Here is a post out of total curiosity.

If you are a Delta pilot, can you post a sample schedule or describe a typical monthly schedule if you are:

- Fairly junior on your aircraft type
- Commuter
- Looking to maximize days off

Also, at Delta could you describe your ability to re-arrange your schedule, in terms of dropping trips, trip trading etc. . .

I'm looking to get a "head start" on the QOL at the carrier.

Thanks!

 

FWIW:

JFK 7ER
First line - three 3 day trips, one 4 day. All were commutable on both ends.
~82 hours.

You can swap trips with open time or fellow pilots on the swap board.
The swap board also has drop option for interested pilots to pick up and clear your schedule.

 

Reserve is 12 or 13 days off with blocks of two to six days. Fairly liberal with moving days as long as there is adequate coverage.

 

Your question is very open ended and has so many varibles its hard to answer. I had 1 day carry into Sep and then flew a 6 day trip. I have a 3 day tomorrow for a total of 70 hours working 10 days. As a new hire if you live in base you can expect to have a pretty good quality of life. If you choose to commute your quality of life will suffer, perhaps dramatically if you are married.

 

No truer words were ever spoken

 

NYC MD88 First Officer

Spent 3 weeks on reserve, line holder after that. On my first month as a line holder, I had every weekend off except for a Sunday. After that, I bidded and had every weekend off as well as July 4th and Labor Day. I fly the maximum line value each month which has been around 82-85 hours. The trips I was flying were 2-3 day trips. I avoid the out and backs. Most of the trips were Boston or DC shuttle flights. But I did get a lot of Florida turns. So, my schedule was either Sun Mon Wed Thur or Mon-Thur.

Last two months, I cared less about weekends. I've been pulling down 3 and 4 day trips. Usually they consist of Florida runs ... NYC to anywhere in Florida. But I have also done flying to CT, MO, KY, SC, and LA. Flying the longer trips, it has paired my off days together, so last month, I had a 7, 4, and 3 days off grouped together ... mini vacations. I love it.

It will only take me 5 months to reach 400 hours ... end or probation.

-Fatty

 

B767ER FO

I've been at Delta about nine months, I'm around 400 out of 468 on the ER in JFK. I commute from the midwest to JFK, a relatively easy commute. This month, I worked 14 days and got 80 hours of pay. I was on reserve for a month and a half, then I've had a line since. I never spent the night in my crashpad, my schedule was thus:

2 day of carry-in from previous month
5 off
six day trip
4 off
3 day trip
4 off
3 day trip
3 off

Two of the three trips went to places I asked for, I had every Sunday off and everything was commutable.

As for rearranging the schedule, because we are short of reserves, right now, it's hard to move trips between days, but very easy to swap trips if they fall on the same days. I swapped two of my three trips for different destinations, using the automated system. I put my request in, and on the next run of the computer (it runs three times a day) my swap was approved.

I have no complaints about my QOL.

 

Aircraft Driver,

A couple of things to point out:

- A quick stint on reserve and then holding a line with weekends off is not the norm. Be prepared for a lot longer reserve and working weekends/holidays.

- As a lineholder with PBS I can get a 78 hour month working 3 -four day trips for a total of 12 days a month, but at my seniority 90/140 I will usually fly mostly on the weekends. If I bid for weekends off I can mostly get that but the trips are not as efficient.

- You generally have a lot of flexiblity with trip drops and trades etc but this can diminish almost to zero during the summer/busy periods when reserve manning is lower.

- PBS gives you a lot of flexibility to manipulate your schedule but you have to be realistic regarding your seniority.

- If you asked this question in July your responses would be a lot different as a whole then now.

Scoop

 

NYC 7ER FO still on reserve:

For October, most of the reserve lines had you on call for stretches that were 10+ days long. The benefit is that you also get long stretches of days off in a row.

I've never bid a reserve line like that. I have enough seniority to bid something that more resembles a regular line when it comes to days on and off, ie. 5-6 on, 3-4 off. I'm a commuter and I don't know if there's an advantage to bidding a reserve line that has long stretches of on-call days.

I've been online 2 months and have spent only 1 night in the crash pad, all while sitting reserve. You'll have to be willing to fly though. There are ways to use the system if you take the time to figure it out.

Also, the flying varies greatly between the different equipment and bases, so it's impossible to give a "typical" schedule. For example, because of the nature of the international flying in the NYC 7ER base, almost all trips are commutable. This is not going to be the case for, let's say, CVG M88.

 

Fatty,

From your experience as MD88 pilot in NYC (lazy to look up myself) ...... what percentage of trips originate in LGA, JFK, EWR?

I imagine most start out of LGA, but can you estimate how much do you need to drive to JFK or EWR? Is it easy to avoid them with "barely holding a line" seniority?


Thank you.