How many nights a month is a regional airline pilot away from home?

Also, what is the typical monthly schedule like for a regional airline pilot?

Thanks!

 

Depends on the company and seniority. Also, do you plan to live in domicile or are you going to commute to work....this makes a huge difference.

You will be guaranteed 8-12 days off per month, depending on airline and whether you are on reserve (reserve usually gets less days off).

If you commute, some of your days off will be used on that.

If you live in domicile, and are on reserve, then that is time at home unless you are called to work (might be often, might be never).

If you can hold a hard line, some of these are built around 3-4 day trips where you stay in a hotel in another town. These are prefered by commuters.

Some hard lines have lots of day trips (or night trips) that return to base at the end of each shift. This is more like a 9-5 job (but it might be 9PM - 5am LOL). Commuters don't like these because they need a crash pad or hotel.

What I described above applies to RJ's. Most turboprops fly between 6 am - midnight and return home each night. There are a lot of variables including company, base, equipment, and time of year (reserve gets pretty quite in January when travel slows down and all the guys who timed out in DEC come back to work.)


Typical Schedule:
Hard Line: 3-4 days on, 3-4 days off (sometimes you can bid days off back-to-back to get 6-8 days off in a row)
Reserve: 5-6 days on, 2-3 days off.

 

I have a question on commuting. I have a friend who doesn't live anywhere near a class B airport. He's buying a house where he's going to school and graduating in August. The people I've asked so far think it could be a tough commute, as he is likely to be sent to the east coast and the house is in west TX. So at minimum, he's looking at a two-leg commute. How big a factor is having to do a commute like that versus living near an airport like DFW and being able to get there in one flight?

 

Thanks Rick. That helps a lot.

What do you mean by "RJ" and "hard line?"

 

RJ = Regional Jet

Hard Line is a fixed schedule where you know in advance what trips you are flying that month. A Reserve line means that you are on call and have to be able to report to the airport within a certain time frame. 1-2 hours is common for regionals.

 

The RJ vs. TP distinction regarding day trips vs. multi-day trips doesn't work at some regionals. At mine, DHC-8/200 (37 seats) crews fly the same type of multi-day trips as the RJ crews.

Here's an interesting frame of reference. We're on a 5-week bid schedule. Five weeks contain 840 hours. Our lines are built to an average of around 390 hours time away from base per bid (some as high as 430 hours TAFB). So non-commuters spend nearly half of their time away from home. You can imagine how much time away from home a commuter spends.

 

When a pilot is working is he/she typically home at night or in a hotel?

 

It depends, usually RJs and some of the bigger turboprops (see above) will be in a hotel in another city. Smaller turboprops usually come home (normally a small town) at night. My company usually builds some jet lines consisting of all day trips, wher you return home each night. Folks who live in domicile like these, and it saves the company money on hotels and per diem.

Our D-8's usually come home every night, so ir depends on the airline and base.

 

Thanks Rick for all your comments.

 

No day trip lines for my airline. Very rarely, you might get a day trip tacked on at the beginning or end of a 3-4 day trip, but it is rare as hen's teeth.

Multi-day trips with 2-3 hotel nights per trip are the rule at my airline, for the RJ crews, and the DHC-8/200 and /400 crews.