135tankerdriver

Thanks hindsight that was my original question. I don’t need to be home EVERY night but I’d be ok with a pay cut to be home more nights and just wondering if some of the majors more accommodating of dropping trips or trading them away.

thrust

First year FO. Sim check late October. Sit short call, live in domicile. Including OE, I’ve been on the road for 11 nights since Halloween. Not looking like I’ll get used for the next few days, then over a week off. Putting my Epic Pass to good use! Got Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve/Christmas, and New Years off. All while extremely junior, with the training pinch (limited CKAs) helping out a lot.

When I’m gone, I’m not treated like a child, the hotels are pretty good, the transportation is mostly on time, and the biggest hassle is whether I can walk to get food or if I have to (gasp!) use UberEats or something.

When I’m home, I’m home. No DTS silliness, no active duty jobs program make-work, no careerist bosses that I have to pretend to want to be someday in an attempt to avoid a 179/365 day deployment to a third world cesspool, all to be some pawn in support of ForeverWar.

This job is way better than my active duty job, it’s not even close. And I left one of the best active duty flying jobs in the entire military.

Merle Dixon

A few considerations... If you are going to pursue an airline job, why wouldn't you pursue it now? Meaning, if you are "a little nervous about being away from the family a bunch," that worry won't change in 5 years from now when you can retire. I know a bunch of guys like you with small kids that don't like being gone too much. As others have typed, live in domicile and bid reserve. Or, as others have typed, dropping trips is always a possibility.



If the airlines are your long-term plan, seniority is EVERYTHING. Get an airline job ASAP.



My prose skills ain't that good , so don't let this sound too harsh: Can your spouse see the forest or the trees? I know several guys that took a bunch of heat early in their airline life because they were gone quite a bit. The spouses were unable to see the big picture, unable to see the long term benefits of being an airline pilot. Now that they are 10+ years into their airline jobs, making $250k, or more, per year with great schedules (9 to 12 days off at a time now and then), taking the family on nice trips with the pass privileges, etc, the once myopic spouses now love the airline pilot life. Not to mention, once you are a 60 year-old wide body Captain earning $350k+ per year and a 401k worth millions, life will be good. The point of this paragraph, if it applies to your spouse, is that you have to emphasize the long term benefits of the fantastic career that is the airline pilot.



Finally, "and any info on how does life airlines plus guard/reserve compare to AD, is much appreciated." AD is a miserable existence, you may be institutionalized and not know it. The airline life is fantastic. I thank God every single day I left active-duty. Plus, once you hit 2nd year airline pay, you are earning more per day than any Guard/Reserve job. Once you are into year 3 pay, the Guard/Reserve actually becomes a huge pay-cut and drag on your life.


Happy New Year and good luck.

hindsight2020

Care to expand? Do you drop trips, what's your staffing levels in equipment, what equipment, what domicile (if you don't want to divulge airline)? Training backlogs are all good and great, but those are snapshots in time. Is your outcome a repeatable for any prospective newhire at your airline (as opposed to a one-off)? I think that's what the relevant question here is.

Merle Dixon

Drop the mic. Spot on!

hindsight2020

Your case study squarely depends on a spouse being either in a childless setup, a disposable job that can kowtow to your days off, or being cool with eating single parenting (or worse, single WORKING parenting) half the year. Not every spouse is into that. That doesn't make them "myopic". Not everything is about money bruh.

I get it, airline/mil marriages are chock full of SAHWs. It's the choice du jour. Again, not everybody is into that though. Is it a de facto requirement for this career? An argument could be made that it very well could be, if these recurring and predictable responses are any indication. At any rate I digress; just saw my wife pick up a book in the study, gotta go get my switch....

tnkrdrvr

There are middle ground options. Several people have mentioned living in domicile and bidding reserve. As an example, I bid reserve for December, peak season at UPS, and was only called out 3 days out of the 14 I sat reserve. My wife actually suggested I needed to get out of the house more. As a former tanker guy, I can assure you that the grass is greener over here, IF you don’t insist on living outside of domicile. A commuter is guaranteed to be gone at least 10-14 days every month. As far as QOL concerns for Guard/Reserve, ops tempo for all KC-135 squadrons is high. I would plan on giving your unit around 100 days a year. This will either hurt time at home, lower your income, or both. If you want your twenty, pick up a non-flying Guard/Reserve gig at a staff where you can do one weekend a month and two weeks a year.

viper548

I'm another vote for move to a base and bid reserve. I work for AA and live in DFW and bid short call reserve. I didn't get called out at all in Dec. I had 3 days of training, which is done in DFW, and a 3 day premium trip I picked up on days off. In Nov I worked 6 days, Oct was also 6 days. I'm on the A-320 and this amount of flying is pretty typical for narrow body guys. Wide body guys often work less.

rickair7777

Concur all live in base and bid reserve will usually provide many days off with just a little bit of seniority. At most majors. Caveat you'll work on or around holidays and weather systems.

thrust

As usual, the following applies:
-Life isn’t fair
-Timing is everything
-There is no justice

Can’t drop trips on reserve. Staffing levels are adequate, albeit junior equipment at a junior domicile (lots of training churn). I’m at AA, but I’m sure the others have a similar training bubble. Took advantage of a significant delay in OE as a result of a shortage of check airmen. Once you exceed your OE window, the company can only give you OE trips on your scheduled work days- usually your block of short or long call. Being smart on PBS and FAR 117 (30/168 specifically) can help a lot. CKAs that only work certain trips can help as well. Then, once off OE, proffering for trips that will result in 30/168 illegalities bumping into holidays can produce dividends.

Am I a one-off? I certainly don’t think so. I haven’t even dropped a day of mil leave yet. Is this repeatable? Absolutely. AA is set to hire 900+ in 2019, while retiring the remaining MD-80 fleet and starting the drawdown of the E-190s. The training crunch will continue, black/white/purple swans notwithstanding.

All that to say... this job is way better than my active duty job. Then again, being away from home for X nights a month and/or working X weekends/holidays is far more palatable in this world than it was on AD.

Living in domicile is a game changer. YMMV.