Originally Posted by
justindw199
Three questions:
1) How many hours can pilots expect to get in one year?
2) How commutable is the job? I saw on the website they have CASS agreements with Southwest, United, and American. Ideally would like to live in Nashville, and either commute to BWI, ATL, or DFW. BNA-ATL is only Delta, BNA-BWI is only Southwest, and BNA-DFW is only American. How would it be to commute any of those routes?
3) What does an average trip look like for PC-12 crews?
Thanks in advance!
1) Depends on the base, I flew about 600 hours in a year at the Portland base
2) BNA-ATL, you could just take company metal to work if you were based in Atlanta. The PDX base was pretty commutable if you lived in the western US, but there are no commuter hotels in the contract if you end up getting stuck in base or want to get in early. I can't really speak for the east coast bases.
3) A lot of trips start out with a PM shift in base with an overnight at an outstation. One or two days of flying both the AM and PM shifts, ending at an outstation again. Depending on if it's a 3 or a 4 day trip, this could happen again, and then the shift will end at the end of then AM shift in base. Rest periods will likely be the legal minimum, maybe an hour or two more depending on if you're ahead of or behind schedule. When I left Portland it was essentially a 4 day trip that you would see at a regional with half of the per diem. In Portland a for day trip looked like this:
Day 1: 6 hours scheduled duty, 3 hours of flight, leading into ten hours of rest
Day 2: 14 hours scheduled duty, 6 hours of flight, leading into ten hours or rest
Day 3: 14 hours scheduled duty, 6 hours of flight, leading into ten hours of rest
Day 4: 5 hours scheduled duty, 3 hours of flight, off
Not a bad schedule in all honestly, though not really stellar. We had about 3 and a half hours of downtime in the afternoon on days 2 and 3 of this type of schedule, so most local crews would head home for a bit. If you're a commuter or get sent there on reserve, feel free to enjoy the cheap recliners that crews had to beg to get.