I am in a custody battle with my 3 year old sons father now and have had issues with convincing a judge to give joint custody. The last hearing the judge looked at my variable work schedule, and granted the father temporary full custody since he has been unemployed for the past 3 years and is able to stay at home all day with my son (meaning he sits on the couch watching TV all day at his parents, so he feels he should be able to collect child support from me)
My lawyer says its possible to get a non traditional parenting plan which is very flexible around a pilots work schedule, and still allow joint 50/50 custody. While it won't state specific days/weeks of a month the pilot must have the child, it will say the other parent must be able to allow flexibility in visitation around the pilots schedule.