A Year in the Life

[PilotMan]

...of a Pilot.

I have been mulling this idea over for a little while. Especially now that I travel to some more interesting places and my schedule is a little more interesting that maybe it's time to put some things down. Today was the day to get this going. So I guess it's now or never.

It's my intention to use this as more of a diary and more work than personal. I'd like to give some insight to my job duties and things that come up in the course of the day on the job.

I'm warning you. This job is not nearly as challenging in many ways as other flying jobs that I've had. This may end up be seriously boring and maybe not that interesting to most of you. Nobody is forcing you to read it though. I'm not that great of a writer either and I always have issues with keeping on track. A year would be a huge commitment success for me.

So with that. Welcome! Comment as you see fit or ask whatever might be on your mind.

[timmae]

Cool theme.. I will be reading and likely asking questions. Looking forward to seeing your travels!

[PilotMan]

First a little background about me for those of you who may not be as familiar.

I'm 39, on my 3rd airline. I've been flying as an airline pilot for 12 years now. In 7 days it will be exactly the 12th anniversary of my first job. I've been flying professionally for 14 years. This airline that I'm with now is the culmination of that career. I've been here for 18 months and it's been great. The job the you dream of as a kid. The kind of job that you hope you never have to leave. The kind of job that gives you hope that you'll never, ever, have to interview for another job, ever again. Hope being the key in that phrase.

It's not hard to figure out who I'm with. I won't mention it in here, but if you don't know, you'll figure it out rather quickly.

I've been married to the same woman for 14 years now. She has been there for me since before I was PilotMan. I was just an Assistant General Manger and she was a Hostess. She's been the best thing in my life. Most airline marriages have major problems. The time away, the necessary trust involved, the lack of money. They don't call it AIDS for nothing (Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome) We've had our tough times, but we've also fought like tooth and nail for the other one. She's been my best friend and I don't think I could do it all without her.

We have 3 kids together. All boys they are 19, 12, and 11. I adopted the oldest after we got married. I've known him since just before his 3rd birthday and am the only Dad he's ever known. He has some special needs as well. The other two have been there with us through my career. While they don't share my love of sports, they do share my love of gaming.

[PilotMan]

So commuting is a big part of this job sometimes. Many times you'll have the luxury of being able to live where you work. Like the 9.5 years in my first job and the reason that I ended up in Northern Kentucky. Many times you just don't have that option. With our kids the ages they are and our finances where they are we are content to sit tight and let me fly back and forth to go to work. It can really cut short your time at home and the extra expense is always there.

As a commuter my options are basically to get hotel rooms or have what's called a "crash pad." Crash pads are notorious and can range from really nice to really a dump. You can have your own room and bed, or you can share a room with 6-10 other guys. Sometimes you have the same bed that you can call your own. Other times you pick your bed on a first come first served option called "hot bunking."

In my base of Newark, a hotel room will run you right around $100. My last crash pad was $225, the one I'm in now runs me $185. You can see it doesn't take that much for a crash pad to make the most sense money wise if you need it.

My current pad just so happens to be in a hotel anyway. A few rooms are set up here with 6-8 beds (3-4 bunks) but the most guys that have been here that I've seen so far is 4. It's a hot bunk set up, but housekeeping does a nice job of keeping it clean and the sheets fresh.

Today I had to leave home at 300p so I could catch a flight to Newark to be able to start a trip tomorrow morning. Count that as 16 hours away from home before I even start work. Let the journey begin.

[PilotMan]

So I started what amounts to a 6-day trip today. It's really only a 2-day and a 4-day back to back, but for me being a commuter there isn't a chance to go home in between so it's a 6 day.

At the beginning of a trip I have to be at the airport at least 1 hour prior to the departure of the flight. At the plane at least 45 minutes prior to the flight. Before I do that I have a bunch of preflight and paperwork that I have to get done. I'll go into all of that on a different day.

Today I'm heading somewhere I've never been before. It's south of the border and a full 5 hours and 47 minutes of flying time.

Puerto Vallarta!

I have to say that you didn't have to twist my arm too hard when I saw this on my schedule. It's a 23 hour layover and 1 leg back to Newark tomorrow afternoon.

The flight down wasn't bad. Some turbulence east and south of the Appalachians that really didn't get better until we were over the Alabama/Mississippi area. After that it was pretty smooth sailing.

I wasn't flying today's leg and what I mean is that I wasn't in actual physical control. The pilot who isn't flying is called the Pilot Monitoring and is responsible for all the communications between the plane and ATC. Tomorrow, I'll fly back to Newark.

It's a nice 79 degrees here today. I don't have any big plans to head out on the town or anything, especially having never been here before. and was able to facechat with my family when I got all settled. So for now, this is the horrible view I have to endure from my room.

[britrock88]

This looks like it'll be great.

[timmae]

Awesome stuff... do you have any choice in flights or is it just whatever is programmed for you? Does the flight crew remain consisten t on the flight backor is it a completely different crew? Also, is there any way to change which airport your base airport is or are you placed out of newark long term?

[Dodgerchick]

wow.wow.wow

[PilotMan]

That was one of the better layovers that I've had for a while. I got to spend some time in a chair on the beach enjoying the sound of the surf today. That was my first time on the Mexican west coast. It reminded me of a warmer, smaller, quieter San Francisco. Very scenic. Dare I say better scenery than Cancun, but the beach is more rocky and not as good.

Our flight back was really good until we got to Louisiana. All the weather kicking up there caused a considerable amount of turbulence that we just had to ride out. There was some concern about the weather in Newark slowing our arrival down. We just had to keep an eye on it and press on.

I snapped this picture as we were near Monterrey. These peaks are close to 14,000 and were surrounded by this low fog on the eastern side. My camera on my crappy phone sucks.

Spoiler

The turbulence lasted until we were over eastern Kentucky so not a small amount of time.

