skylover

Hi all!

Just wondering if anybody would mind copy/pasting one of their actual trip schedules on here? I'd love to see what some *actual* regional pilot schedules looks like.

Thanks!

Spoilers

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/re...-rj-pilot.html

PerpetualFlyer

They suck, next question?

lolwut

Expect a 4 day trip to have 18-22 legs total. You'll be waking up as early as 4am some days and staying up as late as 1am other days... sometimes on the day right next to the early wakeup. You'll get as little as 5-7 hours per sleep each night. You'll be in uniform for 16+ hours many days. Frequently food will be difficult to find and even more difficult to schedule into your day. Don't even think about being able to find something healthy to eat.

Expect to do this up to 5-6 days a week. You're going to feel completely mentally and physically drained. The only thing you'll want to do on your time off is sleep and get ready to go back at it again.


None of this is an exaggeration. This is the typical common schedule. Sure, if you have some seniority it gets better but it will still be horrible on its bad days. Its a horrible life that thousands of pilots are living every day.

skylover

Just wondering, when there is a "long overnight," does the crew usually do something fun together or go out for dinner or something in the city? That's one of the benefits to the lifestyle that's kind of appealing to me.

Geardownflaps30

They get drunk and have sex. Exactly like in college.

wmuflyboy

With hot college girls once they find out you are a hot shot jet pilot

DryMotorBoatin

Yes absolutely. Its a blast. Most hotels are downtown and nearby alot to do and eat and see. Usually on longer overnights the company will pay for a rental car if you ask politely. Yes I'm being sarcastic. Most hotels youll stay in are in industrial parks near the airport. You'll pray for a McDonalds nearby and usually you won't even get that much. You'll spend most of your free time looking at porn.

PA31

There are long and short layovers. At Skywest we tend to stay at reasonable hotels with activities and dining nearby. Last week my FO and I walked along the river in Eugene to a local brewpub and had a nice lunch on a 16 hour layover.

On short nights, you'll go straight to bed and others you may go bike down to the beach or rent a car and drive to Niagra Falls.

rickair7777

The CA will be some old lifer who slam-clicks and spends the entire overnight surfing deviant porn. Or if he's young, he'll have a Regional-Captain-God-Complex to the point where you just want to get the hell away from the tool as soon as possible. He'll go out with you, but you have to walk behind him and let him direct all aspects of the social outing (but he might actually buy you a beer...the Captain-God-Complex seems to mandate this).

Usually the FA is fat, ghetto, old, and/or very grouchy. At least two of those three. The best of the lot are going to be 55-65 year olds who divorced a doctor, took him for all they were worth, and will continually and subtlety remind you of their mercedes, townhouse dowtown, condo at Aspen, etc, etc.

If you're lucky the FA will be a normal gay male who you can go drinking with. Seriously. If you're not wearing a wedding ring, just b sure to casually mention your live-in girlfriend so there's no misconceptions.

Only exception is SKW. There are some FA's (and female pilots) who are suitable companions for a night out, but mostly in the west.

Best thing to do with your regional overnights is work out and enroll in a online masters degree (or bachelors if you don't have that).

Once you get to a major airline, the CA will be so old that you'll have nothing in common (unless you're both ex-fighter pilots) and he'll just bore you talking about his Porsche, BMW, condo in Aspen, live-in hanger at the airpark, Malibu Meridian, three ex-wives, grandkids, etc.