Q for SWA pilots

[JPB]

Hello everyone.
Just wondering what a typical day looks like on the line. i.e: number of leg, duty time.
Do you have a lot of days above 10 hours of duty?
thanks for taking the time to answer and for making my favorite airline safe .

 

[chase]

Last month I pulled reserve (out of choice). 1 x 3 day block, 3 x 4 day blocks with 3 or 4 days off in between. Used every day but one. 1st & 2nd block were full schedules, regular lines from sick calls. Flew about 15-17 hours on 3 day, flew 24 hrs on 4 day. The next 4 day block only used 3 day but they were pretty easy days, several deadheads with a little bit of flying. Last 4 day block resulted in me volunteering to fly VJA which allowed me to get paid 1 1/2 for the extra day of flying.

Overnights are usually 14 hrs, min is usually 11 hrs with some up to 20 hrs. DAL based guys do more TX overnights than others but in a typical month with 4 trips, 2/3s of overnights will be in TX, OK, MSY or ABQ. Others are throughout the system.

This month I'm flying hard lines. Originally scheduled for 85 hrs to fly for the month. 2 x 4 days, average of 19 legs on each 4 day. 2 x 3 days with one single day turn. 50% in -200s, other flights in a mix of 300/700. Flying Wed-Sat or Wed-Friday after nearly 3 years in DAL. Overnights are (2)LBB, (2)CRP, (2)SMF, ISP, SEA, LAX, ONT.

I have been JA'd once this month which has only happened about 3 times in 3 years. I'm flying PMs which usually start around 1400 checkin to midnight (all CST times). Some shorter, some longer.

hope that helps,

 

[SWA GUY]

Chase,

You know if you bid resv in the summer time you'll be flying almost every day.

Oct thru May you'll end up flying about 35-45 hours per month. Maybe even less.

Once scheduling starts flying me more than 40 hours in a month I bid a line. I figure I might as well schedule myself to fly, and can usually do a better job of it with line improvement and DOT.

 

[chase]

SWAguy

I did realize that but the reason I bid reserve was to get max days off at the beginning of the month (which I did with my seniority in DAL). I knew I would be working more because of my experience last fall & winter when I bid reserve & flew around 35 hrs. That's the beauty of this job, you can change your priorities around for bidding each month & meet the objective you've set for each month. Someone once said that after 18 months on the line one can meet just about any reasonable priority for scheduling purposes, that has been the case for me certainly.

 

[SWA GUY]

Amen to that Brutha!

Can I get an Halleluya!?!?!?!?!?!?!

HC

 

[rodeopilot]

This second nearly third year MCO based FO has an 18 Day off line, mostly 2-4 leg days on three day trips. No four days, no two days, no sunburn. Life is good at the Boeing beach club. However, the only down side is that there is limited open time right now, and the line only pays 92TFP. So pretty much only extra fly is helping me out this month.

 

[SWA GUY]

Mike,

Good to see you these boards, hope all is going well at the BBC.
Can you believe those guys at the CAL Forums won't let us on anymore? Sheesh!

HC

 

[rodeopilot]

Yeah, too depressing to read that board anywho....