av8tr1
"Never tell me the odds!"
You don't know much about my job do you.
We don't fly much. My show time in the morning is between 5 and 6am. Which means I get up between 3 and 4 "AM". I have to have the plane ready to fly 70 minutes before the scheduled departure. Contrary to belief FedEx is rarely on time. Not their fault (Weather, ATC delay, Maintenance) but I spend a LOT of time waiting around in the morning for my plane to be loaded. Lots and LOTS of waiting around which gives me plenty of posting time on JC. We've waited as much as 5 hours in the morning (peak xmas) for the plane to be loaded. So either you sit on the ramp or at some places the van or if we have an office and wait around BSing with the other pilots for your flight to be called.
I am required to supervise the load for obvious reasons. Which means I have to sit at the airplane while they load. Usually in the PWN that means either in the rain, snow or in below freezing temps. I had a couple of mornings last month below zero while I waited out on the ramp for over an hour as the rampers loaded the airplane.
This can take some mornings from show time to departure 4 to 5 hours. Once I get to the outstation where I drop off the cargo I get to sit "most times" usually in a hotel. A lot of routes have two or more stops so you get a couple of hours in between flights. Nearly all our routes are to small towns in BFE. Hell I leave a city that is considered BFE and head to a place even further BFE. So you can imagine there ain't much to do in these smaller towns.
Then I show back up at 3-4 in the afternoon for departure and again wait around for the rampers to load the airplane. I get back between 5:30 and 6:30 "PM".
So I have usually a over 12 hour day, where I am working or "on call" call the entire time. My time isn't mine to do with as I please. It's a full 12+ hour day away from home. Our schedule is 6 days a week although on average we only fly 5 days a week. That leaves me with a 30-45 minute drive home (NLT 7:30PM) with about an hour or two max to screw around before I need to be in bed to get a minimum of 6 hours sleep and start the whole exercise again the next day.
It's an easy job but it isn't a vacation. I am on the clock that entire time. But my actual flight time is usually only 2-3 hours a day. Most of that time is sitting around the airplane (meaning actually AT the airplane) waiting on cargo.
5-6 days a week. So getting a 4 day off is a HUGE DEAL! Yeah it sounds like a utterly miserable job. But I am SPIFR. I'm am lord commander in my aircraft. No annoying pax to deal with. No Captain or FO trying to kill me or holding his/her hands over the flap lever. I wear cargo pants and combat boots to work most days. And can play video games on my laptop in between flights (hell I watched an entire movie 2 months ago waiting on the load). I make 2x as much as the average regional pilot and my time (for the most part) counts the same when I go apply to Southwest to be a "real" commercial pilot
(although admittedly with only 2-3 hours a day that poor broke regional pilot is going to get to Southwest minimums before I do) 
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