psysicx said:
What aircraft flys to SA sounds like fun.What is a typical international line look like.
psysicx,
I flew the 757/767 international for a year. On reserve, you can expect to be on for 16 days followed by 12 days off. Toss-up whether or not you get used all, some or none of the days. I typically was used for at least 12-14 of them. The plus side is you get one call, go do your long trip, and come home.
Typical trip: SDF-ANC, a lot of the times it's a dead-head to ANC. From ANC, you could expect to fly to Narita. Over the next 10 days or so, you would leave Narita and fly to Singapore via a stop in Tapei. From Singapore you could go either intra-Asia or continue the round-the-world flight to Mumbai (Bombay). From their expect to go to Dubai, and either layover or continue to Cologne, Germany. Good layover in Cologne and then off to either EWR or PHL, layover and either operate or deadhead to SDF.
OR,
You could do a trip similar to this, except you start on the East Coast and work your way around the world in that direction. Sometimes you get to Europe and operate intra-Europe, or end up in Asia and do intra-Asia for a while. More senior trips have you operate to Cologne or East Midlands and then back to the U.S. In my experience, sometimes I would operate from SDF, eventually getting to India, bounce between Mumbai and Tapei a couple of times, and then eventually make it back to ANC.
The trans-oceanic flying is 767, and the rest of the flying is a mix between it and the 757. The variety is great if you don't like the same old stuff, and you will see a large part of the world. Layovers can range from short (approx. 14hrs) to as much as long (70hours). In addition, you could also fly Mexico flying. This is very similar to a 757 domestic flying schedule.
A mix of FO and IRO flying. A lot of times, I would operate as one on half the trip and the other for the remainder.
Typical international trip will have you gone for a longer period of days than domestic, but you will also have longer stretches of days off at a time too. I can't speak for the SA flying, because I've never flown in that domicile. I found international to be fun. Long days, long stretches on the road, but I found it easier than domestic and it had more variey.
Hope this helps,
- Clyde