Originally Posted by
Cal446
Love the idea of being home every night but is it in exchange for some grueling days where you don’t even get to see the family because you get home so late or leave so early in the morning?
What’s a typical day like? Is it generally starting/ending around the same time? Varies? Can you bid for early or later flights? How long is a typical day as far as from show time to release time?
You'll either do AMs or PM's, 2 legs or 4. Some bases do many more 4 leg days than others. Show times for AM's will be between 5:00am and 8am or so, show times for PM's or most doubles will be anywhere scattered throughout the day with PM singles being somewhere between noon and 5 pm shows. Again most of this varies base by base but those are loose averages.
If you choose a base that largely does single turns (think bases that are somewhat more extreme geographically than others) then it's not uncommon at all to spend 2 meals a day with your family. Morning guys will miss breakfast but be home for lunch and dinner, PM guys will eat breakfast and lunch then go to work... it's not bad.
As for reserve, you're either a morning (3:30 to 15:30 or 4:00/4:30 to 16:00/16:30 - varies by base) or you're a PM reserve (9 to 9, 10 to 10, etc by base)