Corporate Schedules?????

[sg737]

Hey, just curious... kind of a survey with all the corporate guys out there. Tell me about your schedules, and time spent with your family. I know "schedule" is a relative term.... But do you have quality time at home??

Thanks.....

 

[Cat3C]

schedule firm about 2 to 3 weeks out
60 or so overnights per year (incl schools)
maybe 1 or 2 pop ups (get to the airport when you can)
15 weekend days or so
almost no int'l
around 340 hours per year last few years
2 airplanes 6 pilots


baseball coach, cub scouts, soccer, etc.

 

[hawkerjet]

Our sked is known 2 weeks prior. All owner/family pleasure flying is known when they secure their hotels. For instance I new we would be in NYC for Thanksgiving in June and could take the wife. Also, all employees ( except pilots) get 7 paid Holidays off per year. I negotiated that if the pilots work on any of those Holidays they would be compensated $600/day.
As for our Schedule here it goes:
Week 1...... Monday-Wednesday
Week 2...... Monday ( sometimes RON on Monday and depart Tuesday)
Week 3 See Week 1
Week 4 See Week 2
So about 8-10 days monthly plus family flying. In the past 12 months we have done 3 day weekends in Cabo, Cancun, Caymans, Chicago & NYC.
Last year we fly 298 hours.

All in all pretty easy. No pop ups. Have told the Boss that I can't guarantee any scheduling without a 48 hour advance notice. For emergencies, if the normal crew can't handle it I have 7 pilots locally that handle vacations, training and sick days. I told him that we could operate as an on call operation, however my salary would baloon to $300,000 and my FO's would increase to $150,000. Thankfully, he believes in quality of life and agrees with my assesment. This is not an iron fist type of management but one of reality which comes with responsibility from both sides.
1 aircraft.... 2 full time pilots with 7 contract pilots available. 70-75 RONs/Yr

 

[southernpilot]

One airplane, three pilots, one mechanic. Fly about 20 hours a month, almost every trip is a R.O.N.,almost no waiting all day in the FBO. No office time, no politics. Tons of personal time and the privilege to pick and choose trips for personal schedule.
Average pay with bonus, 401k and pension, paid vacation, sick time, uniform and tuition reimbursement, they even pay for CFI renewal. Too bad its going away!

 

[SoundBarViolatr]

Out on Mon and back on Fri. Off on weekends + holidays + 1 week during the month. Give or take a few days. Outlook up to 60 days out, very very very rare pop ups. But like everything else in life, there is the bad attached to the good. For this job the good is definitely the QOL.

 

[AA717driver]

Four hard days off a month (which CAN be busted if necessary). Every other day is fair game. Bad months are 23 day international trips. Good months are one or two days.

Usually somewhere in between. You can work 14 days in a row (domestic), with a couple overnights at home all while the other guys sit at home--just the freaky scheduling logic that was developed in an earlier time (based on obsolete parameters) but lives on...

Worst deal was a two week Asia trip with two days off and another two week Asia trip. Only happened once.

The schedulers really try to work with you and get the days off you want.

I wouldn't advise anyone else to adopt it but it works for us. Most of the time... TC

 

[H.Agenda]

One pilot, one plane; KA 200. I fly once every 2 weeks for 3-4 days.

I usually know 1-3 weeks in advance.

A few pop-up trips, I try to be as accomodating as possible, since we fly so little.

 

[EMU]

What schedule??

For us the schedule is only fixed for about a week in advance. The further out you get, the more it changes. We have a great pilot to plane ratio, so we only fly about 10-15 days a month each. But you can not plan for anything because it will change! They do give us plenty of vacation time though.

My experience in the Corporate world has been that there are three main variables in a good job. 1) pay 2) equipment 3) QOL (schedule). Few companies give you the very best of all three. 2 out of the 3 seems to be the norm.

-EMU

 

[sperfly]

One pilot, one plane; KA 200. I fly once every 2 weeks for 3-4 days.

I usually know 1-3 weeks in advance.

A few pop-up trips, I try to be as accomodating as possible, since we fly so little.

