Yeah... I've gotta back this up to contrast with some of the last few posts. Maybe its because I'm a new-ish street captain here and I remember how I would have killed for a job like this when I had 600 hours... It's a different industry now than when I instructed six days a week for three years but I'm not sure what you could have expected. You don't go from 600 to 1500 hours in a year by sitting on your couch.

Even so, looking at the DEN FO schedule it's pretty close to 4on/3off for most of the guys for most of this month. There's two guys with 5/1 for half their schedule. One of those days is a two hour shift as half of an overnight with 12 hours off duty before the next shift. There's also one guy out half the month, two upgrading to PIC, and one in training for the King Air.

My schedule isn't 4/3 yet either, and I'd say its about 1/3 CDOs rather than just one every fourth day as advertised, but it has improved progressively since the end September. It's been pretty fun though as far as an aviation job goes. And one of the DEN CDO's is being turned into a respectable duty off overnight.

I've peeked at the other bases schedules...The DFW and ATL bases are pretty consistent 4/3. PHX and MSP are cush if you're not looking to build hours.

DEN just had two new routes start up, three if you count MCK before the recent hiring rush. When it takes 3 weeks to get 12 guys through initial and spread across all the bases, the schedule isn't going magically perfect for everyone in just one month.

Maybe I'm wearing rosy shades still, but I'm not seeing any downward morale spiral. I have met one or two whinier SICs, and one captain who kinda got shafted long term due to a communication fail with management. From my short experience here almost everyone is good people and is trying hard to build this place up right.