A typical day of flying for you

[DitchDriver]

6:00 am: wake up in the pilot lounge at FBO. I had an inflatable matress so it was really comfy!

6:05 am: Snikers bar from vending machine, coffe, WX briefing on computer, file IFR if necessary. Convince the briefer you are not a weekend warrior so they'd let you file.
(Using "TN" prefix with approach conrollers commanded short approaches and all other shortcuts and favors. Not using it meant they felt obliged to hold your hand every step of the way)

6:10 am: Rub frost off the wings & windshield, check fuel and pick up the clearance, if necessary.

~6:30 am: Freight arrives (50 - 150 lbs of bank junk)
Taxi to the nearest RWY intersection real fast, runup on the roll. Ground control gives clearance for takeoff and all else until I have to call center. (local time is actually 5:30, this run crossed a time line)

Watch a beautiful sunrise sometime during a 90 minute flight.

~8:00 am: Land and hand the freight to the courier. This is when I went off duty. Adjust times ON and IN to meet 14 hour duty day requirement and call them in to dispatch office. If freight was late, run and hide just in case if Feds show up.
Lay down in *warm* FBO lounge and finally regain feeling in fingers and toes. Fall asleep.

~10 am: Another pilot lands, now we can take the only company car to the company apartment. Once there, cook & eat some real food. Fight sleepines whole day by inventing stuff to do in a strange town. If unable, fall asleep on another air mattress. However, that meant I'd be restless next night, trying to invent things to do in another strange town, only in the night time.

~5:30 pm: get going to the airport. Get weather, file if necessary. Preflight the plane.

Morning IN time +10 hrs: Come on duty, check in with dispatch.
~6 pm: freight arrives, take off

Dream up a new excuse for being late (schedules were timed by dividing straight line distance by the book cruising TAS of company's quickest twin, and I was not in it).

~8 pm: Land, call dispatch, go get some grub.
10 pm sharp is your cutoff for 8 hours til 6 am (see above, 'nuff said)
~Midnight: FBO cleaning staff leaves and it gets quieter so I can fall asleep on the air mattress. Welcome any transient pilot "into my bedroom".

See above for 6 am next day.

Repeat for a week (Sun night - Fri night), going home on weekends. And now I *kinda* miss it, but there's another thread about that.

That's why I quit freight. It is different (much better) now. Flying PAX = (half) sane schedules.

 

[uavchaser]

Here's my average day

wake from my own bed at 6am drive for 1:30 to an airport in a s-hole in the desert. Get a phone call to bring the 210 out. Pull out, preflight, and fuel the airplane. Get another phone call to bring the 206 instead and hurry. Repeat above. Fly 15min to a bigger s-hole in the desert. Sit in a trailer or office with no food availible for 3 hours after being told to hurry. Tirelessly search for a new job on the internet or goto flightinfo.com. Takeoff around 1130a and fly in slow flight formation in circles for 2-4 hours. Land and wait to see if I can go home or not, no one knows for another 2+ hours. After waiting for nothing, fly back to base, finish paperwork and drive home. If I run out of luck I will get a call to come back because someone shouldn't have told me to go home. Repeat above. Home every night and every weekend.

 

[utahpilot]

wake up at 6 to be at airport by 7 AM (1/2 hr drive). Wonder to myself on the way 'how much longer will I have to do this?"

meet up with first student, take off by 7:15, practice approaches, steep turns, blah blah blah. Roll past the twin while taxiing and wish I had more multi time/students. Turn COMM 2 to SLC approach and hear all the 'good mornings' from DAL, AAL, SKW, etc. and wonder 'how long til I can be there?"

on the ground by 8:30, 2nd student waiting. repeat as above.

on the ground by 10:15, check e-mail, flightinfo.com, nasdaq.com, study some in the red book, and wonder to myself how I'm going to keep doing this.

off the ground with student at 11:30, fly until 1 or so, done for the day. go home, worry on the way about how little money I'd made for spending 6-9 hours at the airport. At home, check email, etc.

Go to another airport where I freelance, fly for 1.2-2.2 or so, wish to myself that all my students were freelance (more money, do my own thing, no uniform), down by 8 PM.

home, give my 2 year old a bath, read him a story, etc. (kids are where it's at!)

talk to my wife, relay all the rumour mill info about who is hiring, who will be, etc. try to put a positive spin on it while I wonder,

'how much longer will I have to do this?'

still, beats working.

