Wow. What an original thread. Too bad we don’t have 4 others covering the exact same subject.

 

And all this talk of reducing credit. With the RR’s and 3-5 DH’s per trip if anything credit has been increased.

 

We’re all different, but if I have to get up earlier than my kids to commute, trip sucks.

If I have to set an alarm during the trip, trip sucks.

If I don’t get enough time for a breakfast/brunch, a crap & a workout, the layover is too short.

Legs & duty days don’t matter as much to me personally if I can get some good rest before & after.

 

So true. I'll be on a 72 hour layover this week working a CRE development and finishing up my taxes. The family photo is my laptop wallpaper. DH to a 168 hour layover is my personal record. I opted for DDH one day prior, but kept the credit.

A350 says hello. ICN, HND, SYD (except April*)

*The optimizer created 5 day drips all month long. It saved one DH, but doubled hotel costs by laying over 8 pilots instead of 4 into infinity.

The WB fleets still have credit. You can choose between efficient high time 3-4 day trips or 48-72 hour layovers with plenty of credit.

 

The best flying I ever had was Hawaii turns from the west coast to OGG, HNL, or KOA. Scheduled pushback at 10:15, scheduled return block in 22:00 for 10:30 block time. Eight one day trips gives 84 hours block.

I did these trips in almost pure lines for about eight years, in two crew positions in the DC-8 (S/O and F/O) and two crew positions on the DC-10 (F/O and Cap). The trips could not be flown back to back. The most senior crew in the base normally did this on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I never got senior enough to hold better than Mondays and Wednesdays. I lived twenty minutes from the parking lot, so I could spend every night at home. These trips were terrible for commuters. They would have to commute in the night before, and would not be able to commute out after block in at 22:00. This changed 2 one day trips into what was essentially one five day trip.

This was prior to FAR 117, so a three crew aircraft was good for 12:00 scheduled block with no rest breaks.

Joe

 

Im guessing you could pay for a month of hotels for the cost of deadheading one 4-Pilot crew to/from Asia.

 

30 nights plus per diem for 14 hours pay is probably close. But it doesn't end until you eventually DH the crews home. The optimizer left a crew there after flying a 99xx flight down and had them fly the passenger flight back. It started a perpetual 8 pilot layover. It will be fixed in May with a DH back and a return to 24 hr SYD layovers.

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I am DTW320 based and I love the trips. I bid to start early on day one with a layover somewhere in Mexico. That gives me a 24 hour layover day one. Then day two is a two leg day to another 24 hour layover on the west coast somewhere. I have one leg back the next day (day 3 into day 4) on a red eye. I can sleep anywhere at anytime of the day so for me, these trips are really nice! I live in base and am home by 7am and I feel very rested with no nap needed. That being said, most pilots I fly with hate these trips so my personal experience is probably not normal.

 

Right? I would bet they’ve given back ALL of the credit they might have saved just in the past 3 days. Take a 4 days with 20 hours of block, and chop it up, throw in 4 or so dead heads and pump up the soft time to make ADG on all the baby rotations and you’re looking at double what the original trip was worth. Multiply it by 100 and then multiply half of those by two for GS/IA/RR. Oh and subtract the lost revenue in deadheads.