turns
 

how hard is it to get a line consisting of turns at night... basically, how hard is it to be home on nights you are on duty.. forget about losing on the per diem for a second and think about the benefits (or negatives for some) of seeing the family every night... is this possible?

Are you talking about day trips? If so, it depends on a few things, Scheduler and seniority. Scheduler has to build the line and you have to have the seniority. My company has a line or two with day trips. That is only 10 percent of the lines.

Which are you looking for? Turns at night (working at night), or being home at night?
As far as per diem, you get that even if it is a turn - at MOST companies. I think at Colgan we didn't get it if we didn't overnight?
All depends on seniority, and schedules. Haven't been at Colgan for awhile, but back when I did, they were mostly ALL coming back to base that day/night.

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I'm assuming you mean out and backs. I've been very interested in this myself as well since both CFIing and 135ing I have been in my own bed everynight and been able to cook healthy stuff. The idea of 4 day trips eating airline and airport food scares the crap out of me.

There is one thread in this section I started called "out and backs" that has some airlines that have day trips. From what I understand, Colgan has almost entirely out and backs in the northeast and typical airline layovers out of Houston. There are a few other airlines that have out and back routes, but the majority of their routes layover kind of trips.

Out & Back usually means a day trip...show up in the am and home later that night. These are great for senior guys who live in domicile, but if you are a commuter you are paying for a place to live and maybe an airport car. The 3-4 day trips are good for commuters cuz you have a place to sleep on the companies dime.

Redeye, Continous Overnight Duty, and Stand-up means an out and back that occurs on the back-side of the clock. Sometimes you get a hotel room for a few hours (3-6), sometimes you just work all night. Some folks like them, because if you live in domicile, you can be home during the day with the kids while the wife works or you can work your real-estate business or whatever. They are also good for commuters, cuz you finish work in the am, catch a flight home, but your days off actually start the NEXT day...free day off (you might be sleepy though). Plus when you return to work you don't have to show till late. These usually go real junior (especially with no hotel). If you want to work stand-ups, come to Mesa.

It all depends on the airline and the folks that make the lines up, as well as what seniority preferences are...

A lot also depends on the particular domicile, the trip/duty rigs and pilot group demographcs. If the base has a lot of senior people that live in domicile, then standups and daytrips usually go pretty senior, particularly in the summer when kids aren't in school.

ACA/IDE standups typically went senior. This was because standups had good pay rigs that made them worth more money than just the actual block (it was the higher of actual block, scheduled block, or 1/2 duty time for pay... IE if the trip was blocked at 3 hrs roundtrip, but the duty period was 12 hours, a pilot made 6 hrs of pay for a standup).

Another thing to consider though is that day trips can be more of a hassle at times too. For me, if I did day trips, that meant an hour in the car to the airport, 30-40 minutes for employee shuttle and security, fly the trip, 20-30 minutes for employee shuttle and another hour home. 3+ hours of commuting everyday to/from the airport can get very old after a month.