 

[Archer]

utahpiliot,

your situation seems pretty drastic

I've always wondered how the life of a CFI is...and I bet it varies from day to day...for example, my CFI goes to school for some time, then flies the rest part time. Everytime I try to schedule, I have a hard time getting on his schdule...he has a lot of students...he is one of the best at my local FBO, which proably explains things.

So sad though that someone as important and fundamental as a CFI get not payed properly...I mean, what is this, just a "cult" or "way of things"? some airport manager or whoever pays CFIs one day had one too many CFIs and so payed them all very little...and since then all CFIs get payed like crap?

I think this is pretty seriuous, because not every CFI is willing to teach just for the joy of teaching new students...but more for "getting the hours" to move on to bigger and greater things...

I think this is pretty bad, as you can't have anything worse than a teacher who doesn't like to teach...

I mean, I know money is great motivation...so for those who are not "born CFIs" and need that extra incentive...the CFI pay really screws things up...

I'm guessing getting a CFII or MEI and balencing it out with CFI is helpful as you vary your teaching, and don't get as bored teaching a student how to fly the pattern 5 times a day, 7 days a week...

btw...today really sucked...I go to the airport, the weather is just great, clear skies, beautiful sun...except there winds were at 12 gusting to 18, and for my solo, they exceeded my limits a little...so I had to wait half an hour till they calmed a little...then I go to preflight the Warrior...and then spend the next half hour or so trying to start the freakin engine...all the other planes were gone...so I ended up not flying for the second time I tried to solo...the time before the DG was spinning out of control...

oh well

Archer

 

[flywithruss]

Five Days of Excitement

I fly a King Air 200 corporate, and there's no such thing as "typical" ... we flew very little in September, but October has been busy. This is a snapshot of my last five days, beginning Wednesday:

Weds.
0455 Show at RWI (Rocky Mount, NC)
0555 Depart for TEB to drop 4 pax
0800 - 1500 Off-duty in NY Go downtown, be a tourist, lunch
with an old friend in the financial district
1530 Depart for MRH (Morehead City, NC)
1800 Off-duty, get local seafood dinner and hit the hotel

Thurs.
0745 Show at MRH for 0830 departure only to find our pax
there and ready to go by 0800. So we preflight quickly.
0800 Depart for INT (Winston-Salem, NC) w/ 5 pax.
0930 Off-duty, crew car to meet a friend, then lunch
1200 Call from pax, 1230 departure now 1415. CNN at FBO.
1415 Depart for MRH, drop five pax.
1530 Quick turn, reposition to TEB.
1730 Another quick turn, 4 pax back to RWI, box dinner.
1930 Another quick turn (would've been quicker if I didn't have
to drive my car across the ramp to find the line guy!), then
reposition to BDL. Go to hotel, slip in to coma.

Fri.
0730 Show at BDL for 0830 departure. Pax arrive early. What
else is new?
0815 Depart BDL for RWI. Do ILS apch ... today is IFR in fog,
low clouds, rain all over the east coast.
1100 Released home for three hours ... file more flight plans,
listen to Rush for a bit, grab lunch, then back to the airport.
1530 Depart RWI for FRG. Another ILS apch, another quick turn,
another crew meal for the trip home.
1800 Depart FRG for RWI. Another ILS apch in rain. As soon as
I get tug out of hangar, skies open, I get soaked. Finally go
home to dry out.

Sat.
OFF! However, I have to drive four hours across the state for a wedding.

Sun.
Breakfast and four hour drive back home in pouring rain.
1400 Grocery store to buy beer and peanuts for airplane, file and
get WX, head to airport.
1700 Depart early for RDU, arrive to find pax waiting, almost an
hour early. (Anyone else detecting a pattern here?)
1745 Depart for MRH. Early arrival means no ride for five pax.
Get courtesy van (five big guys and two pilots in a Caravan,
not fun ... at least I'm driving). Drop pax at hotel, then find
more seafood for dinner. Nobody takes American Express on
the beach, we discover, so dinner goes on personal credit
cards ... I hate when that happens.
2000 Arrive back at MRH for reposition back to RWI, just before
we walk to the a/c cell phone rings. Company VP says wait
20 minutes for me to get there, need to give you an envelope
to take back to home office. We wait, he shows, we go.
2030 Depart for RWI. Co. messenger waiting at hangar for the
envelope, put airplane away, home to sleep for a week.

So that's it ... pretty busy couple of days. Not exactly typical, but then what is?

R

 

[501261]

Corporate

We're strictly corporate, and no I don't live on a pager. Most of our flights are scheduled about a month in advance, though if an emergency does come up we will do our best to serve the company needs. The last "emergency" was 18 months ago when one of our employees was fatally injured on the job and we had to run HR and legal out to the accident site.

