict because what’s good for you will be complete garbage to the next guy. For me, I spent 6 weeks commuting to reserve which was pretty terrible financially, then I got awarded my hometown base and have been happy ever since. Even reserve wasn’t bad at all and I continued to bid reserve for awhile after I could have held a line. Do you live near a junior base? Are you willing to work weekends to get cool overnights? Do you prefer nice, easy days of work but more of the or more off days, but long, painful days when you do work? Do you need long breaks at home or can you take 1 day off between work blocks in exchange for trips that you prefer? Do you mind getting up really early in the morning or staying up late at night working in exchange for a couple extra days off? Do you need to be home most nights or do you prefer to go out in different towns and cities with your crews a few times a month? Whether you like your schedule depends on what’s important to you and what’s important to the people senior to you in your base. Me? I like getting a nice steady sleep schedule every night and I’ve been able to have that since a few months on the line by giving up a few things that aren’t quite as important to me.
I’ve found OO to be a good company that I enjoy working for. But, not everyone has. Your mileage may vary, as always.
#720
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2016
Posts: 1,111
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