Originally Posted by
FlameNSky
I don't see many 11 day off hard lines. 12 or 13 are more common. 14 is probably average. Like any seniority based system, as you seniority improves, so do the quality of the line you can hold. I would plan on being on reserve between 6 to 12 months.
20/120 CRJ lines are 11 days off. If you take the lack of commutability into consideration, your true days off drops. I picked a random line of the 11 day off lines, and three of the four day trips are early starts, requiring a commuter to fly in the night before. Take away .5 of a day off for each trip and you're looking at 9.5 True Days Off per month. A random 13 day off line, three trips finishing late, bringing that one down to 11.5 TDO. Now a random 15 day off line. Five trips either start too early or finish too late! You're swapping your body clock all month! Subtract 2.5 and that is 12.5 TDO. The lack of commutability is killing these schedules, and it doesn't seem to correlate with seniority much, either. That 15 day off line is a three day trip line, one typically bid by the most senior pilots.
One more addition - the CRJ lines are typically better than the EMJ lines.