Typically we T/O from our company's HQ at 7AM and run to one of our corporate offices for the day, occasionally we spend the night, but most of the time we're back at our home base around 5-6 PM. We do this 4-5 times per week.

Weekend flying is rare, but occasionally the CEO or one of the EVP's will go somewhere for the weekend. For instance, I just got back from 4 days in Napa, CA (Thursday-Sunday). Napa is a great place for an extended overnight, plus the wife came along, so we spend the entire day Friday tasting wines, spend Saturday recovering and flew home Sunday! At least these weekend trips break up the monotony of the everyday trips. Come to think of it I'll be at the Cabo Wabo or Squid Roe this weekend!

 

[prpjt]

typical day

Our schedule is typical, which is a bit atypical for corporate.

0800 show for 0900 departure.
(0900 show for 1000 departure on days we go to the gym.)

Depart home base and fly 18 - 23 minutes. Released until 4pm.

5pm- depart for home base.

Average 3 to 4 days per week, 15 days per month. Weekend flights are rare, perhaps 8 per year.

Other than that we do 4 or 5 longer trips per year, usually 3 or 4 day stay. Last year we did 21 days RON ( remain over night)

It's about as close as I've ever come to a 9-5 job since I've been flying.

 

[radiofly er]

It pretty much goes like this. The schedules as far as

getting up are the same for every airline, morning and night

shedules. At our company we get paid as soon as we wake up,

the company usually starts paying an hour before the flight is

scheduled to depart. Flights range from two to six landing,

rarelly a seventh landing and if they do give us a seventh

landing, it costs the company. This is because we get paid more

after the 4th landing. After the fourth landing, every landing is

$36.00..... cash! PerDeim is like this: Breakfast: $14.00 Lunch:

$23.00 Dinner: $36.00 (cash, before the flight). I've had days

were I work six landings with per deim included and take about

$120.00 cash in one day. That does not include my work pay for

the day or extra duty hours. As far as days off, we average 17

days off, a month, 68 hours of flying average, 30 day paid

vacation a year (starting the first year). Every flight basically

ends the same, go eat something near the hotel and go to sleep.

 

[turning2]

Hey 501261
... where can I sign up? Napa sounds great right about now

 

[banned username 2]

It pretty much goes like this. The schedules as far as
getting up are the same for every airline, morning and night
shedules. At our company we get paid as soon as we wake up,
the company usually starts paying an hour before the flight is
scheduled to depart. Flights range from two to six landing,
rarelly a seventh landing and if they do give us a seventh
landing, it costs the company. This is because we get paid more
after the 4th landing. After the fourth landing, every landing is
$36.00..... cash! PerDeim is like this: Breakfast: $14.00 Lunch:
$23.00 Dinner: $36.00 (cash, before the flight). I've had days
were I work six landings with per deim included and take about
$120.00 cash in one day. That does not include my work pay for
the day or extra duty hours. As far as days off, we average 17
days off, a month, 68 hours of flying average, 30 day paid
vacation a year (starting the first year). Every flight basically
ends the same, go eat something near the hotel and go to sleep.

HHmmmm... This is a new one... Never heard of an airline paying "extra" for landings, I include one complimentary landing with each and every takeoff I charge them for...

And a guy standing at the jetway handing out CASH for meals before the flight?!?! (Where do I sign up?!?!?!)

Those per diem rates are WAY beyond what the IRS allows for Per Diem, sounds more like suplimental income.... Have you filed your amended return yet????

HHhmmm... must be based in Zimbabwe or somewhere like that... doesn't sound like any US Airline I have ever heard of...

 

[radiofly er]

This is an international foreign carrier. Many of our benefits such as the extra landings and perdeim rates were due to strong negotiations troughout the years, between our union and the company. There is department within our briefing rooms specially dedicated to handing out our perdeim and extra landings money before our flight. This cash is tax free, so yes we do make more than our paychecks reflect.

 

[TXCAP4228]

Couldn't resist

Walk into the office at 7:30, check email, eat a poptart and drink a vanilla coke. Go to a meeting. Come back to my desk and go through email. Solve problems. Lunch late in the afternoon, usually after 1:30pm (usually eaten at my desk or in another meeting). Solve another problem or two. Walk out of the office at 6:00pm (on good days). Drive to the airport. Fly somewhere for dinner, fly home.

Occaisionaly I might even leave the office early or (even better) take a day off and fly all day. Those are great days.