Upgrade time at Regionals

What seems to be the average upgrade time to Captain at Regionals? I've heard some upgrade in 2-3 years?

Short version.... it doesn't matter. It won't be the same when you get there.

Long version. It varies from carrier to carrier. Some of the small turboprop only regionals (Colgan, Great Lakes) are right around 1 year. ExpressJet currently sits at 2 years, but that time is going to start going up. CHQ/Rebuplic are around 2 years as is some parts of Mesa, while ASA, PSA, TSA (see a trend here) are anywhere from 3 to 5 years. And then there is Eagle who last I heard was at 8 years and coming down slowly. And keep in mind, even if you got on with any one of these regionals today, your upgrade time would have nothing to do with these numbers. It chages week to week. The only person an upgrade time is accurate for is the one about to go into upgrade training. Doesn't the short version sound better?

I thought Denny, the one who flies for pinnacle said that it was 1000 in type to upgrade.:rawk:

Most places have some sort of time requirment in order to be able to upgrade. However, just because you can, doesn't mean you could hold a captains spot based on senority. If there are only 500 captain spots in the company and you are number 750, even if you have the 1000 in type you still couldn't upgrade until you were number 500.

Kind of off topic, but do have to serve as a FO on a type of aircraft before you can be a captain. Not trying to hijack this thread. Hypothetical: You are a captain on a dc-9 with high senority, and a captains spot on a 737 opens. Can you bid for it?

If your seniority allows it and you are not seat locked for some reason... yes. It's almost never based on what aircraft you've FO'd on before.

As many have mentioned upgrade time change very quickly. Generally when someplace is say "upgrading in 1.5 yrs" that is only in the present. The best you can hope for is to target a company that seems to have growth potential. Obviously no one has a crystal ball so even judging a company's growth potential is a shot in the dark. I think most important of all is to make your choice based on where you will be happy. For me that was determined by the people I'd be working with, the pay, the type of aircraft, the training environment, THE PAY SCALE, and perhaps most importantly how the company seemed to view and treat it's employees. Yeah you can go to the place that is upgrading RJ FO's in 18 months when you're hired but these things don't last forever. Will you like where you will be sitting when all of a sudden the music stops and upgrades slow? You better, otherwise this job won't seem so great!

Be careful of the attittude that many instructors take that says "I'll go wherever will take me because it's got to be better than where I am now." Chances are you looked at flight instructing as a temporary place where you'd be for a short amount of time and maybe you were willing to put up with a little BS. Regionals are no longer as temporary as many thought, not necessarily permanent, but you'll be there for a while no matter what and you better like where you are.

Cpt bob check you pm