Jett i son

ThePenguin328
Thank you for the in depth first hand info.

Are there min days on, or off per month?
Do you bid lines or PBS?
Any reserve lines, or built in?
Seniority based bidding?
Possible to maximize time off by bidding high time trips?
(8 work days X 10 flight hours)
Can you regularly leave the country, is company approval required?

Trying to figure out how the family is going to respond to drastic change.

Appreciate your input.

ThePenguin328

No bidding for schedules. You are allowed to indicate a preference for two of your days off. They are not additional days off, but two of your 8 minimum days off. Schedules vary, but usually you can expect 11 days off with some rest days mixed in. Also reserve/standby duties are built into your monthly schedule. Usually the standby period will last for a 12 hour period and you have a 1 hour callout to get to the airport. In the last year the most I've had is 3 standbys bulit into my schedule. Lately they have been publishing schedules with something called an available day. That just means 30 hours before the available day the company will assign a flight, standby, or day off. Just looking my Oct schedule I have: 13 flight days, 3 Available days, and 1 standby. I expect atleast one avaiable day will turn into a standby. My days off are in blocks of two except for one block of three days off. The schedules are built to the local FAR max. So if the rules say you need 8 days off, that's what they try to build the schedule with. The rules work a little different out here. Block hours matter less than duty hours when looking at your weekly flying max. 900 hours in a year is the allowed block hours, but the company won't let you fly more than 85 in a month unless you are called from a standby.

This is not a commutable job to the US if that's what you are asking. You can trip trade, but over the last few months it has become very restrictive to where most flights cannot be traded, especially if they are night flights that go into the next calendar day. Occasionally you can find guys who hate long flights to Russia, Ukraine, etc and will swap for shorter days, but usually everyone prefers the longer block days. Everyone except a very small minority avoids the long night flights.

You can leave the UAE at anytime with no restrictions. The longest the company has ever kept my passport was 6 hours to renew my residency visa. The only company permission you need is to purchase a staff travel ticket on Emirates, and that is just a formality to make sure you have the days off you intend to travel. If the ticket is for your wife/kids then it really isn't a factor.

Jett i son

Excellent info ThePenguin328
THANK YOU !
Does night flying, covering two calendar days, count as two flight days?
I read that EK pilots were required permission to leave the UAE.
Not sure if it was true, or applied to other UAE based carriers.
I was not considering commuting to the US.
Planning on leisure travel to change scenery.
(Bribe the family with reasons to move)

Typhoonpilot

Not true.

We are technically required to fill out a form with contact info, that's all.

If on certified sick days then it's true to an extent, must get a doctor's permission to leave.


TP

Papoo

A quick response to the OP; perhaps it's already been picked up. But I've only briskly scanned the thread.

You mentioned the possibility if a CL rating in the near future. Given the amount of biz aviation in the region, a lot of which is using super mid size aircraft like the CL, I would say that it may be a very prudent move to show up with an ATP and an Challenger rating.

I personally know 2 people who have got CL jobs in the Middle East. One is in Abu Dhabi, the other is in Bahrain.

The latter is living the dream. The aircraft is owned by a wealthy individual, and is generally used to fly his wife and friends to Monaco/St Tropez for shopping trips and the like.

He's paid an excellent salary, flies 4 days a month, 5 star hotels, everything on the expense card (what's a Michelin restaurant bill for your pilot, when your surname is Sheikh?) the works. BUT, he was hired because of his CL rating.

Food for thought...

ThePenguin328

Instead of flight duty days I should have said flight duty periods. A night flight covering a part of two calendar days is still one duty period.

The travel options from Dubai are pretty good. Lots of places to see that wouldn't be easy from the US because of time zone changes and connecting flights. Lots of families head over to Sri Lanka, Thialand, Maldivies, Seychelles, and nearby parts of Africa. At times it can feel isolated here, but Europe is also within 5-8 hours depending on destination.

iluvetops

Hahaha, although with a doctor's permission it still require the approval from CP. I was denied the permission to leave although cleared by the surgeon!