Days Away From Your Home
 

I was just wondering about the days spent away from home compared to the majors. Do Regional pilots not spend alot of time away from home? How many days on average are regional pilots away from home compared to those at the majors?

depends on seniority, airline, economy. You could work for a regional and get more time off than at major due to seniority and some people know this and choose to stay at regional. I think generally though you have a better chances at a better QOL at a major. Also, longer trips = less legs per day. There are many variables that come into play however on the whole issue.

Figure 10-12 days off per month at a regional as a junior F/O. If you live in domicile, that is basically 10-12 days at home. If you commute, cut it by 30-50% for the purpose of commuting to and from work and you are left with 5-8days at "home."

Someone else can comment on some of the smaller T-Prop regionals. Colgan for example, I believe you can be "home" most every night if you live in domicile. If you have a wife and kids, this can be a major consideration.

I think RJ is right about colgan. I know all the 1900 flying at Mesa is back everynight. However most of the bases are outstations this might make it hard for the wife to get a decent job. One plus of the outstations is that your 17K F.O. pay...or your 27K captains pay will go much farther. These are the first year gross pay figures under mesa however i'm not sure about colgan. I know if you commute from one of these outstations, the 8 days we get a month can turn into 4 days at home very fast as you will most likely be flying the only flight in or out. This means you will have to wait till the following morning to jump out on your own A/C. Hope that helps you.

XtremeF150

Thanks alot guys, your replies are helpful!!

Our company lists time-away-from-base with each available monthly schedule. For June, the highest are around 350-370 hours, and the lowest are in the 290s. Think about 24 hours per day times 30 days to see that there are around 720 hours in a bid period. If you are on the company's clock for half of that time, you can imagine what's left. Keep in mind that of the other half of the month left over, you will spend at least a third sleeping.

Work rules determine time away from home in a big way; for instance, is the company allowed to give you 10 days off with one day at a time spread over 10 instances? That stinks. Hopefully they require that days off be at least paired. On reserve, is the call-out time (how long you have to get to the airport after a phone call) one hour, or 24? As you can see, there are lots of factors that are really going to impact quality of home life, and perhaps the largest is where home is with regard to where your domicile is. If you are home at the end of each trip, you will have more time there than if you have to try to catch a flight to some other place. Being on reserve at your house isn't so bad either, as long as you are good at entertaining yourself with hobbies and other interests.

I've been at Eagle just over a year, have 15 days off this month with 16 last month. I spend 2 nights a week in a hotel and see my wife every day.

2 nights a week? that's awsome! If you don't mind my asking, what plane and base?

u in saab?

Thats what I'm talking about. Thats a perfect life if the pay is right. Alot of people would envy you for that!

I'm DFW Saab and usually bid 2 day back to back trips and sometimes 3 day trips so it is either 4 or 3 off or 3 on 3 off. Depends on what schedule works best for me and what has the best transition. This month the schedules were kind of screwed up so I do 2day trips for the first half of the month, 1 week off, and then a 2 day followed by a 1 day trip for the next 2 trips.

Pay at eagle is about average. If I switch to the jet I'll make about $600 more per month but I will also go back to being on reserve with only 11 days off and who the hell knows what kind of schedule. I got lucky when I got on when I did because I only had to sit reserve on the Saab for 1 month and have had a line ever since (except when I puposely bid for a composite line). If you do go to eagle I strongly suggest going turboprop for the first year...after all it is the same pay but you will hold a line much faster (about 3 months now I think). I could intermittenly hold a line on the CRJ in DFW now and would be almost at the bottom of the ERJ. I dont know what the standing in the other bases is because that is not where I want to go. For the time being, I am staying Saab. After all, who wants to do another long term training event?

Im an FO with eagle on the emb, have been on reserve for a while and average 7-10 nights per month away from home. I live in base so that makes it easier. I still do a lot of flying, but its a lot of day trips. Not too bad for a JR FO

XJT days at home
 

With Express Jet, line holders are min guar. 12 days off a month. With having all of our domiciles in CAL hubs, it makes commuting pretty easy, mostly 1 leg for most people. With our bidding system and online trip trades, I would say that in an average month with 4-4day commutable trips, I get to spend 16 nights at home, with the occassional bonus overnight at home. (reserves are guarenteed 11 days off in a 30 day month and 12 in a 31 day month). Plus, we also have a "12 hour call out" that makes up 10% of our reserve lines, where you get 12 hours to show up for work once called by scheduling (GREAT for sommuters!) There's guys in my class (bout 1 year at XJT) holding 15 or 16 days off!

Jared, with only one day off between trips and only 10 days off in the month, don't you run into a lot of 30 in 7 issues????

At Mesaba (before I was furloughed), I was able to bid lines with 14-16 days off. I lived near base so when a trip was done it was nice to go right home and have that night at home rather than wait to morning to commute home. Now that i'm not at XJ anymore, I'll have to commute to my next job. Its part of the job and its what you make of it. If you have an understanding significant other, it helps a lot in the "away from home" factor.