It was nice to have the tailwinds today. Tomorrow won't be as enjoyable. Back into the wind. Surprisingly, despite the less than desirable weather in Newark we weren't delayed and were able to make our approach and landing in the rain. Thanks to the wind we were almost 30 minutes early. I think we were helped by the lower Saturday schedule. There is quite a bit less flying on the weekends and arrivals and departures are less intense.

Back to the crash pad for me. Here's a view of what a crash pad sleeping room looks like. Again, this is pretty standard for the industry and this isn't nearly as crowded as I've seen other places.

Spoiler

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by timmae

Awesome stuff... do you have any choice in flights or is it just whatever is programmed for you? Does the flight crew remain consisten t on the flight backor is it a completely different crew? Also, is there any way to change which airport your base airport is or are you placed out of newark long term?

I'll get into the trips and how they are assigned in a little bit. As far as the flight crews, for us, typically the pilots stay together on the same trip because we are limited to the plane type we are qualified and assigned to (in my case, the B-737). The flight attendants are on a completely different schedule. They change pretty much every flight we do. Obviously the flexibility to work any plane means they can move around here and there for more efficient trips and schedules.

Yes, we can move bases. Everything is seniority based. I can bid into it or trade with another pilot who wants my base. If my number isn't senior enough I can't move. Also, I could bid into another plane too. Again, seniority based. I bid originally for the 737, even though I could have held the 757. There were a lot of things I had to take into consideration but felt that the opportunities were better on the 737.

Chicago would be an easier commute and only recently have I been able to hold it. But the flying is less productive, I would be on reserve again and I would lose some days off. So for now, I'm staying in Newark.

[PilotMan]

God I'm tired. Hey, at least I got to wake up without an alarm. That's always nice. I had to be at the airport by 1030a this morning to work a flight to San Francisco. Strong winds a heavy load meant that we were going to be right at the weight limit. Flight time: 6 hours and 6 minutes.

A flight is like a dance. There are many parts played by many people and they all have to come together in the right moment for it to leave on time. Flight crew, Gate Agents, Ramp Crew, Dispatcher, Load Planner, Operations personnel. When it works right, like it does most of the time flights get to leave on time. Any hiccup serves to derail the process.

Today, things just seemed to be working against us, not only the wind. As the gate finishes boarding, the flight crew finishes all our briefings, checklists and preflight, the flight attendants finish the cabin inspection, the baggage handlers finish loading the plane, all the data runs through the Load Planner who sends us our weights so we can send info back out for takeoff data.

To keep this shorter I'll paraphrase some things. Load planner had trouble with the weights. We couldn't get our normal takeoff data relayed so we had to call the dispatcher and have him run the numbers and send them to the plane. That is very rare. We had to takeoff on a little bit longer stretch of runway because we were so heavy. On taxi out, ATC had a reroute, but our dispatcher explicitly told us no reroutes because of fuel. So we had to wait some more. Eventually the reroute was approved and we left, albeit about 45 minutes after we were supposed to.

And all that is before you've even left the ground. Now add 6+ hours of flying. Today's flying was made less glamorous due to cloud cover over much of the US. Nothing really to look at. Snow in Canada, snow in Minnesota, snow in South Dakota, snow in Wy...wait I can't remember actually seeing the ground in Wyoming. Hehe. Snow in the mountains. Anyway, you get the idea.

My day wasn't done in SFO mind you. We ended up being about 35 minutes late, but we were also scheduled to deadhead (an aviation term meaning to ride as a passenger on duty) to Vancouver. Originally we only had 1 hour to make the flight, now we had roughly 25 minutes to make it. Thankfully I walked on only a few minutes from departure.

That flight ended up being about 20 minutes late because of late connecting bags that operations held the plane for. So now a 2 hours flight to Vancouver and we end up getting in here around 1045p. Clear customs and head for the hotel. I've actually never been to Vancouver before but I've heard it's one of the best layovers in the system. I won't know, it's dark now, it'll be dark when we leave. I won't see a thing. I figure out that I've spend almost 11 full hours on a plane today. Not just working, actually, physically, on a plane.

I'm starving. We are staying at the airport because it's a very short layover and I change and head out to the food court for some fast food Chinese. I call this part dinner at 1130p (eastern; I've found that life is easier if I say on my body time clock as much as practical.)

So I'm back to work in 9.5 hours. A similarly long day ahead tomorrow but I'm looking forward to hopefully grabbing some fish taco's when I get to Orange County (CA) tomorrow night.

[bbgunn]

I do some travel for leisure. I'm not sure if I fly more or less than the average man, but for someone who flies as much as I do, this is a very interesting log. Keep it up!

[BYU 14]

This will be good, very interesting to get some behind the scenes stuff. Some Canadian pilots own the house next to us and are down here 4-5 times a year, so I have talked to them about the flying part, or surprisingly lack of tie they actually physically fly the plane. Have never gotten into this part of it though, so looking forward to the travels.

[PackerFanatic]

This is already awesome, PM. Can't wait to read more!

[CraigSca]

PM, when there's turbulence, who makes the decision to radio ATC for a different altitude to check for clearer air? Is it the captain, or is it a mutual decision? Is it totally up to the pilot's discretion? I recently flew in China and it felt like the pilots didn't care if there was turbulence, they were given an altitude and were going to stick with it (probably just my perception).

How much leeway is there in flying around thunderstorms?

You mentioned that you fly 737s - are there big differences between the old 737s and the new ones? Are you rated to fly only certain models of them?

[Neuqua]

What prompted you to become a pilot? I'd always wanted to be one growing up but I never really did anything about it. It's interesting that it seems you may have career-changed into it.

[PilotMan]

Wow guys, thanks for reading! I appreciate all the comments and questions! Don't get too excited though. It's going to get a little bit boring. I have a bunch of days off to take care of the Mrs. who is having surgery later this week. I'll still be posting though. It just won't be exciting.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

PM, when there's turbulence, who makes the decision to radio ATC for a different altitude to check for clearer air? Is it the captain, or is it a mutual decision? Is it totally up to the pilot's discretion? I recently flew in China and it felt like the pilots didn't care if there was turbulence, they were given an altitude and were going to stick with it (probably just my perception).

