Originally Posted by
WhisperJet
Yeah and the 2230 departures to the West Coast are great on the NB, when you don't even have the benefit of the sun on arrival to help you "wake up" after 6 hours. Oh and then 12 hours in the hotel before a 2 or 3 leg day.
Or how bout 2 legs early am to the West Coast, day sleep then a 1130 pm red eye back to the east coast to finish early. Aint 117 grand!
Yeah. In all honesty if 30 years ago I understood what it meant to be a pilot in terms of years spent working night hours and holidays I would have picked a different career. I'm glad I made it to where I am and today I wouldn't trade my job for any other, but those intervening years were a hard price to pay. If it hadn't been for my wife being employed and being able to drop trips for many years I don't think I would have survived. Everybody who is junior and doing red-eyes and holidays has my utmost of sympathy. Being junior stinks!
I will say - I lived on the west coast for a while and was SFO based doing JFK red-eyes where the all night flight was the flight out followed by a late return the next day. If I had to chose then that would most definitely be my preferred red-eye. I know it's not fair to the west coast guys, but I wish they would push all that stuff to LAX and SFO.