Originally Posted by
742Dash
With all due respect, you do not appear to understand. An Atlas pilot's schedule from last month has -0- value in predicting their schedule next month.
Some trips at Atlas are short. Most are long. There are no fixed routes (well, very few and senior). Some layovers are short. Some layovers are long. Layovers occur on any of 5 continents. The odds of you being on the continent that you “expected” are not high. The only thing that is known is when you leave and, more or less, when you will get home. Trying to see more than that is just throwing entrails onto the ground and trying to read them.
I completely understand. You don't seem to understand where I'm coming from though. There must just be a disconnect here.
What I'm trying to say is... if you asked me about what my schedule was like and I said "well it could be anything and it won't be what was originally scheduled." Though accurate, that doesn't tell me anything what so ever as to the actual day to day of the job. When asked where you go for the month, do you tell your brother "Anywhere on the 5 continents" and leave it at that? Do you tell your girlfriend "You know when I left and when I got back, why would you want to know anything in the middle"? Do you tell your neighbor "You wouldn't understand, I'm an ACMI pilot"? No. They already know all those things. You probably give them examples. Last month I went to these places. The month before I had an interesting long overnight in Germany. The month before I rode around as a passenger on airline flights for half the month. And they don't walk away thinking that "742Dash's route is to xyz every thursday"... but they do walk away with a better understanding of what you do for a living. A lot better understanding than "He goes everywhere for 17 days and says I don't understand his life".
In the schedules posted as an example by our very generous forum friend, I am not sitting here saying... ok so I'm going to have 3 HHN overnights a month, I'll be off two weekends, etc. Of course not, but you seem to think thats what I'm trying to get out of this.
What I am seeing, and what I am getting out of it... is there is generally one long chunk of days off a month. It is anywhere in the month. There are typically one to two flights a day. I see a good chunk of deadheads on varied airlines. I see that you can go all around the world in a month. I see overnights in some cities that I would love, some cities I wouldn't care for, and some cities that I've never heard of. It looks like I'd be pretty familiar with ANC. I also don't see 5 flights a day every day. I don't see out and backs between the same podunk cities in the midwest. I don't see a long HNL layover on every month. I see that you guys sometimes limo between cities after rest then go back into rest.
None of this has any bearing on a future schedule. I get that. Thats what you're trying to say. I've read it a hundred times, and trust me, I get it. I don't expect to ever have one of these monthly lines. But you saying that one schedule has no bearing at all on the next is wrong. You can look at the 6 examples and see that they're all pretty similar. They don't go to the same places on the same days, but by looking at them, you can get an idea of what a month looks like. You can see what you guys actually do for a month, and it sure is a lot more descriptive than "17-20 days and you won't know whats coming and don't ask to know more."
You guys live an unpredictable and different life, but when people ask questions about that, the answer is too frequently "we live an unpredictable and different life, and there is no more that can be said about it, and you're clueless if you think otherwise."
I can't believe I just wrote this much defending why I asked a question on an internet message board.