Originally Posted by sqwkvfr

-Second, the show times are as early as 0445. That means you have to try to get to bed at 7AM to get a proper amount of sleep for a 3AM alarm. That cuts into your day off, and try, just try to fall asleep knowing that you have to wake up as early as 3AM. Then, get up, after not sleeping, work your day and sit in some fleabag hotel for 20+ hours. Generally you pass out as soon as you get in, and wake up later in the night...wide awake. Eventually you report the next day for a late morning or early afternoon report...having not slept worth a damn during the night. You then work the next day until late at night...oftentimes until after midnight to get back to base. VERY few trips at these outstations end in the afternoon, aside from day trips.

You roll into the house as late as 1AM, go to bed and spend the next day sleeping until noon as your body tries to recover from this ludicrous work schedule. Not only do you not get back early enough to day anything after your trip, as with many airlines, but you also lose half of the following day just recovering. I tell everyone that an rjet 4-day trip really lasts 5.5 days.

A few months back, CMH had almost exclusively this type of two-day trip and day trips that credited as low as 2:33. Nice stuff, huh? Lately, it's gotten such that many of these early report/late arrivals are spread out over 3 or 4 day trips, but that doesn't help commutability as the nature of these trips precludes butting them against each other to make a productive 5 or 6 day period to allow reasonably commutable blocks of days off....and you're gonna want at least 4 day blocks if you commute, because you'll be commuting on two of your days off. I hear friends from other bases talking about how CMH crews are "no fun." Possibly, but I think it's because so many of them are just flat worn out. I developed a sleeping disorder was the result of a previous job and I've done a lot of research on this subject, and it's my belief that a very large percentage of crew members in CMH suffer from sleep disorders. Ambien is passed around by FAs like aspirin, and I've spoken to several people who have sought medical help or are considering doing so for their sleeping problems. No, outstation basing (rjet style) is not nice....even if you live in base.

Originally Posted by sqwkvfr

-A pilot gets hired...forced to move to an outstation bases because the trips are uncommutable and it's a two-leg commute from most places in the country. Pilot meets girl, get's married, has kids, upgrades, buys house and is suddenly making good money and living in base. He isn't going anywhere...even if a top-tier mainline carrier calls, he's not gonna commute to reserve and take a pay cut for a few years. This limits upgrade opportunities and ultimately results in a senior (read: expensive) pilot group, and we've all seen what happens to contract carriers with senior pilots groups.