How much leeway is there in flying around thunderstorms?

You mentioned that you fly 737s - are there big differences between the old 737s and the new ones? Are you rated to fly only certain models of them?

When a flight is being planned the dispatcher takes into account pilot reports as well as information put out by the company meteorologists. Turbulence can mean more fuel needs to be carried do to altitude or lateral deviations.

To answer the question it's the captain's responsibility for the flight, but we typically work as a team and make decisions together. We are always listening on the radio for ride reports, asking ATC to ask other planes how things are going, and getting information from Dispatch. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do about it. You have to go there or the rides just suck everywhere and you have to ride it out. Most altitude choices are fuel driven. The higher you go generally the cheaper it is to operate, however you are also closer to the operating envelope of the plane. Turbulence can make things dangerous if you are too high.

As for thunderstorms between the radar in the plane and on the ground and the general nasty nature of them we try really hard to avoid them at all costs. General rule is 20 miles but some can be as much as 100 miles away depending.

With a 737 type rating I am able to fly all variants from the classics to the new Max series that is coming out in a couple of years. That's both good and bad. Thanks to Southwest Airlines being the biggest buyer of 737's they convinced Boeing to keep many similarities between the old planes and the new. The upside is lower training costs and flexibility the downside is a lot of dated operations in the cockpit that most newer planes would have fixed by now. Even the new Max series will still have it. Thanks Southwest.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

What prompted you to become a pilot? I'd always wanted to be one growing up but I never really did anything about it. It's interesting that it seems you may have career-changed into it.

Oh man, my back story is a little kid of divorced parents who grew up flying unaccompanied from Minot to Los Angeles starting at age 6. A dad who was a pilot in the Air Force. A grandfather who was a naval aviator instructor in WWII. My mom even soloed before my dad did, but never went any further than that. I was in Civil Air Patrol in high school and even my first job after high school was working at the airport ice cream shop.

I come by it honestly even though I didn't think at the time that you could just become a pilot. I went to college and didn't think about it any more. The opportunity came up to go to a flight school in Florida and really commit to it (because at the time it was that or back to graduate school) and in the end it was something that I was always drawn to. I was fortunate enough to be able to be successful at it and make a career out of it.

I'd say thought that it was the flight crews that looked after me, talked to me, the pilots who put me in the cockpit before the flight. Plus when my friends weren't doing anything over the summer I was going to California and getting there in just a few hours. I was seeing a world far away from where I lived and I loved it.

[NoSkillz]

Love this PilotMan!

[PilotMan]

It was still raining in Vancouver when I left this morning. There wasn't anything to look at. Even though the layover wasn't that long the bed was nice and I got a good night's sleep.

Our schedules aren't always nice and smooth going from one plane to another with no breaks. In less productive months like January we can have breaks. Today's break was 4 minutes shy of 4 hours. We call them productivity breaks or airport appreciation time. You could also call it not getting paid.

If there's one thing I'm good at thought, it's killing time. Only child, single working mom, latchkey. Oh yeah. I can kill some time. Today wasn't even that hard. I dropped my bags off in ops and did 2.5 miles around the terminal. In a suit. Lol. You can't really speed walk in a suit. But sitting as much as I do you gotta get up and move when you can. Throw in some lunch and laptop time and it was over that fast.

Denver always has the potential for shitty rides going over the mountains and today was one of the worst I've ever seen. In fact, the turbulence we had on climb out on the way to Orange County was the worst I've seen in years.

I do have one kinda cool photo from today.



That's snow in the Grand Canyon. That's just not something you see every day.

I think I can see the end of this trip on the horizon. I'm on day 4 today and I'm really ready to be done, but I've got 2 more flights. After having 3 of 4 layovers on the West coast I've more or less acclimated to Pacific time. This will probably work out in my favor, at least for this trip. You see, tonight's overnight has to set me up for tomorrow.

Let me explain. Tomorrow morning I do one leg to San Francisco. Then go to the hotel for 12 hours and then leave the hotel tomorrow night to fly an all night red-eye back to Newark. So after working mornings and afternoons, tomorrow I have to try and sleep during the day so I can be up all night.

It's taken me some time but I think I've got a system that works reasonably well for me. Basically I need to be able to get a good workout in, a good meal and be tired enough to just go to bed by 3 in the afternoon. If I can get 5 hours of sleep tomorrow afternoon I can be rested enough for my night flight.

It's not the ideal schedule, but it get's me back home the same day (called being able to commute on the back end.) I'll do just about anything to get home on the back end.

[MacroGuru]

You know I am reading! Definitely awesome!

[PilotMan]

Beautiful morning flight up to San Francisco from LA this morning. No clouds, great temps. One of the benefits of being based on the east coast is all the west coast flying that I get to do. In my previous flying jobs I was stuck flying east of the Mississippi 90% of the time. I'd be stuck in the northeast on a snowy day where every flight was dealing with weather in one form or another. Occasionally I got out to Salt Lake City or Denver, Dallas, Austin, but most of the time was NY, Buffalo, Atlanta. I love it out here.

I'm trying to convince my body it's time to get some sleep. I have to get up in 4.5 hours and be ready to fly across the country whether it happens or not. So I really hope it does. Most everyone finds their own way to make it happen. It's not really fun to fly on the backside of the clock when your body is screaming ....sleep!

I leave you with this picture from my walk along the bay, not far from the airport and our short stay hotel in SFO. Just your standard beautiful January day in northern California. It's easy to forget that it's going to be in the teens when you get home, or that it might be snowing back in Newark.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by NoSkillz

Love this PilotMan!

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

You know I am reading! Definitely awesome!

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It means a lot to me. The idea of sticking with this for the year feels daunting, but I'm going to do my best.

[tgray649]

Great read very interesting.

[timmae]

Is that a plane in post #23? How often do you see other traffic and how close have you come? Any on ground "incidents"?

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by timmae

Is that a plane in post #23? How often do you see other traffic and how close have you come? Any on ground "incidents"?

