By Rob Finfrock
It seems a profound understatement to say that the past four years have been exciting times for Yann Bosch, as his career trajectory has continued in a steep upward trajectory almost from the moment he received the inaugural Bob Hoover Presidential Scholarship in 2013.
Scholarship recipient Yann Bosch.
After building time flying Pilatus PC-12s with Tradewind Aviation, last year Yann was accepted into training at SkyWest Airlines. He completed initial operating experience (IOE) in early January, and is now flying reserve in anticipation of moving up to line pilot by the summer.
Flight Levels caught up with Yann in Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) shortly before he was due to head out on another trip. “As of Feb. 1, I’ll be based at Los Angeles International,” he said. “I’m really enjoying it a lot, but it will be nice to be somewhere warmer!
“This is definitely different than flying around the Caribbean [with Tradewinds],” Yann laughed. “I’ve had to adjust to doing my walk-arounds in minus 10 degree temperatures, and the other day I landed on my first-ever snow contaminated runway in Sault St. Marie, MI.”
Thanks to the high demand for pilots at regional airlines, combined with SkyWest’s rapid upgrade program, Yann hopes to rise to the level of Captain in two years. In the meantime, flying right seat on SkyWest’s CRJ-series jets (-200, -700, and -900 models) gives Yann valuable operational experience, and helps fill his logbook.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think I’ll build at 60-70 hours a month, all multi-engine turbine time,” he said. “We need pilots badly; the shortage is definitely real. Every available pilot now on reserve gets called almost every day.”
In his precious free time, Yann is also enjoying the travel benefits with flying for an airline that has partnerships with Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. He also hasn’t forgotten his original goal to ultimately become a corporate pilot.
“I still think about flying corporate, and I have friends who are doing it and they really enjoy it,” he concluded. “But I’ve learned that it’s important to be flexible, and to realize that, from the beginning, this is a very fluid industry and you must be open to all opportunities.”