Thank you for the well written, thoughtful post. Really appreciate your perspective on things and congrats to you for finding a place to call home.

 

If you are on the 7n7 schedule do you actually fly all 7 days? I've worked 2 weeks on 2 weeks off before and I really enjoyed the 2 week vacation every month, but we also only flew 5 - 8 days of that 2 weeks on.

Thanks for your perspective.

 

Great post, but keep in mind, as was mentioned, that he is comparing SWA to the old NJ contract lifestyle. SWA is still probably a better move for those who won't need to commute and have many years left in their career, but NJA has come a long way since the old contract.
3 schedules are now offered instead of just 2, a paid time off program goes into effect in June (for those who need specific days off), and good salary increases (especially for the new FO's who will be facing a minimum of 5 years to earn their fourth stripe).
As for working hard: I can't imagine working any LESS anywhere else than I have here over the past 3 months. My last tour was 3 days long (doing the 15 day flex): airline in on day 1, sit at the hotel (mx issue) day 2 working on my tan at the pool, and then airline home day 3. Now I have 7 days off before I go to CMH to do a week of company recurrent (2 travel days, 5 class days). Can't beat that. Obviously, that is not a typical schedule, but I have flown only about 40 hours in the last 3 months.....
However, one of the bigger issues for me is JOB SECURITY. NJA has never laid off or furloughed in its entire existence. The airline industry is very fickle, and even the established carriers are not immune to its vagaries. NJA can weather the economic downturns far better and with far fewer repercussions to its employees. That to me is what keeps me here more than anything. One furlough was enough for me............

 

It really just depends. Most of my 7n7 schedules had about 12 to 18 hours of flying in them. Some had less and a few had more. There have been a few tours I was worked hard the whole tour, but 5 to 10 hours of overtime helps soften the blow. Depending on your fleet of course. My typical week before going to the 18 day fixed was about 3 or 4 days flying with the day 1 and day 7 being airlines.

Great place for me and I don't think SWA could lure me away right now. I would have to think long and hard about it though, but I enjoy it here and there are many advantages to being NJ right now.

Cheers!

 

The reason we "love" it is not the 7 days on. The reason you hate 4 days is I bet you have 3 days off after it. We have 7 days off after we get home and sometimes our day 7 flying back home gets us there before noon so in effect we have 8 days off. Get that every other week and it's nice. Very nice. The only reason I am on the 18 day is like most pilots, I am greedy and they offered too much money to not take it. Once I am out of debt I will go back to the 7n7. I wish you well in finding your career job as there is a lot of different schedules at different places.

I feel for those whose relationships are strained by the profession and am glad the pilot who posted it found a job he is home almost all the time. It's sad that some girlfriends and wives tell us they can accept us being gone for our chosen profession and then try to make us choose between them and work. NJ I doubt is any rougher on a relationship than many other aviation jobs. Our time off is just grouped together in large chunks instead of being broken up into small bits.

Good luck to everyone!

 

Everyone has their reasons for choosing what is best for them. I like the schedule flexibility of the airline. I can be home in my own bed every night if I want or I can fly 4-day trips if I want. Pay here is better than top of scale at NJ, but at the end of the day NJ probably has better stability than the airlines in this business cycle.

The funny thing about NJ guys is they say that they don't commute, but as I see it, most guys commute to and from work on every schedule. Just because you have a positive space ticket to get you where you are going doesn't make it anything less than a commute. I drive to the airport to work a trip. It takes me 15 minutes and I guess that is a commute too.

 

Just curious here...which airline has you home every night? I'm just not familiar with it is all. Plus, commuting is having to find your way to one of a few cities to start your job and is done on your own time. If I, as a NJ guy, commute, then I really only have 5 day trips and 9 days off. Just a different way of looking at things as is the choice to live in domicile or not. Plus, NJ offers the 100 cities to live in or near which is nice too.

Semantics aside, I think you have found a VERY nice airline job if you are home every night.

 

Tim,

I think most airlines that have "line-bidding" offer a number of lines that are made up of day trips or "out-and-backs". You are in your own bed every night. I don't like them very much because I would rather do 3-day trips and have quality layovers with the crew. I was just trying to illustrate the flexibility advantage that the "good" airlines have (keep in mind there are many "bad" airlines).
In many cases I have been awarded lines that subsequently became conflicted with my personal life, so I simply logged-in to our scheduling software and changed my whole schedule around in the matter or a few key strokes. Its amazing flexibility.

 

The difference is that the NJ guys are "commuting" on their company's time, not their own. 7 on is not 7 days of flying the Citation with commuting on your own time before and after, it is commuting on day one and getting home again sometime on day 7.

 

Once again, which airline.