CL300

A lot of guys I fly with that live in FLL, PBI, RSW, Naples, etc (within that two hour drive to MIA) all commute to SDF for a better schedule. Lots of day turns out of Miami. They're good when you have a short drive to the airport, but 90-120 minutes four times a week would get old.

UPSFO4LIFE

That's an understatement!

Night_Hawk

The one thing you night have in your favor is out of the 10 guys they have hired into MIA this year 9 want to leave.

Not 15 years to get decent flying, but maybe 3-4( for a 2 hour drive)

Brown Boeing FO

MIA or the company?

brownie

Both I'm sure it's Miami

DSflyer05

Can somebody give some insight on what a new hire can expect for total number of days working the first year? Is 15 days a month a good estimate? And how much would it make a difference being reserve as compared to having a line (when one can be held.) I'm not as concerned about flying time, but mainly looking for an idea of how much a first year guy can expect to be away from home as a commuter. Also, from a QOL stand point, how much of a difference can you expect in year 2 through 5. I know this is a loaded set of questions with many variables but I appreciate the insight. Btw, if it comes through in the future, I would be commuting out of PHL primarily. Thanks again.
DS


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BoilerUP

The answer to that question is fairly fleet-specific.

PHL should be a pretty easy commute to SDF regardless of what airplane you get thanks to numerous company flights as well as AA.

Reserve is 14 duty days every 28 day pay period; there are circumstances which you can be extended 1 day domestically or 2 days internationally. Again, it is fleet-specific but reserve could be week on/off, two weeks on/off, or short blocks that add up to 14 days every 28.

Junior lines tend to be VTO (Vacation/Training/Opentime...sometimes known as "build up lines") or Base Trip lines. If you get one of these when you're junior, expect 11-12 days off per pay period with a bunch of mish-mash short duty period trips, but sometimes you can "shave" a day or two due to how trips are built with deadheads.

I can't speak toward MIA, ONT or ANC schedules...which you as a PHL commuter probably aren't interested in anyway.

As for years 2-5, it depends entirely how quickly your seniority rises in fleet/seat/domicile.

FTFF

I know it sucks to do but over the past 2-3 years there has been a ton of good info in these threads. You can also search posts by user name. I know myself, boilerUP, whalesurfer, G550, pilot7576, catcuscrew, and others have contributed quite a bit.

To answer your question, seniority isn't as big a factor to QOL as it is at other outfits. It starts getting good towards the top where you can get the best trips with the days off you want, conflict some of them off for full pay then maximize your 5 weeks vacation into at least 10 weeks free from work plus whatever you conflicted off. Otherwise we are all kind of flying the same crap and the same number of days per pay period (4 week block), just different days off. I think the 14' hires in SDF are getting into the upper half of the seniority lists on the 76/Bus now which equates to more choices of trips and which days to work, but they're still probably getting tagged for around 14 days per PP and flying the same type of pairings held by the more junior. Some fleet's reserve goes junior, some fleet's its the base trips no one else wants. As boiler said, VTO's are attainable for junior guys in most fleets and can be quite a good alternative to the normal bottom feeder bid awards. Otherwise, yeah, 15 days per calendar month would be a good ball park number to work with including your commute to PHL. I've been as low as 10 and as high as 18 per pay period (forced training on day off and other sacrifice days to make needed OT trip trade go thru) but usually 14.

Otherwise QOL at the bottom really isn't bad. I've had to do recurrent training on days off more often than not which I didn't care for. I've been brough back late 3-4 times but never more than 20hrs late and the late arrival pay takes most of the bite out of it. With trading and dropping I've been able to get every day off I really needed and most days off that I really wanted. I've shaved off a bumch of duty days with favorable deadhead deviations. FYI, PHL might be the easiest commute in the system and would provide lots of opportunities to have more days at home.

Hope this helps. My summer downtime is over but if you got anymore questions these guys will hook you up with good info; we got a good group on here. Best of luck.

whalesurfer

Your questions have pretty much been answered already.. Quality of Life and commuting shouldn't be used in the same sentence but I'm sure you know that already.. lol
It's doable, I'm a commuter myself, however you'll be paying a high price for it. Especially if you get based in Anchorage you'll end up sacrificing many of your off days traveling to and from work. As a commuter I'd say plan on working 17 days or so every month..

The worst lines for commuting purposes are base-trip lines, also known as crap lines. I've spent many of my off days chilling in Anchorage simply because I didn't have enough time to jumpseat home and then back to ANC for my next trip. :-(
Commuters will typically avoid base-trip lines like a plague.. As a junior guy/gal you might not be able to bid around it.

Will your schedules improve after the first year or so? Too early to tell. We're in an uncharted territory right now. We've hired more people in the last 12 months than we did in previous 10 years so things are changing fairly rapidly.

I'm very excited to see so many new-hires on property right now and must say I'm a little envious of the type of career progression they (in all likelihood) will be experiencing. It's very possible they'll be holding hard lines a year or two after getting hired, however, you just never know.. So plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Either way, welcome onboard everyone!

(Thanks FTFF)

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DSflyer05

Thanks a lot for the information guys. It's much appreciated.


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