Gettin the shaft.
Aviation sucks, flying rocks! Now if you could just get both to rock, we'd have a good thing going. Today was a compilation of highs and lows. The high was that I took my Lear Jet checkride and passed. The low was that when I got back to the office to sign all the paperwork, I got some terrible news from the chief pilots office. The ever so wise company has decided to change our schedule. As of September 1st we are now going to a 5 on 2 for 2 weeks of the month and a 12 on 2 off schedule for the remaining 2 weeks. This means that my job has now made it impossible for me to commute to work. Not only does it suck for me, but a lot of other pilots who commute as well. I'm guessing that there will be a mass exodus of pilots in the next few months. Our quality of life just dropped to zero. We went from having 110 days off a year (poor by pilot standards) to 96 days off a year (unacceptable). In a typical month, we would only get 6 days off. That is totally garbage.
I can see things happening like this......
Friday rolls around after being on duty and away from base since Monday morning. You are stuck in the middle of nowhere and the only airline flights get you back to base in the early afternoon on Saturday. There's a half day wasted. You get home, spend a little time with the family and go to bed early because you are exhausted from getting up at 4a.m. to catch the earliest flight. You get up Sunday morning and possibly spend 12 hours with the family before going to bed again. 6a.m. Monday morning, the pager goes off and your on the road again for 120 hours or 5 days and repeat. Out of the 168 hours in a week, you spend 130 on the road away from the family. Now that's if you live at base. For a commuter like myself, I'd get even less. I'd get back Saturday afternoon and leave Sunday afternoon. I'd get a whopping 24 hours at home with my family 2 weekends a month. I will not tolerate this at all.
My family is much more important to me than this job. If having them move to my base were an option, I might consider staying, but it is not. Unfortunately it is time to look elsewhere for another job. As with many aspects of aviation, things just don't work out the way you plan.
I can see things happening like this......
Friday rolls around after being on duty and away from base since Monday morning. You are stuck in the middle of nowhere and the only airline flights get you back to base in the early afternoon on Saturday. There's a half day wasted. You get home, spend a little time with the family and go to bed early because you are exhausted from getting up at 4a.m. to catch the earliest flight. You get up Sunday morning and possibly spend 12 hours with the family before going to bed again. 6a.m. Monday morning, the pager goes off and your on the road again for 120 hours or 5 days and repeat. Out of the 168 hours in a week, you spend 130 on the road away from the family. Now that's if you live at base. For a commuter like myself, I'd get even less. I'd get back Saturday afternoon and leave Sunday afternoon. I'd get a whopping 24 hours at home with my family 2 weekends a month. I will not tolerate this at all.
My family is much more important to me than this job. If having them move to my base were an option, I might consider staying, but it is not. Unfortunately it is time to look elsewhere for another job. As with many aspects of aviation, things just don't work out the way you plan.
posted by Windsor at 4:27 PM
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