cryinginahotel

Greetings,

Might be ending up as a Junior FO at the PHL base for the airline. Can anyone share a few screenshots of their schedule so I can get an idea of what they look like? I am not sure that goes against company pollicy or what no so I will close the thread if so. However, just trying to get an idea for what my 1st year off training will look like. I live lukily 1 hour a 52 mins from the company entrence at PHL.

Otterbox

4 days on 2 days off. Maybe an occasional 3 days on or off. Early on you can plan for your 4 days to be over weekends, and/or comprised of two two day trips back to back then 2 off.

cryinginahotel

Thank you for the intel. Does that mean 4 nights away or 3 nights away when you say "4 days on"? Looking forward to it either way. I don't mind grinding it out.

IVVIB

PHL generally has commutable four-day trips, meaning you start on day one around noon and end on day four before 3pm. Min days off is 12, and when you’re senior enough to get a line you will have scheduled trips broken up by 2 or 3 days off. However, you’re going to be on reserve for the first few months. And those schedules are quite different. Lots of 5-day stretches of being on-call beginning at 7am, and need to be in the secure side of the terminal in 2 hours. Lastly, driving to PHL you need to account at least 30mins to ride the bus from the employee parking lot in to the terminal. Drive time from your house being just about two hours you’ll probably need a crash pad while you’re on reserve. Schedules having gotten better over the years, but it’s important to manage expectations. Reserve can suck.

phl08

This is a timely thread as I have a CJO and will start class in May. I'm 30 minutes drive from PHL, so the reserve period doesn't bother me since I can easily get there as long as I'm close to home on the on-call days. It sounds like a 4 day trip is 3 nights away from home for someone living in base. I've seen the route map and would be curious if any of legs during someon'es a 4 day trip would actually wind up back in base overnight, or would one expect to be overnighting in outstations? Or totally random? There would obviously be a mix of equipment overnighting in outstations for the early morning feeders into the hubs, along with morning flights from the hubs to the outstations.

Over on ATP, some pilots share their scheudle in a format like below. Obviously everyone's mileage varies, but it's an interesting view of a month in the life be it a lineholder or reseve.

1 - AAA-BBB-CCC (overnight)
2 - CCC-DDD-AAA
3 - AAA-EEE-FFF (overnight)
4 - FFF-GGG-AAA
5 - off
6- off
....

cryinginahotel

Thank you for this. I live down here in DE. I am planning on sailing my sailboat up to PHL to use as a "Crashpad" during my reserve peroid... Lot's of cheap marinas all near the airport. Anyone have a space heater I can borrow HA...

cryinginahotel

One more ? You say we need to be there by 0700. What time does one come OFF reserve generally and get the green light to go home for the night?

Njflyguy

Otterbox said you may begin on-call at 7am, not get there by 7am. That means you could get called at 9am to show up by 11am to start your trip. You could be on earlier on call (e.g. 3am and get called to show up by 5am). I'll let someone else who's at PDT to elaborate on the on-call shifts. I think i heard soemthign like 3am - 11am and 11am - 7pm. So if you do early on call, you'll be released by lunch time and be free for the rest of day in that example, though if you're on call starting at 3am the next day, you'll have an early bed time.

IVVIB

our reserve availability periods default to 0700 start. Yes, scheduling shifts them a bit after your first day but that’s not too typical. FAR part 117 governs the length of the reserve period which is 14 hours for short call. Get familiar with 117, you’ll need it.

for guys asking about schedules: none of our schedules plan to be back in base for overnights. All overnights are in outstations. PHL and CLT generally come back to base for turns throughout the trip though, MDT you’re just out in the system for four whole days.

Tileguy2023

PHL FO right now. We have 106 bidding, 82 lines in April.

Expect almost all lines to be 4 days on (3 nights away), 3 days off. For 12-13 days off per month. Some lines will have a 3-day, followed by a 2-day. You won't see more than 14 days off basically ever.

Seniority only lets you pick where the work days fall on your calendar. Very little, if any, "sweet schedule for the senior people" here.