Yeah, it's a plane on final approach for runway 28R in San Francisco. It's very common to see plane when you are at cruise. In addition to ATC informing you of traffic that may be close to you, there is the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) in the plane that will go off if certain parameters are met.

Above 25000 ft in the US, is what is called Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums. That goes all the way to 41000 ft, which also happens to be the ceiling of the 737. Traffic is separated by 1000 ft vertically. I'm not certain on lateral separation for traffic going the same direction, but it's typically more than 10 miles. With the accuracy of GPS and the navigation systems its common to pass other planes traveling on the the same airway in opposite directions. East bound traffic travels at odd altitudes, while west bound even. When this occurs the plane will be often times coming right at you, with a closer rate between the two of you at over 1000 MPH! Also it's not uncommon to pass or be overtaken by another plane traveling the same direction but 2000 ft above or below. In order for planes to be able to operate at these altitudes the aircraft must have certain minimum equipment for safety of flight.

At lower altitudes and certainly near airports controllers have less space to work with and lateral separation is less, while vertical separation between planes flying VFR and in uncontrolled airspace can be as little as 500 ft. (visual flight rules; we fly IFR on instrument flight rules) VFR planes follow the same east/west altitude rules but fly on the 500's of feet as opposed to even thousands. There is no VFR traffic above 17500ft.

By ground incidents I assume you mean some sort of incursion or forced rejected takeoff. Yes, I have had one that had the potential to be serious. We were on takeoff in Buffalo and another passenger jet missed a turn and crossed the hold short line for our runway, forcing us to reject the takeoff. It was frustrating because we were just beating a line of bad weather out and ended up waiting for over an hour for the brakes to cool down, while we watched the other plane takeoff instead of us. Other than that, nothing really out of the ordinary. I don't see go-arounds as out of the ordinary. They are something that has to happen from time to time. They either happen from planes lingering on the runway too long in front of you, bad weather, poor approach or lack of sufficient separation on final. They seem like a big deal to the passengers but not generally to us in the cockpit.

[PilotMan]

Done! Now to just get home. I didn't get the real rest that I had wanted to. Just ended up tossing and turning for a few hours. I felt fine though and it was a mostly smooth 4h and 40 minute flight from coast to coast. It's always much easier to go with the wind than against it, especially in the winter.

Now the trick is to get home. So I've been done with work since 630a and my flight was supposed to leave at 900a, but here it is, 930, and the expectation is that the flight won't go until 1030 now. The flight is going to be a long one too, because of that very same wind. Oh well, I'm like a barn sour horse. Point me home and I can handle it. The flight has plenty of seats and it looks like I'll get a row to myself. I'm not a small guy, that extra space makes a world of difference.

I completely forgot to mention that I had another odd first yesterday. I had gotten up to get in the shower in LA yesterday and it wasn't until just before I went to turn the water on that there was no shower curtain! I was like "wtf?!" Too late to call down and wait for someone to take care of it. I had plenty of towels and tried not to make too terrible a mess. When I went down I asked at the front desk "when did you stop using shower curtains?" She just stammered and looked at me like I had a unicorn horn coming out of my forehead.

If I'm lucky now, I should make it home by 115p this afternoon. Almost 6 hours after I finished work added on to my 6 days of work. Hurry up already!

[flere-imsaho]

This is a great read!

Looks like you had a great hotel room in PV. How often are you put up in decent hotels? I'd have assumed you would always would have been put up in cheapo hotels near an airport.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Oh man, my back story is a little kid of divorced parents who grew up flying unaccompanied from Minot to Los Angeles starting at age 6.

I feel like we may have covered this before, but do you still get up to ND at all these days? Wouldn't necessarily expect it, given that you were probably here for your dad to fly from the AFB.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

I don't see go-arounds as out of the ordinary. They are something that has to happen from time to time. They either happen from planes lingering on the runway too long in front of you, bad weather, poor approach or lack of sufficient separation on final. They seem like a big deal to the passengers but not generally to us in the cockpit.

I've only experienced these at LGA, to my memory. But the one that sticks out to me is the one where the plane was making a final approach and had to abort and climb from maybe 500 feet back into a holding pattern for another go-around.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

This is a great read!

Looks like you had a great hotel room in PV. How often are you put up in decent hotels? I'd have assumed you would always would have been put up in cheapo hotels near an airport.

Thank you I appreciate it. To answer your question, all the time. I would say that domestically we average between 3 and 4 star hotels and internationally the same with the trend toward more 4 star hotels. There are contractual requirements that must be met with regard to location and amenities. Of course it's somewhat relative to the location. That hotel in PV was very nice in a great location. My hotel in Caracas might have been a good hotel, but it was surrounded by a 12 foot concrete wall with razor wire over the top, plus the rooms had cracked windows, missing light fixtures etc. That hotel in Caracas would still be considered one of the best available to us simply because of how crappy Caracas is.

Originally Posted by britrock88

I feel like we may have covered this before, but do you still get up to ND at all these days? Wouldn't necessarily expect it, given that you were probably here for your dad to fly from the AFB.

Sadly, even though I still feel like my heart is somewhat there I don't. Although not for the reasons you think. It was my mom's family that was there. They had a farm out west of town. All of them are gone now and the farm is no longer in the family. My great-great grandfather emigrated from Norway under the homestead act for that land. I wish it could have stayed in the family, but at least close friends now own it. My dad was the one who was in California.

Originally Posted by britrock88

I've only experienced these at LGA, to my memory. But the one that sticks out to me is the one where the plane was making a final approach and had to abort and climb from maybe 500 feet back into a holding pattern for another go-around.

Exactly. LGA can be a bit of a CF due to airspace limitations and controllers who will bark 3 or 4 instructions in one breath, but this is exactly what I was referring to.

Personally I have gone around due to windshear, a bad approach where I was too fast on final and failed to notice a big tailwind on approach and I just couldn't get the plane slowed down enough. That happened exactly 1 time. No way I'm making that mistake again. I've gone around do to planes not clearing fast enough, tower making a mistake and clearing another plane for takeoff when we were too close and a situation where tower felt we were too close to the plane in front of us and told us to go around even though I was fine and we would have been fine.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

If I'm lucky now, I should make it home by 115p this afternoon. Almost 6 hours after I finished work added on to my 6 days of work. Hurry up already!

So I got home at 2p yesterday. That's 7.5 hours after I was done working. That is what they call the cost of commuting. That time where you aren't getting paid and you aren't home where you should be. Add that to the 16 hours early that I had to leave for work on the front and and you get 23.5. My 6 day trip that I just finished cost me 7 days.

This job isn't like your normal 8-5 job. I don't work M-F. I don't get holidays. I get larger chunks of time off than most people, but the cost of a job where you travel a lot does take it's toll. I know that some of you understand that. Any job where you are gone a lot has it's own price. The price on your home life. It takes a special kind of woman to be able to deal with this sort of life. Many of them who can't move on and find other men where they don't have to deal with it. Many women can't handle the idea of their man being out there on his own for so long and so unaccountable. Jealousy and trust play right into all that and can disintegrate a healthy relationship.

Thankfully, I've been married for 14 years to a woman who has been with me for my entire career. We met before my flying days, when I was a fresh faced restaurant manager just out of college and she was a hostess in my store. Yeah, that kind of thing was frowned upon at the time. Yes, it caused problems that we were prepared for. She has been a stay at home mom to our kids. And while that cost us financially it has paid it's rewards in our home life, our kids lives, and our life together. I'm not sure we could have done it with her trying to balance a career on top of it.

Today we are going to the doctor for a pre-surgical appointment and tomorrow she is going in for what will be a 5 to 6 hour surgery to repair some damage and prevent long term complications from the number of pregnancies that she has had. She will be recovering for a couple of weeks and in this time I will have to do my best to do everything else that she does, plus the normal dad and family stuff. Oh and if we are FB friends please refrain from commenting on this there as we aren't discussing it there.

My next trip out isn't for over a week and a half. I have to make sure that she is doing alright before I leave again. So no awesome trip pics for a while. I'll still update the normal stuff here though and I still have to bid my schedule for February so I'll go over that process as well.

[PilotMan]

What a long ass day. Left home at 520a this morning, walked back in the door at 900p. Everything is alright, just a long day. Have to go back in the morning because I couldn't stay with her. I had to come home and be with the boys.

I wanted to talk about the bidding process for my schedule and I will, just not today. Too tired.

[timmae]

thoughts are with ya bud...

[PilotMan]

Again, not a whole lot to post today. I spend the majority of the day at the hospital with the Mrs, but got to bring her home today. She is doing good and on schedule for recovery.

[PilotMan]

Ok, on to scheduling. One of the most asked questions I get is "where do you fly?" or "do you fly the same route?"

Scheduling like most things I have control over is totally based on seniority. What I want to talk about is how the whole process works, what I have control over and how can I use it to improve my life.

I'm going to talk about seniority a lot. It's a simple concept that pretty much says your spot in the company is solely dictated by the date that you were hired. The biggest impact on day to day is the monthly schedule. Each month the company puts out a master list for each airplane of trips that pilots will bid for. These trips will vary from 1-4 days (some wide body, international stuff is different. I won't be talking about it though) and can run from 1 day of the month to multiple times during the month. For example, a 4-day trip could be run starting every Monday throughout the month.

These trips are designed to maximize the value to the company while still complying with all of the rules of the FAA and the contract. The contract already contains all FAA rules so as long as the company stays within it's all legal. Legality is a big deal. It's really complicated and it's really boring. Safe to say, you are better off not worrying about it here.

The pilots are divided into 2 groups when it comes to schedules, lineholders and reserves. Lineholders are the majority, the top 75-85% of pilots in a given group. They hold a regularly awarded schedule that can be between 70-85 hours of scheduled flying in a month. The remaining pilots are reserves. Reserves are on call and can sometimes fly a lot or end up not flying much. They generally are stuck with last minute changes and fewer guaranteed days off, but potentially more if they aren't used.

Next the company looks at all the flying that they have and they draw a line in the group and say everyone above a certain point on the list will be lineholders and the rest will be reserves. It's somewhat fluid based on schedules and more senior pilots who choose to bid reserve.

That brings me to the monthly pain in the ass that is bidding. We have what's called a preferential bidding system (PBS). There are, and I'm not making this up, a nearly infinite permiatation of choices. I can bid for or against certain layovers, days off, trip length, trips that start or end at certain times of the day, other pilots to fly with or to avoid. It just goes on and on and on.

I am senior enough on my plane, in my base, that I'm considered a lineholder. However, being a commuter puts me at a disadvantage because my entire month is somewhat decided by the options that I have to actually get to work. Unlike someone who can drive I have to know that my best travel days are during the week and that weekends, especially Saturdays suck to try and travel on. It also benefits me to work longer 4-day trips because it means that I won't be commuting as often as commuting = lost days off. For me a bunch of 2-day trips are wasted because I probably can't go home between them. I might as well be working. The flipside of that argument is the longer I am gone the harder it is on my family. Anything longer than 4 days gets to be tough on everyone. Especially my rollerboard (suitcase). It just can't hold that much.

The bidding itself is quite complicated. I have to not only order my preferences by what I want, but I have to assign a priority to each thing. The bidding program starts with the most senior guy and gives him exactly what he wants. Then it goes to the next guy, and so on down the list. The bottom of the list gets the scraps and can have some pretty screwy options left over for the monthly schedule. As the program goes through the process of trying to build my schedule if it can't abide me with a schedule request it can ignore it and keep trying. I have to have multiple bids with enough variation that hopefully I can get something that I actually want and not the random gifts of an unloved computer program.

My bid generally looks like this higher priority at the top:

Gimme some days off that I want
Gimme trips that avoid LaGuardia (we have a co-base EWR and LGA. It's a royal PITA for me to get to LGA from CVG or from EWR. Most of those trips start very early and end very late. Not good for commuters. I pay for a crash pad in EWR. A night in a hotel in LGA is between $100-150 on top of that. Fuck that.)
Gimme trips that end by a certain time to I can catch a flight home the same day.
Gimme trips that start later than a certain time to I can commute in same day.

For my seniority, that's about the best I can hope for. I can't really expect to layover in Cancun every week and avoid all red-eyes and still commute on both ends. I'm willing to do pretty much anything if it can get me home at the end of the trip. I'm willing to do pretty much any layover and fly with anyone. It's primarily about getting home.

The cool thing is at the end, when all the trips are assigned, pilots can still drop, trade or add trips to their lines to further adjust their schedules. If I don't want to fly (like I did for a trip at the end of the month) I can ask to have it dropped (lose pay). As long as there are enough reserves to cover the company will do it.

So looking at February there are only a couple of things that I'm trying to work around. I'd like to have some weekends off to be able to see the kids more. It's nice the the 14th falls on a Saturday. Overlaps help. Third, was to try and get a couple days at the beginning of the month off to combine with the end of January to maximize more time at home. Last, I'd like to have the 28th off at the end of the month for my middle son's 13th birthday. In my bid that was the last thing, the highest priority for my month. Getting the 28th off. It should happen, but it's also on a Saturday and maybe that works against me too.

Our bids closed today. I won't know the results until late on the 17th. That's the standard timeline for our schedules. I won't know what I do for the next month until the 17th of the previous one. Now if you are still with me after all that, go bake yourself a cookie and enjoy it's yummy goodness. Nice job.

[thealmighty]

PM,

How does the pay work? Is it by hours in the air, miles flown or what?

Great read.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

PM,

How does the pay work? Is it by hours in the air, miles flown or what?

Great read.

Thanks for reading and approving. The approval of the almighty has to count for something, right?

So the answer across all of aviation is it varies. Let me explain. Pay is negotiated as part of the contract between the union and the company. Not all airlines have unions, but every one of them has some sort of group representative or company liaison or you get the idea. Corporate and fractional (think part ownership companies like Netjets) pay by the month. A guaranteed amount based on seat. Seat meaning captain of first officer.

In commercial aviation it's almost always flight time. The big exception is SWA which is still based on leg distance. I'm not entirely sure how their pay structure is set up, but I do know those guys are still the highest paid in the US for carrying passengers.

If you want to know who pays the most overall you'd have to look at UPS and FedEx. That is the top of the top, but the flying can be brutal. Lots of overnight flying and working for a company that really sees you as more of a mover of boxes (ala glorified truck driver) than a professional aviator. Still, those guys get paid.

If there is a top, there most certainly is a bottom. The regional pilots who fly contracted routes for the legacies are really sucking hind tit. They have been for a long time. The pendulum is slowly swinging for them, but not fast enough.

So what is flight time? It's that moment from all the doors shut on the plane and the parking break released and we are going flying until we park and the parking break is reset and a door is opened. That's it. In a month, like I said earlier, you are looking at lines somewhere between 70-85 hours. Reserves get a guaranteed 73 hours of pay.

There are a whole bunch of other things that factor in as well. We have a pay protection of 5 hours per day. We have a protection of 1 hr of credit for every 3.5 hours of time away from base. So if you get stuck with a 3 day trip to Grand Cayman and say you have a 36 hour layover there, your trip only has about 9.5 hours of flying. But you have a min of 15 hours (5hr/day x 3) and a protection of about 13 hrs and 10 min based on time away from base (all of this is just an example). The value of your trip would be 15 hours even though it only had 9.5 hours of flying. You don't get penalized for the company not being able to build a "good" trip.

Pilots also get a per diem to offset the costs of traveling. This per diem adds, on average about $1.85/hr for every hours away from base and can also vary based on destination. International gets a boost. Every company pays a different per diem rate. The regional pilots (again) are the lowest. A typical 4 day might be 78 hours away from base. That translates into $144 in per diem. Most pilots use the per diem to boost their salary. I wish I could spend that every trip. I could eat better than I do. Lol.

I've never been shy about talking about pilot pay. For the most part it's a matter of public record. You can go to airlinepilotcentral and look up each companies pay rates, fleet sizes, and even some work rules. Just as a comparison of some companies:

5th year first officer at:

Delta 737; about $128/hr
Spirit Airbus; $90/hr
Southwest 737; $130/hr
Jet Blue Airbus; $109/hr

Skywest RJ; $42/hr
Endeavor (Delta) RJ; $38/hr

Fed Ex 757; $135/hr
UPS all; $155/hr

Not all cargo companies are created equal either.

Southern Air, Cincinnati based, 747; $79/hr

This whole industry is such a crapshoot. The fact that you can't take your experience with you when you change companies really ties you to where you are. Seniority is everything and getting on with a really good company is the top of the mountain. It's the achievement of a life of hard work. It's the goal we are all striving for. Thankfully, I was able to get mine about 19 months ago.

[timmae]

Very interesting stuff, great read!

[PilotMan]

Yesterday ended up being just a brutal day. Up at 430a to give meds to the Mrs, up at 630a to take the kids to school, ran to the store to get meds and juice for the Mrs, ran errands across town, took my oldest shopping, then picked up the kids, dropped one off at a competition, took the other home, then took him to piano, ran to another store to get more meds for the Mrs after the first didn't work, took those back to her at home, picked up the son at piano, got some Taco Bell, back home the Mrs is in a great deal of distress, had to run and pick up the other kid from his competition, got home again Mrs is crying with pain, got her bundled up, no dinner, out the door and 20 minutes to the closest ER, raced her inside and spend the last 6 hours of the day there while the Mrs was being tended to. Everything gets made better, back home at 100a, at dinner, in bed by 2, up at 530a for more meds, up at 630 for kids. It's no wonder I needed 2 naps today.

[timmae]

Ouch... It is always darkest...

