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03-03-2016 | 11:53 AM

#5

Adlerdriver

Gets Weekends Off

Joined: Jul 2007

Posts: 4,064

Likes: 37

From: 767 Captain

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawg

I received a CJO from my interview last week. I'm moving to within 30 min of BWI (which also means 1 HR to PHL and IAD). Based on the way I understand class seniority, a last 4 starting with 9 would be most senior; mine starts with 3. From what I hear, the last few aircraft left to choose from is either the A300 or the B757.

I looked at this months A300 and B757 bid pack. The A300 has lots of BWI turns, D/Hs, and overnights; the B757 has no BWI flying.

All things being equal, and everything subject to change, would you go for a possible faster time to hold a line on the B757 or go for trying to pickup trips where I could sleep in my bed at BWI on the A300?

Thanks for any input.

First, the guys holding BWI and IAD are at about 12-15 years of seniority. There are no lines of PHL. One guy hired a few years ago got a week of IAD layovers in March, but I doubt he gets that consistently. So, there would have to be some other reasons for you to bid the A300 than just an occasional week or sporadic open time score that gets you a layover or three close to home now and then. By the time (loooong time) you might be able to hold those cities consistently, you'll be able to bid off the 757. So, those two decisions don't really even relate to each other.

If you want the quickest QOL bump, 757 is definitely the way to go. If you need to plus up the paycheck, an extra convenient couple of days work here and there out of open time will put you at parity with A300 reserve pay.

A little reality about home layovers (I understand some can make it work - but I think if they were honest, it's not always as good as it sounds on paper). When I was night hub turning, I ended up on the occasional crew with a pilot who lived at the layover city. Some guys sat on those cities for years past when it might have made sense from a purely financial viewpoint, to bid off the aircraft. So, I get the draw of doing that in theory.

I always thought to myself - wow, you must have a seriously special bed to be willing to use up 1-2 hours of your 12-14 hour layover to drive both ways to sleep in it. Life is going on at most family households while you're away on a trip. From my experience, trying to tip-toe past everyone on your way to bed without getting pulled into whatever is going on doesn't always work.

Going east is tough as it is, because it's typical to catch the sunrise as you hit top of descent. Watching the sun come up driving home, smelling the coffee as you walk in, catching up on the family biz and then trying to go sleep for the day doesn't always work for some guys. There’s nothing worse than having something wake you up 3 hours after you lay down and realizing that’s going to be it until you try to nap in a recliner on the turn in about 14 hours.

If you can sleep from 0700-1400/1500 (or later) consistently while you're hub turning, this job can work pretty well. I did it like that and felt great for most weeks. I got so good at it, that I didn't try to nap on the turns. If I had, it would have screwed up my day sleep. I was able to do that by hitting the hotel room before sunrise, blacking it out, minimizing distractions, no TV, using earplugs, etc. When I tried going home (45 min drive), I never got anything close to the same restful sleep I did in the hotel. I paid dearly for it as the week progressed and my sleep deficit built.

Frankly speaking, no one in the family is going to want to interact with most guys anyway by day-3 if they're sacrificing rest to be home with them. So, what's the point?

Anyway - probably more info than you really wanted. I put the stuff you asked about at the beginning in case you're not reading by now.

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