Originally Posted by
lolwut
.. 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.
I don't have a brother and my wife would be ****ed if I had a girlfriend, but yea -- what you describe is pretty much how it goes. My wife no longer makes any effort to keep track of where I am, and some of my neighbors think that therefore I must work for the CIA.
I have an answer if someone asks where I have been, and that is what my non-aviation friends have learned to do. But the future? Where I am going next week? I don't pretend to have a clue and those close to me don't bother to ask. Where I have been, when I go out next and when I am supposed to get home are the only points discussed.
Your comment about seeing ANC is a good example. I have not been there for probably 6 months. On the other hand there have been periods where I felt like it was a second home. In the last few months I have seen a lot of South America for some reason, and yet none of my schedules showed South America at the start of the month and previous to this set of trips I had not been there much at all.
My next trip is for 2 days (this is rare). I packed for 6.
With regard to DH, there have been years when I have had status in all the airline alliances -- yet 2013 will find me with just Gold on American (and that by the skin of my teeth). At one time I had 5 star gold with Hertz rent a car, but I have not been to a Hertz counter in over a year.
I have spent too much time on this, but it is important for people thinking about Atlas, or ACMI in general, to understand that THERE IS NO TYPICAL SCHEDULE. There is no connection between past schedules, current schedules and future schedules.