Chris_Ford
Well-Known Member
I've flown 2.5 hours in the last month. 350 hours for the 13 months I've been here.
My record is 47 days without flying and it looks like I'll be beating it soon.
The future of pilot jobs
- Thread starter JoshH
- Start date
I've flown 2.5 hours in the last month. 350 hours for the 13 months I've been here.
My record is 47 days without flying and it looks like I'll be beating it soon.
Chris_Ford
Well-Known Member
It sucks. So I've stopped going.
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
:yeahthat: It'd be harder than hell to stay current, who do you work for chris?
Chris_Ford
Well-Known Member
If you were in the aim chat yesterday, you would know already. I work for both Pinnacle and Skywest. At the same time. On the EMB 120 and CRJ200
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
Sprint, to answer you question, no, in general we don't get "admin" stuff to do. Sure, you have to update your Jepps and manuals and study for PCs or recurrent from time to time, but for the most part when you leave the airport on the last day of your trip, you don't have to do anything until you come back for the first day of your next trip.
I think what Train meant about flying being a small part of the job is that on any given day, I may log 3 hours of "flight time" and have 12 hours of duty time between getting out of the hotel van in the morning and getting back in it at night. Of those 3 hours of "flight time" I may only be in the air for 2 hours, with the rest of the time sitting in line waiting to get to the runway or sitting waiting for a gate to open up. The other 9 hours of duty that aren't flight time are spent getting the plane ready, waiting for a plane, doing airport appreciation time or trying to find something good to eat despite knowing damn well there isn't anything in the airport.
And keep in mind too, my day doesn't just magically end 15 minutes after block in when I go "off duty". I've still got to hope I don't die while riding to the hotel. I have to hope the hotel actually has rooms. I have to hope my room is somewhat clean, and I have to hope that it will be quiet enough for me to be able to go to sleep. And then run the same thing in reverse in the morning to get back to start my day.
His point I think was that people talk about getting into this career because they love flying. Really the majority of my day isn't spent flying. And even when I am "flying" (don't say it Seggy) the autopilot is taking care of most stuff above 18,000 feet anyways.
I think what Train meant about flying being a small part of the job is that on any given day, I may log 3 hours of "flight time" and have 12 hours of duty time between getting out of the hotel van in the morning and getting back in it at night. Of those 3 hours of "flight time" I may only be in the air for 2 hours, with the rest of the time sitting in line waiting to get to the runway or sitting waiting for a gate to open up. The other 9 hours of duty that aren't flight time are spent getting the plane ready, waiting for a plane, doing airport appreciation time or trying to find something good to eat despite knowing damn well there isn't anything in the airport.
And keep in mind too, my day doesn't just magically end 15 minutes after block in when I go "off duty". I've still got to hope I don't die while riding to the hotel. I have to hope the hotel actually has rooms. I have to hope my room is somewhat clean, and I have to hope that it will be quiet enough for me to be able to go to sleep. And then run the same thing in reverse in the morning to get back to start my day.
His point I think was that people talk about getting into this career because they love flying. Really the majority of my day isn't spent flying. And even when I am "flying" (don't say it Seggy) the autopilot is taking care of most stuff above 18,000 feet anyways.
Bumblebee
Commodore
there are many opinions . . .here's mine
I love it. Believe in yourself and go down the path toward your goals. You will not end up where you thought you would (even if it's at the job you hoped for) but make the journey the goal, and everything else will
fall into place.
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
Sprint100
Well-Known Member
there are many opinions . . .here's mine
I love it. Believe in yourself and go down the path toward your goals. You will not end up where you thought you would (even if it's at the job you hoped for) but make the journey the goal, and everything else will
fall into place.
My first thought was "Build it and they will come":laff:
KLB
Well-Known Member
On the flip side of that though. I've flown sometimes up to seven hours in a day. It sucks major monkey scrotum to do that day in and day out. The flying at my place of employment usually starts early in the morning, sit in the crew apartment or hotel all day, and fly late evenings to early nights. If you're in a decent place laying over (I'm in SBP this week) it's not bad. If you're in a sucky place laying over (Alturus Ca, Vernon Tx, and the like) it makes for long boring days. I'd take the layover deal over flying all day though. It's not putting an incredible amount of time in the logbook either though. It's not like I have anywhere to go anyways.
gtpilot
Well-Known Member
In the Army I flew 700 hours in 5 years. Beat that.
By comparison, at Airnet I flew 700 hours in 7 months.
Talked to my brother (Jarhead) and he's just at 600 hours with 8 years in. Most of that was during his two deployments. Every other flight he does is a requal flight!
surreal1221
Well-Known Member
Perhaps we should begin doing this.
We could even try to talk Doug into posting these essays on the front page?
We have the Perspective articles, stating why / how / what motivated someone to get into the industry.
Perhaps now we should become a bit more public about why some of us are perhaps leaving the industry?
OldTownPilot
Well-Known Member
I'll probably make one in a few months. Hopefully it coincides with getting a cool engineering job playing with airplanes.
DE727UPS
Well-Known Member
(WHEN) you get furloughed, you start out at $20,000 a year again. Even if you were a 747 captain... it's back to square one"
Disagree. My Aloha buddy who was a Capt got on at Evergreen within a couple of months. Right seat in a 747. Not sure what he makes. He had an option to make 13K a month on a Japan contract. The seniority system does make you start at "square one", but your experience level can buy you well over 20K a year. Especially if one is willing to go overseas.
Disagree. My Aloha buddy who was a Capt got on at Evergreen within a couple of months. Right seat in a 747. Not sure what he makes. He had an option to make 13K a month on a Japan contract. The seniority system does make you start at "square one", but your experience level can buy you well over 20K a year. Especially if one is willing to go overseas.
Chris_Ford
Well-Known Member
Some of us have aspirations of families.
Not to mention that despite your ONE example, there are 3 former aloha captains in the latest compass class..... So you may LUCK out but for every one who lucks out, there may be 10 who don't
Not to mention that despite your ONE example, there are 3 former aloha captains in the latest compass class..... So you may LUCK out but for every one who lucks out, there may be 10 who don't
That being said is there any threshold of having to requal? I cannot imagine waiting that long between flights. Is it over-staffing, not enough flights, training backlog, etc....?
Chris_Ford
Well-Known Member
3 landings in 90 days. I have 1 in the last 40... if I get any more trips, I'm asking the captain to land so i get a free trip with continuous per diem to the sim
So does it come back to you pretty easy after being out of the cockpit for that long?
In between my far too frequent breaks of flying it's really not too bad (except for the landings) but then again I may only have one passenger and 180horses in front of me....
anic: