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  • Pilot Schedules

    G'day all,

    I'm wondering if anyone will share with me a typical pilot schedule or itinerary for how ever long an airline pilots schedule runs for. I'd be interested to see the different types of sectors and times of day etc

    Many thanks,

    Nick

  • #2
    If i'm not mistaken, for Cathay, pilots are given new rosters every 15th of the month...

    Comment


    • #3
      Rosters can vary a great deal depending on airline, aircraft type, basing, contract etc etc... Some airlines have bid systems where the most senior crew get the best rosters and the more junior ones live with whats left. Some airlines have rotating seniority so everyone gets a good roster eventually. At my airline we have completely randomly generated rosters although you can put preference for if you want your roster completely random, or guaranteed with a block of 5 days off a month for people who commute back home to visit family. We can also request for layovers and specific flights. Rosters also differ depending on rank

      As an example, a Second Officer flying the 747-400 or A340 might do 3 long haul trips a month, each lasting 4-5 days long. This gives them up to around 18 days off a month and possibly 7 days off in a row!

      For someone flying regionally like myself, I might get 8 days off a month which means my job is like working a 5 day working week. These flights might be randomly scattered so I might get those 8 days off as a block of say 5 days and then the company might work me hard for the rest of the month.

      Times of day again depend what aircraft type you fly. Flying longhaul you can expect to spend half your life fighting sleepiness and trying to stay awake when you should be asleep. Flying shorthaul normally means you get to fly during the day unless you are involved in freight which is pretty much a 24 hour operation!

      In my company the restriction is 84 'credit' hours, over which we get paid overtime, so the company try to give us all as close to these 84 hours as possibly without surpassing it. Flying longhaul, 2-3 trips may already mean you reach that limit whereas flying shorthaul means quite a bit of flying before I reach that limit. In my company, a flying hour is factored depending on whether you are two crew, 3 crew or 4 crew. It is these factored hours which go towards the 84.

      We get our rosters published on the 15th of every month for the following month which means that we only get 14 days notice to where we will be at the beginning of our roster which is not all that great for planning your life.

      Hope that gives you a little insight into how it works at one airline!
      Have a look at my photos, including Kai Tak crazy landings!http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=460

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks Colin!
        Sounds like i have alot to look forward to eventually :P

        Comment


        • #5
          At my company we work a 16 day on 16 day off schedule. And we are home based, which means we are airlined from our home airport (DTW in my case) to wherever our trip starts.

          A typical line at my company consists of 2 legs from an outstation, stopping once, to Toledo, OH. Freight is sorted for 2-3 hours and we depart generally flying 2 legs back to either the same, or sometimes a different outstation.

          Example:

          Show 2145 in the lobby in Boston. Depart at 2315 to ROC and TOL, arrive at 0140. Sit for almost 4 hours. Depart at 0512 for DEN and SAN. Arrive SAN at 0800. Layover for 32 hours. Return a day and a half later to BOS. Repeat that round trip 2-3 times during a month and you're done.

          That's a pretty senior trip.

          A junior trip usually has more flying and less layover time.

          Example:

          Show at 1900 in the lobby in El Paso. Depart at 2020 for STL and TOL, arrive at 0230. Sit for only about 3 hours. Depart at 0545 for STL and ELP. Arrive ELP at 0900. Layover for 10 hours.

          You then depart that night on the same run. You do that Monday-Friday and have a weekend layover in ELP. You do about 8-10 days of that during your 16 day line. Quite tiring....

          At the end of our line, we are airlined home to our respective home airports.
          Anybody can fly a round airplane....

          Comment


          • #6
            Do the airlines generally respect requests for days off for religous reasons?

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Bok269
              Do the airlines generally respect requests for days off for religous reasons?
              No. Our work shedules are based on a 24/7 operation. If you want a day off for a religious reason it is up to you to trade the shift.

              Comment


              • #8
                If I still had my dads schedule i would scan it and show ya'll. But for instance it goes something like this 5 day trip: Ill try and get an example soon.


                MSP-MKE
                MKE-MSP
                MSP-GRB
                ---------
                GRB-DTW
                DTW-ATL
                ATL-MSP
                MSP-GFK
                ---------
                GFK-MSP
                MSP-FAR
                FAR-MSP
                MSP-FAR
                FAR-MSP
                MSP-MSN
                ---------
                MSN-DTW
                DTW-BUF
                BUF-DTW
                DTW-IND
                ---------
                IND-FLL
                FLL-IND
                IND-MSP

                Thats one that I remember that my dad did back a while ago.

                Comment


                • #9
                  as flight instructing is one of your most probable steps in becoming an airline pilot, I'll go over what my schedule has looked like lately.

                  I started out being very busy and working every day for about 3 weeks, weekends included. After that, things have slowed down greatly and though I've been into the airport for the last 6 days, I haven't been able to fly in those 6 days because the times that my students have been able to fly, the weather hasn't worked out well, or they have had to cancel for other reasons (most of my students are currently attending the US Naval Academy). Most of the time its pretty fun, but also quite frustrating. As I haven't flown much lately, my next paycheck is going to be absolutely horrendous (bout $150). I also haven't had many days off, I began work here on Jan 2nd, and I've only had about 3 days that I have had without anything scheduled.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by ptbodale
                    No. Our work shedules are based on a 24/7 operation. If you want a day off for a religious reason it is up to you to trade the shift.
                    Is that pretty easy to do?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Bok269
                      Is that pretty easy to do?
                      Generally yes. After a few years you cultivate a network of friends and workmates that can be relied upon to help. However if you don't you just have to work.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        My schedule is pretty good for a normal work day.

                        it will usually look something like this... ( I am based at Portland, OR KPDX)

                        PDX-SEA
                        SEA-PDX
                        PDX-EUG
                        EUG-PDX
                        PDX-BOI
                        BOI-PDX

                        the cities vary quite a bit as I fly a Q-400 for Horizon but depending on the length of the flights I have I can have just 4-5 flights per day or 6+

                        I fly from Portland to...
                        Seattle
                        Boise
                        Spokane
                        Medford-Los Angeles (PDX-MFR-LAX)
                        Reno
                        Edmonton, Canada
                        ect.

                        do my flights vary from about 40 min PDX-SEA to 1.5 hr PDX-RNO and 2+ hr LAX-MFR (medford, OR)

                        usually pretty nice schedules I'm a fairly junior captain for Horizon so I get okay schedules but they are a lot of fun to do lots of takeoffs and landings.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Horizoncapt
                          My schedule is pretty good for a normal work day.

                          it will usually look something like this... ( I am based at Portland, OR KPDX)

                          PDX-SEA
                          SEA-PDX
                          PDX-EUG
                          EUG-PDX
                          PDX-BOI
                          BOI-PDX

                          the cities vary quite a bit as I fly a Q-400 for Horizon but depending on the length of the flights I have I can have just 4-5 flights per day or 6+

                          I fly from Portland to...
                          Seattle
                          Boise
                          Spokane
                          Medford-Los Angeles (PDX-MFR-LAX)
                          Reno
                          Edmonton, Canada
                          ect.

                          do my flights vary from about 40 min PDX-SEA to 1.5 hr PDX-RNO and 2+ hr LAX-MFR (medford, OR)

                          usually pretty nice schedules I'm a fairly junior captain for Horizon so I get okay schedules but they are a lot of fun to do lots of takeoffs and landings.
                          I thought pilots aren't allowed to do more than 4 flight segments in a day?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Bok269
                            I thought pilots aren't allowed to do more than 4 flight segments in a day?
                            Rules like that vary from airline to airline. It is very hard to generalise in this industry on things like that. In my airline we do not do more than 3 sectors a day in general.
                            Have a look at my photos, including Kai Tak crazy landings!http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=460

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Bok269
                              I thought pilots aren't allowed to do more than 4 flight segments in a day?
                              No such rule in the USA. However I have flown for companies that limit the number of legs per day, that's usually included in the pilot's union contract.

                              Under Part 121 Domestic/Flag operations you are restricted to being scheduled for no more than 8 hours in any 24 hour period. You may however fly over that 8 hours, but you will require more than the standard rest period at the end of a day.

                              At some of the regionals, it's not uncommon to have 6-8 leg days. (Mostly short hops)

                              I remember one trip when I flew the CRJ for Pinnacle...

                              DTW-CLE-DTW-OMA-DTW-ERI-DTW
                              Anybody can fly a round airplane....

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