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Old 08-09-2022, 08:43 PM
  #6  
241special
On Reserve
 
Joined APC: Apr 2021
Posts: 20
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Originally Posted by The Rooster View Post
I’d be VERY cautious. I was 121 and I’ve been in 135 for 4years. Black in white it’s a no brainer I’m a 3rd year captian and with some overtime Im $180~$200k range. Know my schedule a year in advance, no commuting, rental cars, crew meals, door dash stipend, keep hotel/ airline points. There’s perks…but it’s a young bucks game. What they don’t tell you is it’s day 9 of 15. Your in TEB in July pax are delayed by 1.5hrs. They finally arrive only to now find out you have an EDCT delay. Meanwhile ops is already asking you about tomorrows trips for your 12pm departure out of ASE-MIA with 8 people @ 1200 local MOS projected temps are 29c-33c (fuel stop) with max baggage weight for a VERY VERY important client. Finally your loaded up for the second time in TEB and a cabin PACK $hits out on you and there’s 2 infants in the back in the middle of summer. You can MEL it but now you need a fuel stop and now you don’t have the duty. So you call ops they put another crew on the trip you Uber to EWR for a short airline flight to pick up a new jet and another journey. Some guys will say “that dosent happen at XYZ we’re amazing” we’ll a 135 pilot is the mix of a glorified Uber driver and Amazon delivery truck. Constantly re-stocking airplanes, flight planning, weight and balance, arrange hotels, a lot of “please book this or cancel that” . I’ve done both sides. It’ll make you a damn good pilot and some people love this job and to each is on but that story is one of many. I’ve got my foot out the door of 135 and into121 where I can hang my hat. A lot of work rules at regionals suck and and so does commuting but I’ll match my best day against your worst any day of the year. Best of luck
A few things on this. There is some good info here, but it’s very rarely like this. I can only speak to my experience, but this situation is absolutely worst case scenario. There will be a lot of changes and dynamic stuff happening but you may only encounter this type of scenario every few months if that, or ever. Also, you won’t have trips greater than 8 or 9 days long unless you choose to have that. So if that’s not your thing don’t worry too much. Other than that, we restock, and clean but we don’t do the flight planning (just verifying that everything is legal and safe), we do not arrange any hotels, cars, or airlines. Most passengers are very well behaved and don’t cause any issue seeing as they own part of the plane, but occasionally you’ll have ab issue. Again, not the norm. Finally, they won’t push you to do something that is absolutely not safe, or if you’re fatigued. It’s definitely a little more work than the regionals, but it’s really not all that much to be honest, and you’re treated better.

Again, just my two cents from my experience and what I’ve observed.
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