[PilotMan]

Things have been pretty quiet. Just trying to keep the family going while the Mrs is on the mend.

My February schedule came back and it's a mess. I spend a while chatting with someone from the union about it. What appears to have happened is that I screwed up without knowing that I was screwing up. Sort of....

I told you it was a complex pain in the ass. I said that the company decided how many reserves and lineholders that it will have every month. What happens as the bidding program goes down the list is it's actively looking at the remaining trips and trying to balance it's ability to actually build the lines that it has to at the bottom of the list. When this happens schedules that I would otherwise have been awarded are discarded so that it can take that flying and move it to someone lower on the list for the purpose of creating the required lines.

That's what happened this month (and to a lesser extent in January too.) I spent the morning chatting online with someone from the union trying to get a handle on it and what I can do about it. The answer is change the way you are bidding next month, talk to the Chief Pilot about dropping (i.e. not gonna get paid for it) a trip so that it doesn't suck so bad. Too bad, your line is legal.

As is stands right now, none of my trips are commutable. Two of them are starting and ending in LGA and all of them are bunched up in the middle of the month. I'd be gone from home for about 18 days with 4 actual days off in between. But that's not really true either. I'd have to commute on each of those 4 days off so I'd actually be home a total of maybe 60 hours in that same 18 day span.

So right now it appears that next month is going to be a complete crapshoot. I'll try and get rid of this stuff that doesn't work and (cross my fingers) hope that I can pick up some flying that will plug some of the holes. Otherwise bills might not get paid when March rolls around. That's certainly not a road I'd like to go down at this point.

[pbot]

Sorry to read about the upcoming work schedule but this is a very interesting thread. Thanks for giving us an opportunity to see what goes on.

[PilotMan]

Ahhhh so it's been a week. I told you things would be boring for a bit. I've taken some extra time off from work. The Mrs is taking longer to get better than we had thought, but all in all she is doing well. So this month really isn't indicative of my typical schedule.

The window for making schedule trades opened this week. After all the scheduled flying has been awarded each month there is a mix of open (flying with no pilot assigned to it; keep in mind that Captains (left seat) and First Officers (right seat) are totally separate and individual. So in this mix of trips is everything from 1 to 4 day trips. Most are not great trips, but what they do allow is some option for manipulating your schedule. The biggest issue I had is the tightness of my schedule and the fact that 2 of my 3 trips originate and terminate in LGA. I submitted a request to have both of my LGA starting 4-day trips dropped on the hopes that it would open up my month and give me a lot of flexibility. The drawback is that if I can't find flying to replace it with then I end up with cash flow issues. The last request that I made was to replace my last 4 day with a trip that started a day later, giving me a little more breathing room in my scheduled.

So once the company starts processing requests is takes the most senior guy and goes down from there. If for some reason someone ahead of me has requested something I wanted I'm SOL. The company then processes requests about every 4 hours. So what did I get?

Nada.

I was told that the company didn't have enough reserve coverage on the days that I wanted to drop trips and even that last trip that I wanted to swap for one a day later? Yeah that one too, no coverage. So they rejected everything that I had hoped I would get.

Off I went to plan B, and that was to look for any EWR trip to replace my LGA trips with over the same days. Luckily there was exactly 1 trip for each day that I could request. Not much to choose from but the chance to dump the LGA for the EWR had to be done. I was also lucky that there wasn't anyone ahead of me making the same request so I was able to get those swaps approved. Not having to worry about having to deal with LGA takes a bit of pressure off if I can't get anything else approved.

I put one last request in to swap my final trip with another trip that was commutable on the front end. That would give me a few more hours at home in between trips. It would cost me on the back end and it would cost me a St. Maarten layover but again, home comes first. This trade was approved as well.

I've gone back in and resubmitted a request to drop my middle 4 day trip. My schedule still doesn't look doable as it is. Again I was rejected. No coverage. I'll leave that request in there. If they do end up with coverage it'll get dropped later. I might even place a call into my Chief Pilot and see if they agree and have them override Scheduling.

That's what's coming up for this week. As it stands right now. I won't be flying for a few more days. More time at home is never a bad thing.

[timmae]

Side question(s)... When I travelled last week I was watching a person whom I assume to be the Pilot inspecting the plane before boarding. Is that typical? If so, how much do you need to know about the plane materials/build?

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by timmae

Side question(s)... When I travelled last week I was watching a person whom I assume to be the Pilot inspecting the plane before boarding. Is that typical? If so, how much do you need to know about the plane materials/build?

Yep, I'll get more in depth with what goes on in a typical flight and what my duties end up being but for now that is correct. It's called a walk around and one of the pilots will walk around the plane prior to every flight. In short it's a general inspection of the exterior of the plane. I'm looking for any damage and checking the general condition of the tires, engines and all the pressurized systems. If something isn't right the leak would be fairly obvious. If the weather is bad I'm also looking at any ice or other contaminants on the wings. Pretty much if all the big parts are there and nothing is leaking we are good to go. That's the line we like to say anyway.

As for systems knowledge. It's extensive. That doesn't mean that I am able to just whip out any bit of knowledge about any system and just know exactly what's going on, but you have to know and have a working understanding of not only the operation and limitations of the engines, aerodynamics and basic how a plane flies stuff, but also hydrodynamics (hydraulics and fuel) and electricity. Throw in pneumatics with the pressurization and anti-icing of the plane and you've got a basic idea of what things we have to know. Now put all of it together in a plane (they are all different and yet somehow similar at the same time.)

When I was in initial training I think it was something like 40+ hours of systems computer learning. We have reviews every quarter that we also have to go over as well. In the end it's not that we have to be able to build the plane, but for general knowledge and understanding so we can better deal with things that might go wrong and help address the how and why and what is there that can be done about it.

[Izulde]

Just dropping in to say I love reading this thread.

