Originally Posted by maxjet

Keep in mind that any time you have a back to back schedule it is because you just had, or will have, back to back days off. 26-28 days off. Hey you still have to work your 17 days a month somehow! My like for this flying has nothing to do with it being in a 747. I enjoy seeing the world, staying in nice hotels with a lot of off flying days, followed by a long stretch of days off every month, AND never having to jumpseat to work! Again, if my children were young, this job probably would not work for me.

EMB If you are interested Connie is hiring.

Originally Posted by maxjet

You have misinterpreted my question. My question is not about reserve days or anything else. It is a simple question. How many days off a month do you think a commuter pilot should legitimately have and why? I am not looking for an adversary or trying to be a jerk. I am just asking a legitimate question. Yes, you chose this profession. You are highly trained and educated. I understand that you consider yourself to be of a higher strata than taxi/van drivers and flight attendants.

How about Interns who work 6 to 7 days a week for 65 to 75K a year then? Or Policemen and Firemen who work overtime every week and consequently average 6 days a week so that they can feed their families. Maybe social workers might get your attention. They work ungodly hours, and like Police Officers take their work home emotionally with them and get paid next to nothing for their advanced educations and experience. The list goes on and on, and don't even get me started about small business owners.

They all chose their professions too. The difference between them and some, (and I do not at all mean all or even the majority)of pilots is that they LOVE what they do, and like me, do not consider it work. I am on Job number 7 in 7 years, have never made 100K a year, have been on the bottom of the seniority list forever. Yet, I still love going to "work". I was that cop working 6 to 7 days a week for 22 years and trying to protect my family from the stress and **** soup that I worked in. Now I have a "job", that when someone asks me where I was, I have to pause for a minute and think about it. To have a "job" that when you are off duty, you are truly off duty, and free to live your life is priceless.

Since you mentioned the reserve day, I guess I will chime in on that too. A day that the company pays me to be available to fly a cool plane and still have time to spend with my family, may not be a "day off" but it is as close as you can get in my opinion. BTW, I am in Brussels right now and have a reserve day tomorrow. Since it will be raining, I will go to a museum and a nice restaurant with some crew mates. Of course I will try to remember that it is not really a day off :-)

So I ask again a simple question, How many days off and why?

Originally Posted by maxjet

Legitimate question here for you folks all wound up about days off. You work for a commuter airline. How many days off do you think you should have every month? Keep in mind that the rest of the working world gets 8 a month off. Before you start to rant about your duty hours keep in mind that the cab drivers and a lot of van drivers who take you to your hotels are working 12+ hours shifts 6 days a week. Before you start to complain about the "hourly" wage, which I agree is horrible, think about the flight attendants on your airplanes who are never moving to mainline and will work for their 13-15K a year for their entire career. SOOOO.....how many days off should you have and please justify it.

Originally Posted by Paid2fly

Two of my neighbors were police officers. They both made six figures without having to pick up overtime, would come home for extended 3 or 4 hour lunches while "on duty", and have now retired with large(six figure) pensions and free medical care in their early 50's.

Originally Posted by Paid2fly

Two of my neighbors were police officers. They both made six figures without having to pick up overtime, would come home for extended 3 or 4 hour lunches while "on duty", and have now retired with large(six figure) pensions and free medical care in their early 50's.

Originally Posted by Paid2fly

None of our flight attendants make 13K their entire career(most can and do make much more even their first year). The senior ones easily make at least triple that(or more)!

Originally Posted by Paid2fly

None of our flight attendants make 13K their entire career(most can and do make much more even their first year). The senior ones easily make at least triple that(or more)!

Originally Posted by maxjet

Are you working at mainline or a commuter? Things must have drastically changed since I was at the commuters. So you are saying that the Flight Attendants make more than a first year FO?

Originally Posted by BTpilot

You're in the commuter airline forum, chief, SO you may get responses from commuter pilots.

My understanding is somewhat limited because I don't discuss payrates with the FA's, but I believe they start at 20ish an hour, but the top out is only 28-30 or so?.. Not 100% sure. Just small math would show an FA at at my commuter grosses probably 19-35k.

At my commuter, I made 27 hour starting and a grossed around 36k that year.

Did you work for a commuter in 1995 when they only flew jetstreams and dash 8s? Because yeah, things have changed just a tiny little bit.

Originally Posted by maxjet

2007 was when I left. Just looked up FA pay rates. $15.61 to start. Interesting that the thread is again moving in the wrong direction. This is about how many days off should you have and still expect the company to operate effectively.