H your schedule sounds just like mine, I've had about 60 days off in the past 2 and a half months. I am the only pilot also on a KA 200 and they pay me about $10,000 below the low side of the scale. On my days off I look at alot of computer porn and wash and wax the A/C by myself in the hangar. When I'm not doing that I am putting togheter office furniture and changing light bulbs at the main office. When I'm flying RON's I'm usually the guy at the bar drunk and by myself because I'm the only pilot. So really I'm more of a Office Handyman and general B!t@h that gets to fly a neat old plane on occasion.

 

[AHP-TWAMaddog]

6 EMB-135 28 pilots, 9 at my base 2 A/C set shcedule for departures and arrivals 5 days a week. We work usually a 2 day week and then a 3 day week with a reserve tossed in there.

No tossing bags or ordering catering (pax get water only , lol) 3 Flight attendants, 4 destinations. We know our schedule a month out but there are lots of changes due to sick, emergencies or swaps. We are technically on call even on our non fly days but that rarely happens. 2 Weeks of Vacation, 7 Personal days, 1 Week off for 4th of July, Thanksgiving and 2.5 weeeks off for Christmas.

Im home every night and weekends off. Upgrade is virtually non existant at my base 2.5 years here only 2 upgrades, but I am next in line for it. Pay is well below industry average, Management is fair. No office or extra work except training a few times a year and recurrent 1xyear for FO and 2x year for Captain.

We get a rental car for our sits (6hrs) and a meal supplement for the day.
Sounds like the perfect place on paper but like everywhere we have our problems to deal with. I can hang out here until I get my recall.

Tailwinds
Maddog

 

[Count Dracula]

3 Aircraft, 6 full-time pilots incl. CP and Mgr, 4 part-time pilots, 1 full-time FA, 1 part-time FA, 4 full-time mechanics, 1 part-time.

Schedule relatively known about 2 months in advance, 1 month hard.
148 days on duty (flying, training, etc.) last year, hard days off if requested, usually not a problem if requested a week or two in advance.

15-20 RON's last year, mostly out and backs, very few (less than 10) wait all day and then rooms at our discretion, usually more than 4 hours. Rental cars as well. Salary and benefits average, side contract work permitted during availability.

 

[G4G5]

108 overnights last year, worst month 23 days, best month 4.

3 guys one aircraft. 3 weeks vacation, 3 personal days and if you fly on a company holiday, they owe you a day.

2 1/2 years, never worked on X-mas, T-giving or the 4th of July.

The schedule is pretty much set in stone 10 days- two weeks prior due to the logistics of moving around the CEO's entourage. With that being said, you are open to pop ups, not very often (3 times in in 2 1/2 years) but it keeps you on your toes.

 

[H.Agenda]

H your schedule sounds just like mine, I've had about 60 days off in the past 2 and a half months. I am the only pilot also on a KA 200 and they pay me about $10,000 below the low side of the scale. On my days off I look at alot of computer porn and wash and wax the A/C by myself in the hangar. When I'm not doing that I am putting togheter office furniture and changing light bulbs at the main office. When I'm flying RON's I'm usually the guy at the bar drunk and by myself because I'm the only pilot. So really I'm more of a Office Handyman and general B!t@h that gets to fly a neat old plane on occasion.

HAHAHA. Thats hilarious. I too manage to surf alot of internet porn. its addicting, xbox 360 is worse I think...my girlfriend has fallen asleep on the couch waiting for sex more than a few times over it. I finally got rid of it. I've never done crack, but I think its must be the same euphoria I feel when I'm playing online..

I spend way more time going to work, prepping the plane for flight, scheduling and planning than I do flying. Thats the nature of being an operator though. Before this gig I had the unapprieciated luxury of operating 2 brand new planes, one after the other. Maintaining this atari era KA 200 is considerably more time consuming. Have you taken out the lav yet after someones taken a dukey? You earn your pay then too. I think I may talk to my boss about a speacial doo doo bonus.

 

[icefr8dawg]

On our corporate side which is one out of five aircraft we have two full time pilots and one guy that switches between charter and corporate. Because of this we have to stay flexible with scheduling. Flew 400 hours last year. We usually only get a couple of hard days a month and are at the mercy of Managment/Family. Pay scale is 20-30k below NBAA median. We know schedule anywhere from a week to a day in advance. We're the 10'th percentile operation you see in the salary reviews.
On the Charter side revenue is king so they provide more pilots and keep the planes in the air. We're talking more like six hard days over there.
We should have an opening or two this year as raises and bonuses didn't come through.