In all honesty, about half of your life time until you retire.
fbh

 

You're overstating the case. A guy who sits reserve and lives on assigned domicile is not gone 20 nights a month. This whole "gypsies need only apply" is a vestige of a commuter-biased lifestyle. The only normalized hardship of the lifestyle from a in-domicile perspective is that of getting the family to tolerate the fact your hard days off will never fall on the weekends, when the rest of the world socializes with each other. That does make airline pilots relative pariahs.

From a cursory look at my coworkers at the squadron, the in-base guys enjoy a home life not dramatically different than the 9-5 guy, while earning a hell of a lot more than a 9-5 guy for a hell of a lot less work and politics endured. These guys are all mainline of course.

I'll also plug the 'better' simulator outfits as viable work alternatives. That's a pretty good salary for zero work. The shifts suck these days with the ramp-up, but you're home every night. Dozing for dollars. Something to look into.

 

You might try looking at it differently and consider days that you are totally gone from home- ie not touching home that day.

Consider if you had a line of flying that was groups of back to back 2 day trips you would touch home every day.

On a 3 day trip there is only 1 day of the trip that you are totally gone.

on a 4 day trip 2 days that you are totally gone. Thats why IMHO 4 days seem so much worse than a 3 day.

I know much of the quality of this depends on the duty in and duty out times of the said trips but just throwing that out there...

 

This is some really good insight. This is more of a preference than a need. I'm in the military and my wife has endured year long deployments and her Father has flown for Delta/Northwest for the last 30 years, so she understands the lifestyle. I just wanted to know if it was possible to not be gone "a lot", I understand that I will be gone.

That said, are there certain airlines that are better than others for minimizing time away? Or is it all about getting a junior base? Or any other recommendations? Thanks for all the info!

 

Okay, nothing beats living in base with your family except for a good contract...and that's iffy. I'm at XJT. Second airline so I know the good and the bad. I came here for for the contract and so I could live in base. 16 days off this month plus I usually am able to swap for trips that have long overnights close to home where I can use my car rental discount and drive home which gives me an extra 2-3 nights at home per month.

It took almost a year for this but it was worth it. Love the contract, love not having to commute. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

I'm not sure why people are making it sound so easy to live in base as a new regional pilot. If you want to live in base be prepared to uproot your family every few months for the first few years and after that every few years as your company opens and closes bases as they please.

 

I live in base. My friend didn't. I enjoy my life and time off. He didn't. Then he moved his family to his base. Now, he's happy.

That sounds pretty simple to me.

 

Uproot your family every few months for the first few years?? Uh...........

 

family life and regional do not belong in the same sentence. guaranteed to miss every milestone and your vacations will not match those of your family.
if aviation is your thing but you want to be home most nights look for something in a support function but stay away from being a line pilot

 

A few things come to mind.

First, as an airline pilot, you should expect to travel, maybe a lot. You know this about the job though.

Second, you should expect to be junior for the first decade of your career, in ups and downs. Junior regional FO, then a junior regional Captain starting over with a bad schedule, then if you move on to the legacies, your a junior FO again etc..

Third, there are situations such as trainings that are going to keep you away for long periods. Your initial training, you might be gone for 8 weeks with no opportunity for a flight home to visit. Maybe you can bring the wife and kids up to see you for a day though, but you really need to be studying as much as possible. These kinds of trainings are going to occur every now and then where you are gone for a while.

Fourth, there are those airlines who open and close bases frequently. Many pilots start off saying they are not going to commute only to have the base they work in close 6 months after closing on your new house.

Fifth, what type of personality does your wife or significant other have? Is she the needy, winy, clingy type? If so, it will cause problems and stress in your marriage and life. Hard to have an argument (a discussion) 1000 miles away over the phone.

Sixth, then there is missing all the birthdays, parties, anniversaries, family outings, child growth, etc.. Even a senior pilot with the best possible schedule runs into situations where things must be missed.

To some degree, everyone is looking for what you are looking for, stability. But its good you are asking because you are certainly asking the right questions. There is no college course or ground school that covers 'Real life as an Airline Pilot' (new reality show?). But do be honest with yourself on whether it is the right fit for you and the family.