Yet another question for the airline pilots.

captainphil said:
I was just curious as to how much time you guys get home with your family? It's a question that's been running through my mind.
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That's a great question to ask.

I am a very junior FO at my international operator.

I commute to Anchorage from Orlando (about as far as you can go), which I do 3 times in a 60 day period. So, I leave a day prior to my trip, so I'm rested to fly and I get home about 0600 the day I'm off.

I work 14-16 days a month, meaning like Staplegun and NJA_Cpt, I'm also home 14-16 days a month.

I get home, drop my bag off in the closet and don't worry about work until it's time to go again.

At my last job, I was extraordinarily senior.

I commuted from Orlando to IND, I left the same time I do now, but I did it at least every week.

I usually had 15 days a month off, but I was only at home 8 or so with the commuting on both ends.

The job never ended. There were times I was on airplanes for 7 days straight.

However, when I lived in base, it was a very good gig. There finally came a point where we decided we liked where we lived and didn't want to move back. Had we decided to move back to IND, I'd probably still be there and home 3-4 days a week.

I only miss that job twice a month. Hopefully that will change with the next CBA.
 
I'm sorta in the same boat as BodDDuck, except I'm 5 slots up the list at a different airline and don't commute. Not commuting makes a BIG difference. I get 9-10 days off a month (depends on if I get extended into my day off and decide not to fight it), and you can pretty much figure on me being gone the other 20-22 days. I'll either be on a trip or sitting at the airport for 9 hours. The good months for family time are the ones where I get a lot of high speeds/CDOs/stand ups since I'm home all day or if I get a few airport reserves where I don't get used. At least I'm home at night for those.

If I were commuting from Orlando (which I may be eventually), I'd realistically have about 5 whole days at home since I'd likely have to come in the day before and commute home the day after my reserve stints.
 
I was commuting from Salt Lake City to Newark, NJ. I didn't plan on doing that commute, as my company had five (of six) bases that were closer, but Newark was what I could hold.

I commuted to reserve, and generally tried to bid 4 days on, 3 days off with my days off midweek, as what's when my wife was off of work also. I had to leave the day before I started work on a 4:30 p.m. flight, and I'd get into Newark around midnight eastern time. Because the last flight back to Salt Lake departed at 5:00 p.m. eastern, I'd usually miss that flight and I'd have to commute back home on the morning of my first day off.

Whoever rigged up our contract also made a very serious miscalculation in regards to extensions. We could be extended up to the full six days that the FAA let us work. What this meant was if I had a block of 5 days on, 2 days off, and then another 5 on, I could be extended for blocks on, giving me a schedule of 6 on, 1 off, 6 on. That meant I was gone for 2 weeks at a time without any notice that it was going to happen. My wife wasn't very happy about it when that happened.

At the end, I was home on average 36 hours per week. If I had lived in base I would have been home a lot more, but it wouldn't have been an option with what my wife was doing for a living, so I did the commute.

Life sucks, then you get furloughed, then you go to law school.
 
767ER FO on reserve this month. Flew five days 42.5 hrs and have been off the rest of the month.

A line holder will normally get 12 to 18 days off and a reserve pilot is free from duty for 12-13 days. Most get a lot more time off in the winter. I have averaged about 440 hrs a year on reserve.
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
3 year DL 767 FO on reserve.....

I've done a 4 day trip, a 2 day trip, and a day trip this month... so, gone 4 nights total and that will be it for the month, as well. Like staplegun, I get the comment from my wife every once in a while "isn't it time for you to go to work?"

Gone entire months without flying... December I worked a bit more but it was mostly 2 day trips and day trips...

I'm actually a bit bored and "high yellowed" myself to be put toward the top of the fly list. Still no ringy dingy and my last day on call is tomorrow.
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That seems like the perfect job. When you are on reserve, even if you barely fly, do you get paid the monthly guarantee?
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Yep! 70 hours is guarantee...there are a lot of ways to make more, too.
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You know, based on the rates I found on APC, I don't think I'd mind being on reserve for my whole career. It seems like one would still be able to make some decent money. Maybe I just don't understand how reserve works.
 
If you live in base and you never get called, reserve is the bomb.

At the same time, reserve can be a kind of pain that's hard to understand when it goes poorly for you.
 
#2 in base downgraded to an FO with all the fuel crisis retrenching in 2008. So I have used the time to totally rebuild my house. It looks like upgrades won't happen till summer, so I have time to finish the next phase.

I fly a lot--but get to schedule massive days off in a row. So, I'm taking advantage of this while being totally annoyed at 30 year old Captains (some of whom were in the new hire class prior to mine) trying to instruct me how to fly when it's obvious that they have difficulties in certain weather conditions.....I'm on the cusp--next influx of pilots = upgrades and back to the left seat.
 
BCTAv8r said:
You know, based on the rates I found on APC, I don't think I'd mind being on reserve for my whole career. It seems like one would still be able to make some decent money. Maybe I just don't understand how reserve works.
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If you can live within your means it is great. I love bidding reserve. The thing is the same guy that is making 7000 a month sitting reserve could easily make 10,000 a month if he flew the same amount of days as he does when he constantly gets called out while on reserve. (summer of course)

I have bid max time, then picked up a four day from another pilot. Had 15 days off and had 100+ hrs of credit. Worked less days than I do on reserve, and get paid three grand more.

Point is there are a lot of reasons people do not bid reserve, money being one of the biggest.
 
BobDDuck said:
We do have different shifts, although there are no defined blocks. You can't bid on start times either so you have no way of knowing what you are going to get until 24 hours before you start. Scheduling has a habit of making people start at 5am (normally airport ready reserve) on their first day and then working them back to later times so by the last day you are working until midnight.

I used to trade reserve days around so I'd do 6-1-6- a bunch off, but the company changed their policy so you can no longer work 6 days in a row... unless they do schedule you for it. Fun fun.
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Being able to bid for specific reserve shifts was the only thing that kept me from throwing myself into the prop on Mesa reserve.
 
BCTAv8r said:
You know, based on the rates I found on APC, I don't think I'd mind being on reserve for my whole career. It seems like one would still be able to make some decent money. Maybe I just don't understand how reserve works.
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Some senior guys bid reserve, then put on the 'call me last' list and hardly fly. I believe this is DE7272UPS' strategy.

If you live in base, might work well for you. But commuting to reserve sucks more than anything ESPECIALLY when they don't call you. Some contracts have longcall built in, like Mesa now there has to be at least 15% of reserves be longcall (12 or 24hrs) so you could sit reserve from basically anywhere in the CONUS and not worry TOO much about missing a trip. But having to commute in the beginning of the week, sit in a crashpad (which sucks) just makes you want to stab yourself in the eye. Especially when they don't call you, because at least you could get a hotel to yourself and per diem and something to do if they make you fly.

The only thing that is worse is commuting to airport reserve.
 
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