Dojetdriver,

If you do the 17 days minus the day before and day after for travel, you've got ~11 days at home. If you break the line up, you'll lose two more days traveling. Not a factor if you live in base but if you commute...

I have to add filler....It is a good JOB. Good folks to fly with on the PO side. The 5Y guys I've met seem to be good dooods.

Thanks, but to take advantage of the gateway being STN based you have to bid 17. How are you able to break it up if you are required to bid 17?

Yo Do! I was at Atlas all though briefly. If you want travel, you must bid the 17 in a row. If you live near STN then or can work some thing out with the company that is cheap than STN to where your trip starts than you dont have to bid 17 in a row. Basically if you live in the State and are based in STN you have to bid 17 in a row.

As far as having all of your days off in a row being so great, well its not. First of all you will lose 2 days getting to work and most likely will lose one going home so now you have 10 days off and have been out 20. 20 days away from home is far to long and will put strain and harm on most of your relationship that wont be fixed with 10 or even 15 days of being home. A 20 day trip is nearly 3 weeks away from home and thats far to long. Now some people I know are very lucky and they often arent out that long, and some people bid out of STN very quickly.

Here is some thing to ponder, they are doing all of this hirring but why? They are hiring till the end of the year and maybe then some but the -8's arent going to be there till 2012 or so. So why? Attrition due to the long-haul freighter lifestyle. Before you decide to go there think long and hard about being gone that long.

It is a great company with a very well run operation, unfortunately the STN guys get the very short end of the stick as far as quality of life.

Springer . . . good job on clearing things up. I'm glad I read all of the threads before posting.

IndyAir Guy: Since you are now on the outside looking in I'll tell you why -- or at least the reason we are given for the hiring. The two dry leases are there for back up as of right now. When they fill all of the slots with new hires and upgrades they plan on flying the classics given back to AAWH and also the aircraft of 516MC that was given to Polar due to a direct result of arbitration hearings. Having said that, I don't know who said it but things are subject to change.

If you guys/gals are stuck at the regionals well good luck to you if you want to work here. As far as the seniority list goes it's DOH from here on out and we'll see what happens as this saga continues.

Spinger addressed all other questions correctly. Glad I was able to help you get here and I'm still looking for that beer! LOL

I didn't forget.....

Yeah, I'm holding court at the Asian Flying Club headquarters until the latter part of the month. Let me know if they string you through here....

Also don't forget.....
I did two years out of STN, every "17" day trip was at least extended two days, most often four. Again you have nothing to say about it ...they have you. That's 21 plus commute. If your next trip starts four days later you have to "volunteer" to work those as well, because it is too short a time to go back and forth and have any time at home. In my time there I did four 40+ day trips that I did not want to do.
Still, if your current job sucks......what else can you do. At least the pay was OK right away.

I was at Atlas two years. My last trip was seventeen days on with one week off flowing into a new seventeen day trip. I was assigned 4 invol. days during that week off leaving me stuck 1/4 way around the world on the three days left in what was my week off. Those three days were on my tab and Europe is not cheap. The Dollar is at an all time low. Finding a $150 room would be a real bargin! All told... I spent 38 days on the road. It's a tough job for the STN based folks for sure. Although it seems to work for some, it is not the job for everyone.

There are two unfortunate truths here that transcend Atlas. First is that the further you must commute the more you hate your job. The second is that foreign domiciles seem to be the management rage these days.

“STN” is really a general European base. If you can, or want, to be in Europe Atlas is a golden opportunity. If you can gut it out until you get a base closer to home, the go for it with your eyes open. If you live on the West coast and every day being based in “STN” is going to be hell, then avoid Atlas like the plague.

I got hired in 1998. If I had faced STN I would not have taken the job. On the other hand there are guys happy with it. To each their own.

Dash - I would second that. I had the impression that there was two classes at Atlas - STN and US Based. I hope that the new Union will Unify the pilot group's work rules. The STN guys get the short end of the deal.