How does scheduling work?

[SJM]

Airline Pilots...

As I understand it, pilots are limited to flying say, 100hrs per month, or 1000 per year. Then there are either less work days per month than a standard M-F job, or there are more hours spent at work doing something other than flying, right?

1. How many days a month, or better yet a year do you work?
2. When at work but not flying, what elso do you do, and do you get paid?

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

If you max out your 1000 hours before the end of the year, you don't have to do anything and you get your guarantee per month.

 

[mtsu_av8er]

2. When at work but not flying, what elso do you do, and do you get paid?

You do all of the things required to prepare the aircraft for flight (you work). No, you do not get paid.

 

[ORDinary]

1. How many days a month, or better yet a year do you work?
2. When at work but not flying, what elso do you do, and do you get paid?

1. Depends on the airline, each one has a different contract. Go to www.airlinepilotcentral.com (click on 'Airline Profiles') to see specific minimum days off/month for each airline. At Eagle line holders get a min. of 12 days off, though a lot of the lines have 13 or 14, and a few more than that. All reserves at Eagle get 11 days off.
2. When at work but not flying, I am usually preflighting or prepping a flight, or waiting for a delayed aircraft, buying coffee, reading a book or newspaper, or sitting in a hotel room. Every hour from the minute I sign in at the airport (45 minutes prior to first flight), to the minute I get off duty (15 minutes after the parking brake is set on my last flight of the trip), I get paid $1.65/hr of per diem (for food and other expenses) on top of my flight hour pay. Every airline is different, but this is what Eagle gets. Again, see the website above if you want to see each airline's per diem. Per diem is not part of your salary, because you do need it to buy airport or hotel food, but I admit, as a regional pilot, I bring cheap food with me on my trips and look forward to the pay bump per diem gives. My usual TAFB (time away from base) for a month is around 280-330 hours, which adds up (300*1.65= $495 extra/month, though some of that is spent on food and coffee). Hope this helps.

 

[Bluto]

Good question, but hard to answer. Average days off vary dramatically by company and seniority within that company. At my company, most people probably average around 14 days off per month. On the low side we have people with 10-11 days off, and on the high side people with 18-19 days off.

We are paid based on "Block" time. This is essentially the time from when the parking brake is released to when it is reset at your destination. While you are preflighting, getting clearances, checking weather, talking to passengers, or sitting around the airport for 3 hours at a time you are not getting paid. This is why our hourly rates sound pretty spectacular to someone in a non-aviation job. "Wow, you make $60/hour?!" In a regular job, that would be around $120,000/year. In the aviation world, it's around $60,000. Keep in mind, you probably won't ever hit that pay scale until you are a captain at a regional airline.

Keep in mind that while 14 days off sounds like a lot ("The average joe only gets 10 days off a month in a 9-5 job, right?") it is very different in the airline lifestyle. While your counterpart in the corporate world goes home to his/her family at 5:00pm, you will generally spend your 3-4 day work week gone the entire time. When you get home, you will probably spend a good portion of at least one of your days off running around doing all the errands most people do before or after work; laundry, paying bills, mowing the lawn, talking to your spouse and children, etc.

For me to have the same quality of life I've had with non-aviation jobs, I need a minimum of about 15 days off in my airline job.

p.s. Mojo's information regarding "timing out" at the end of the year is correct at most airlines, but not all. SkyWest, for example, will not pay you guarantee for the remainder of the year if you time out early. Time off with no pay in return for working your heinie off. Merry Christmas!!

 

[pilot602]

Here's the simple answer.

I work roughly 300 hours a month. I get paid for 90 of these hours.

In other words I'm scheduled to be away from my base for 300 hours every month (give or take 20-30 hours every month). While I'm away from base I am on the company's time. I must behave in a manner that keeps my fit to fly their schedule. Therefore whether I'm in the cockpit or in the hotel I'm still restricted by and on the company's clock. It's their time not mine. Hence, I'm at work both in and out of the cockpit.

Of the 300+/- hours I'm at work I I get paid my regular rate of $35/hour for about 90 of those 300 hours. I do recieve a "per-diem" of about a dollar-and-a-hallf for every one one of the 300 hours in addition to my regular pay, but this money is supposed to be used to cover things like food and travel expenses.

It's usually not considered part of the "salary."

However, airport and hotel food is not cheap and this per-diem does not go exceedingly far. Which is why most people bring some food from home on trips and try to eat as cheaply (and unhealthy, usually,) as possible.

From a days-off-per-month perspective I average 14 days off a month so these 300 hours of work are squeezed into the remaining 16 to 17 days.

On my 14 days off I must do everything that a "normal" person gets to do on their way to and from work (cleaning, grocery shopping, errands, kids, etc.) because when I'm at work I am completely removed from my day-to-day life.


I'm not complaining just explaining.