The Bow Wave just kept building, and going into your next month's time, you never got paid more than 75, unless you flew a GS. Remember, we were bidding off of company produced line of time bid sheets. There were many lines that were only worth 67-73 hours. If you picked up a lot of time, you could have a huge bow wave going into say June, and personal drop all your trips, cover the pay with your bow wave.

Most 'good' lines (on the 727) were either three 4 day trips, or four 3 day trips, same trip, going out on the same day, all month. Either way, you were only flying 12 days a month and getting 75 hours.

BUT, you could still pick up from open time, up to 75+ the value of your shortest trip prior to the 20th or something like that. That's usually how you got some bow wave going, which you used to push time into your next 68hr. month, or you borrowed from the bank to fill up, or you just lived on 68hrs. and enjoyed your time off.

Thus the old joke about, "You mean I have to fly to Rome EVERY Tuesday??!"

And many guys would whine if the lines weren't "Pure". Pure was; same trip, same days, every week.

That's how you could tell who was senior. The guys you'd see signing in on Friday all month were the most junior of course, working every weekend, all month, and the guys who signed in on Tuesday for a 3 day were most senior. Flying 3 on, 4 off, on Tuesday, was what we all aspired to. And with one week of vacation, you were smart to bid a line where it would be placed between two 4 day trips, touching each, you could drop 8 days of flying, and get 3 weeks off for one week of vacation.