Originally Posted by
sfblue
I think Otto explained in his posts, he would rather FLY than sleep since he is a PILOT and wants to FLY
It is a personal choice, IMO. If someone mostly cares about time off, pay, QOL etc., then he/she may not care about being IRO or FO. But if someone wants to really FLY more and build hours, then FO is much more desirable than IRO. I understand this as my bf just left IRO position with his current airline in the US to join an international airline as 747 FO. As hard as it is, I understand his desire to FLY more.
The only flying an FO does more than an IRO is possibly one TO and one landing. Actually, an IRO depending on which legs the breaks are taken actually flys more than the FO. But if monitoring the autopilot is flying then I guess OTTO loves his job. I own a Pitts and a C180 on floats. To me that is flying not watching an autopilot enter the hold for me.