Aviation schedules

BCTAv8r

Well-Known Member
Could anyone list some examples of aviation schedules in the different sections and levels of aviation? I'm not interested in specific dates, routes, etc, but more of an idea of how many days per month and how many days at a time you can expect to be away from home.
 
Could anyone list some examples of aviation schedules in the different sections and levels of aviation?

Okay, I'll bite.

Glider towing, 11 AM - 5 PM (or whenever the sun goes down). 20 takeoff/landings, 4.5 or so on the tach, and about 50,000' of climbs and descents. Could be every day, or once or twice a month, depending on where you are doing it. Home every night ;)
 
Busy international flight school: Show at 0630. Fly 0700-0830, 0900-1030, 1100-1230, 1300-1430. Leave 1500 or 1530... if nothing breaks, no one shows up late and nature waits to call until you get home.
 
You can head over to the JC homepage. Doug has a regional, major, and corporate pilot schedule write up.
 
General aviation.

A&P mechanic.

Show up at work around 745. If my boss is there, I clock in and get to work. If he's not, then I sit around and surf JC until 8 AM or he shows up, whichever comes first. Then I clock in and go to work. Take an hour for lunch, punch out sometime shortly after 5. Repeat 5 days a week.
 
Line Service Tech "team leader" (whatever that means)

Work Sat, Sun, Mon, Wed.

0430-1430, 4 days a week.
 
haha what the hell is a schedule?? :D :D

I'm gonna have a good time with this one....

Aerial Survey

November 2nd-May 31st is my schedule along with the other pilots at this company.

And just in case the OP gets confused with my anwser, that means that we're all on the road between those dates. Aprox 200 days straight days away from home. We fly whenever the weather allows us to.
 
In my experience

Military Flying Crew Chief~

Home- typical 8-12 hour schedules

On the road~ Varies

CFI~ 8 hour flight time limit for 24 hours. Other than that, your schedule is tailored to make sure someone is at the school during normal business hours for perspective students AND to meet the needs of your students. There aren't any duty day limitations so you could have a student that can only fly early morning and have a student that can only fly early evenings. Summers typically have later flying in WI because the sun goes down so late and pilots still need to meet night requirements.

Skydiver Driver~

Your job is someone's playtime. I've been asked to show up at the break of dawn and not leave until the sun goes down. Yet some crazies want to dive at night, too! I even had a few New Year's Eve jumps.

Part 91 Corporate~

Showtime of 6am for a 7am departure MKE-SUS. Arrive SUS at about 8:15am. Return leg tentatively 4:30pm. Pax run a little late, depart SUS for MKE at 5:20pm, arrive MKE at about 6:30pm. Some days ran even longer than that. Typically flew 2-5 days a week. Flight department had 4-5 pilots and 2 aircraft, total hours per year for the department was about 1400. One of my colleagues flew a lot less...about 400 hours a year for his department and they had one plane and 4 pilots. That is much easier on the family!

Part 135 Freight

My schedule was a cake walk. 4am show for a 5am departure. LCK-BKL was about .7 to .8 in a Baron. Dropped off freight and back to LCK empty. Did that 4 days a week. My roommates had more realistic schedules. On average 8pm show for a 9pm departure. 5-7 legs for the night about 9-11 hours of duty and 4-7 hours of flying, 4-5 days a week.

Part 121 Regional

Beech schedule could be 4-5 days of reserve (very sporadic flying) or 1-4 day trips. I've done one out and back all the way up to 20 hour, 4 day trips. It seemed like a typical 4 day Beech trip at Skyway for me was an afternoon show on day 1 with 2-4 legs of flying. Sometimes had only 1 or 2 legs to an overnight, sometimes more. Days 2 and 3 were early mornings and day 4 was a little later morning show with an early afternoon finish.

ERJ reserve schedules at Chautauqua were horrid. 5-6 days of reserve were not uncommon.

That's been my experience so far.
 
Flight instructing enough to pay the bills, 24/7. I don't work every minute of every day, but I do work long hours some days, sometimes I start at 8am and get home at 10pm, and only live 1/2 hour from the airport.

Just because the regs say you can only give 8 hours of instruction a day, doesn't mean you can only work for 8 hours. Ground instruction is money too.
 
Part 135 commuter:

5 on/5 off hard line, duty days from 0515-1130 three of those days, and 0515-1415 on the other two. Home each night. Block 2.5-3.5 hours each day, which works out to about 40 hours a month.*








* results not typical ;)
 
Part 91


Nov' 09

1st-6th, Daytona, Fl

17th-21st, Daytona, Fl

22nd-23rd, Boston, Ma

30th, Long Island, Ny



Dec' 09

4th, Boston, Ma

7th-8th, Chicago, Il

11th, Westminster, Md

14th, Ft Wayne, In

15th, Westminster, Md

18th, Westminster, Md

21st, Westminster, Md

24th, Madison, In

27th, Madison, In


Jan '10

3rd-9th, Daytona Beach, Fl

12th, Westminster, Md

15th, Westminster, Md

20th, New Haven, Ct


There are some things that need to be done around the hangar and I go to the office once a month to turn in receipts, but those task can be done whenever I feel like it.


Alex.
 
Part 135 commuter:

5 on/5 off hard line, duty days from 0515-1130 three of those days, and 0515-1415 on the other two. Home each night. Block 2.5-3.5 hours each day, which works out to about 40 hours a month.*








* results not typical ;)
...I envy you.
 
CFI at small flight school.

I have a 45 minute drive to the airport. I work on average 2 hours a day. Although some days I will be at the airport for 10 hours and get paid for 6.

I am available 7 days a week.

I had to explain to my girlfriend I could not take a five day vacation with her to upstate NY because an Indian student might be coming. I cut my vacation with her short, and the Indian student no-showed.

But I make literally thousands of dollars a year.

Usually home every night, with limited exceptions.
 
Jeesh Doug, that 8 day block at the end of your month was my TOTAL days off in September.

It darn well better not be a train!
 
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