Originally Posted by maxjet

You have misinterpreted my question. My question is not about reserve days or anything else. It is a simple question. How many days off a month do you think a commuter pilot should legitimately have and why? I am not looking for an adversary or trying to be a jerk. I am just asking a legitimate question. Yes, you chose this profession. You are highly trained and educated. I understand that you consider yourself to be of a higher strata than taxi/van drivers and flight attendants.

How about Interns who work 6 to 7 days a week for 65 to 75K a year then? Or Policemen and Firemen who work overtime every week and consequently average 6 days a week so that they can feed their families. Maybe social workers might get your attention. They work ungodly hours, and like Police Officers take their work home emotionally with them and get paid next to nothing for their advanced educations and experience. The list goes on and on, and don't even get me started about small business owners.

They all chose their professions too. The difference between them and some, (and I do not at all mean all or even the majority)of pilots is that they LOVE what they do, and like me, do not consider it work. I am on Job number 7 in 7 years, have never made 100K a year, have been on the bottom of the seniority list forever. Yet, I still love going to "work". I was that cop working 6 to 7 days a week for 22 years and trying to protect my family from the stress and **** soup that I worked in. Now I have a "job", that when someone asks me where I was, I have to pause for a minute and think about it. To have a "job" that when you are off duty, you are truly off duty, and free to live your life is priceless.

Since you mentioned the reserve day, I guess I will chime in on that too. A day that the company pays me to be available to fly a cool plane and still have time to spend with my family, may not be a "day off" but it is as close as you can get in my opinion. BTW, I am in Brussels right now and have a reserve day tomorrow. Since it will be raining, I will go to a museum and a nice restaurant with some crew mates. Of course I will try to remember that it is not really a day off :-)

So I ask again a simple question, How many days off and why?