I got out in May of '07 and never looked back. Yeah it was hard earning only $40k/yr for the first ten months, but the VSP helped out and kept us from having to touch our retirement plan. Then most of the fractionals got pay raises and now I'm making good money my first year with NJ on the 18-day sched. I'm gone half the year now, but I would have been gone for at least four months this year anyway in the sandbox on a non-flying assignment. I get two weeks of vacation next year which amounts to about six weeks off (two periods of three weeks straight on the 7&7 schedule). After five years I'll have three weeks of vacation and after ten I'll have four. This amounts to three months off out of the year on the 7&7 schedule (with every other week off in addition). The fractionals are very different from the airlines, but I love the job (a lot like flying the C-21) and it is nice and stable in this current economy.