Typical Day
 

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)

Are there any overnight trips you can bid? Or is it all day trips?

Great info, thank you!

I typically show up about 15 minutes late. I come in through the side door that way the chief pilot doesn't see me. Then I open up my IPAD and space out for the next 45 minutes. I click on stuff, and swipe... that way it looks like I am working. I'll do this again after lunch as well. I would say in a given day I only do 1-2 hours of actual work.

Honestly though, living in base you will have days where you drive into work in the dark, and then drive home in the dark. This would happen on a longer duty day where you fly 2 round trips and block 6-8 hours of flight time. Home everynight is great, but if you are married with kids you are then expected to do the home stuff as well. If this were a typical overnight airline, after the trip you would eat, get a shower and then get to bed. The spouse may not understand this.

Well I'm a mom of 3, and have always worked full-time...coming home from a 10+ hour day and going straight into dealing with home stuff & kids is nothing new...it's just what we do.

When I was a line holder my average block per day was 5.5 hours without working any 4 flight days. I always bid low credit, usually mid 70's credit with 16-18 days off then I'd pick up a couple reserve days on top to credit 85ish. For a typical duty day for a turn just add 2 hours to the block time, show 1 hour prior, almost all turns are 45-50 minutes in the outstation plus 15 minutes for the post flight. I'd usually show at 7-8am and was done by 2:30-3:30. In my base the PM trips are usually a 2-4pm shows and done by 9-11pm. I chose to not the bid the 4 flight days so I could always be home every afternoon with the kids but a typically 7hr block 4 leg day is a 10.5 hour day (1hr preflight + 3 45min turn times + 15). They are nice for some people that live farther from the airport and/or want max days off.


With that said I was somewhat senior in a large base with lots of flying, some bases located in the center of the country don't have many higher time single turns. Each base is almost like a different airline at this company since it can be so different. Some of the junior schedules in my base are closer to high 4's block per day so plan on much shorter/easier days but less days off. Now I'm very junior in the other seat and sit reserve (18 on 12 off), typically called out about 5-10 days a month, some of the smaller bases get away with 2-3 days a month called out. I do occasionally get some silly long days on reserve involving deadheads, much more of them in the summer, plus about 5 overnights a year but my neighbor still thinks I'm a stay at home dad. Hope this helps.

You are asking the wrong question. Ask about typical month for someone bottom 1/3 of the list. Single days off is a real treat.

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