I certainly can't speak much for the pax airline world, except for the fact my dad was employed by Delta for 27 years and retired a couple of years ago on the 777. I'd say he probably worked three or four 3-4 day trips per month.
As for me, I fly Part 121 Supplemental cargo 17 days on the road per month, in addition to my military flying which usually works out to be 5-7 more days per month. Family life? No, I don't think I could be on the road as much as I am and raise a family at the same time. Some people manage it, but I don't know how. If all I did was the civilian job, that'd leave 13-14 days off per month and then it'd probably be a different story.
The lifestyle is definitely unique; there are up-sides and down-sides, depending on what you're more suited to. I go all over the world (with both jobs), so it's never the same boring stateside layover. Everyone I've flown with have been super cool--I'm told there are a few jerks here but I haven't run into them yet. The cockpit environment is chill and laid back. And they are, well, Freight Dawgs. There are no crabby FAs and pax to put up with--"boxes don't b!*ch"--unfortunately no cute ones either. You will get a couple of weeks off every month (can be a continuous string of days off, but doesn't necessarily have to be). Then again, it's possible to be at work for 34 days in a row (2nd half of the month followed by 1st half of the month). It's a cut throat business, just like all of aviation. By about day 13 or 14, it seems like I've been gone forever and just want to go home. We fly older equipment with it's associated maintenance and noise issues. We do have a union, and everybody complains about everything (probably the same way at the pax carriers). It's ad-hoc supplemental freight, so frequent schedule changes are the rule rather than the exception. So for the adventurous, that's a good thing. For those who want to count on flying whatever line they've been awarded, it's a bad thing. Oh yea, and there's no "dispatcher" to share the responsibility for the flight with the captain, it's all on us. You WILL fly on the back side of your body clock, and the duty time limits aren't what they are for FAA domestic rules. Fatigue is a big issue, and it's not uncommon to go from one side of the world completely to the other in a single duty day. Upgrade time--it varies widely and changes frequently. Airlinepilotcentral.com is a good source of information on current upgrade trends. I wish I could answer your question on attrition and minimum qualifications--the answers vary widely in the industry. Some will hire at around 1500TT, especially those with military/heavy jet/international experience. Others insist on 4000+ TT, depending on the supply and demand of pilots at the time. Attrition is high at my company, and it's even higher at other companies, but very low at others.
Well, hope that helps. Good luck!
, but how do they stack up in terms of time away from home/ family, salaries, and personal/ family benefits (do the immediate family members of freight pilots have any flight allowances?). In addition:
