Senior NB vs Junior WB
Weighing the options. I know it comes down to mostly personal parameters but I wanted some input.
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Originally Posted by Al Czervik
(Post 2804884)
Weighing the options. I know it comes down to mostly personal parameters but I wanted some input.
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If you commute then the NB, no question. For me the narrow body wins unless you just want to minimize the days you fly at the expense of what days you want off, vacation, etc. But for that to work you’d have to live in base.
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Originally Posted by Al Czervik
(Post 2804884)
Weighing the options. I know it comes down to mostly personal parameters but I wanted some input.
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Originally Posted by Freddriver5
(Post 2804948)
I'm a junior WB FO and have been so for the past five years. I live in base and that makes all the difference. I can sit short call from my house and I make every effort to avoid flying when I get assigned a reserve month. I get lines during the heavy vacation months (July/Aug) and the holidays. I try to fly my ass off during those months, so I'm happy to return to a reserve month to lay around and go to the gym. If you can sleep on a plane and can find a rhythm for adjusting your schedule when on the road, WB rocks. I look at domestic lines, even very senior, and I just think "that's like real work!" ;)
Being able to sleep on a plane and not being a slave to your circadian rhythms are key to enjoying WB flying. |
Originally Posted by Andy
(Post 2805402)
I commuted as junior WB FO - it wasn't bad. Other than that, I agree with everything else you wrote.
Being able to sleep on a plane and not being a slave to your circadian rhythms are key to enjoying WB flying. |
Originally Posted by Andy
(Post 2805402)
...and not being a slave to your circadian rhythms are key to enjoying WB flying.
https://youtu.be/aXflBZXAucQ |
Originally Posted by crewdawg
(Post 2806277)
Which is also key to all kinds of bad things happening to your long term health.
https://youtu.be/aXflBZXAucQ That said, to address the OP your question is very dependent upon company, work rules, base, and category. I'm a very junior NB captain but because of those variables I listed, I've only blocked about 300 hours in the last year. I live in base so while SC still sucks, I don't have to commute in for it. My category just happens to have a lot of pilots who are happy to fly their butts off for straight pay, so lots of trips that look like they have my name on them get picked up by line holders depending on the month and day of the week. I also actively manage my schedule to minimize my availability to CS and maximize the chances that my RES days fall during periods of time where it's more likely for somebody to pick up open time. |
Originally Posted by Han Solo
(Post 2806298)
That is AWESOME! I was going to suggest listening to the JRE episode 1109 with no other than... Matthew Walker as the guest. It's one of the very few JRE podcasts that I listened to and then saved because it was so good.
Originally Posted by Han Solo
(Post 2806298)
IMO, unless you can get proper sleep a WB is going to take years and years off the end of your life. I was on Delta's 7er category which is split between 757 and 767s with both international and domestic routes. I felt like a zombie during my international trips and after TOE I never bid another international trip. No desire to ever go back to a WB unless it's sitting RES and rarely flying. I'll work my butt off during normal business hours before I go back to the luxurious international lifestyle of slowly killing myself with high calorie low nutritional value meals and decimated sleep cycles.
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Originally Posted by crewdawg
(Post 2806308)
To be fair, I felt the same after my OE trips, but have since figured out what works for me, and feel 10x better. The real question is balance. On the WB, over the last 15ish months, I've averaged 8 days/month gone from home. As a line holder this month, I'll work 9 days for a full month of pay...vs a 717 guy that will work 16 days. Who has more exposure to disrupted sleep and/or high calorie meals? That's not a rhetorical question to prove one side of a conversation, I'm genuinely interested in finding out. Sleep disruptions are part of the business but as I learn more about them, limiting them has slowly become a greater concern of mine.
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