[CraigSca]

Was on a flight last night from Chicago to Orlando (737). It was flurrying in Chicago when we were boarding the plane, and I noticed the weather forecast had changed to a threat of icing on the roads (less than an inch). I guess because of this, they decided to de-ice the plane. It took an interminable amount of time (actually delayed us for about 45 minutes, but I have to admit, I'd rather do that that take chances). Anyway, I noticed that some of the material they were spraying on the plane was orange tinted and then it seemed like the wings chemicals looked green. Any idea why?

Also, by the time we were making our way to the runway, the weather turned and it was a definite steady snow. When we got on the runway, you could tell the pilot hit the brake and absolutely gunned the engines (much more so than a typical takeoff) and only then released the brakes. We took off VERY quickly (I actually time this - it takes about 35 secs for a normal take off, this felt like we were in the air in 20) - I assume they did this to compensate for any ice accumulation that may have occurred. It's been a while since I've flown in inclement weather - is this part of the standard operating procedure for a 737?

I must admit, once we were in the air, it seemed like a long time before we got above the snow and my thoughts were purely on the amount of snow and ice that were perhaps forming on the wings. It seemed like they wasted no time in trying to get above the weather, too - no cutting back on the throttle noticed at all.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Was on a flight last night from Chicago to Orlando (737). It was flurrying in Chicago when we were boarding the plane, and I noticed the weather forecast had changed to a threat of icing on the roads (less than an inch). I guess because of this, they decided to de-ice the plane. It took an interminable amount of time (actually delayed us for about 45 minutes, but I have to admit, I'd rather do that that take chances). Anyway, I noticed that some of the material they were spraying on the plane was orange tinted and then it seemed like the wings chemicals looked green. Any idea why?

Also, by the time we were making our way to the runway, the weather turned and it was a definite steady snow. When we got on the runway, you could tell the pilot hit the brake and absolutely gunned the engines (much more so than a typical takeoff) and only then released the brakes. We took off VERY quickly (I actually time this - it takes about 35 secs for a normal take off, this felt like we were in the air in 20) - I assume they did this to compensate for any ice accumulation that may have occurred. It's been a while since I've flown in inclement weather - is this part of the standard operating procedure for a 737?

I must admit, once we were in the air, it seemed like a long time before we got above the snow and my thoughts were purely on the amount of snow and ice that were perhaps forming on the wings. It seemed like they wasted no time in trying to get above the weather, too - no cutting back on the throttle noticed at all.

Yes! Now is a great time to talk about winter weather operations I suppose! So yeah, FAA regulations state that no person can take off with contamination on the wings. Typically it's a no-brainer if it's snowing hard. But sometimes you may have to deice when the plane has accumulated ice inbound that wouldn't melt off or if the weather is threatening and the chance of getting nailed before you get to takeoff. You will see planes take off with very light flurries if the pilots can be assured that nothing is sticking to the wings or a wing check could be accomplished prior to take off and if it's determined to be clean you would be able to go. The pilot would need to do that himself (you would notice it by him walking to about the exit row and then back up front). As for the delay, yeah absolutely it can cause delays and slow things down but there's nothing you can really do about it. We are going to things by the book. The plane is off the gate and considered "out" on it's departure time and the winter block times (gate to gate) are based on historical data so the company adjusts them and they are more padded in the winter. Some of that time would be factored into the flight time already.

I have to say you were very observant all the way around many people would have missed the color and the cutback, but I can explain all of it!

Deicing procedures are pretty standard all over. There are 2 primary fluids that are used in deicing, they are both Propylene Glycol mixes and feel very much like personal lubricant. The first that you saw, the orange one, is called Type 1. It's sprayed on hot, and it's job is to clean all of the ice/snow/sleet off of the plane and make it smooth again. You may only get this used if there isn't any snow falling because it's not very effective against actively falling snow and you will always get it prior to the application of Type IV. That's why you got Type IV. Type IV is the green fluid that you saw. It goes on cold and is green and very gloopy. It drastically lowers the freezing point on the plane and can protect the plane for a long time. We have charts that we use up front to cross reference the type of fluid (there are many different types of IV), temperature, and what kind of precip is falling. That gives us a number to work with to decide how long we can sit in the snow and be safe. This time is called a holdover time.

The next part of your question is another great one. You noticed some things that were related but necessarily for the reasons you think. Without getting into a whole lot of detail about takeoff data and reject/go speeds, balanced field blah, blah, blah.....anyway the short answer for why he held the brakes was it was all driven by the weather but not because of what may have been on the wings.

I have a guess that you were taking off on 22L at ORD. That runway is a little shorter than some others and with the snow falling braking distances in the event of a rejected takeoff would have been longer than normal. The purpose of running the engines up is threefold. First it clears any contaminants or deice fluid that may have been near the inlet, second it does allow for a shorter takeoff roll and third and most important, it allows us to verify the normal operations of the engines prior to actually rolling down the runway. Once the pilots are satisfied it's go time!

As for the engine cut-back, on a normal takeoff, that typically happens at 800 feet, but if you are in a 737 and going off of runway 22L in ORD, you'll have a modified takeoff where the cutback altitude is at 3000ft instead. This is due to altitude restrictions for noise abatement around the city. Further, Chicago approach control insists that we maintain a speed of 250 knots until they tell us we can go faster. Normally that would happen at 10,000 feet, but they typically hold us slower until above 23,000. That can make is seem like we are climbing faster than normal because the angle will be steep to keep the plane from accelerating, where we'd normally lower it to accelerate. Additionally, the engines will also run faster (than they would on a clear, nice day, because on those days we don't use full rated power) to compensate for the anti-icing system running, because it's drawing warm air off the engine to heat the engine cowl and wings that would otherwise be going backward toward the turbine.

I always like being able to shed light on things for people to help everyone understand the ins and outs of whats going on behind the scenes. You had some great observations that lead to big questions, but this is just a taste of the things that go on everyday. Things have a way of being more complicated than they appear but we are doing the best that we can to make it look as seamless and smooth as possible. Like I have said before, the entire process of aviation is like a delicate dance sequence that plays out with everyone doing their part to make things work at the right time so the operation can stay on schedule and most importantly...safe.