So what's the schedule like? And what are the bases?
Schedule and Bases kinda go hand in hand...if you want the 9 on, 7 off rotation, you've got to live in one of our 4 bases...Sacramento (MCC), Southern California (VNY), Phoenix, or East Coast (TEB, HPN). The boundaries of those domiciles are pretty loosely defined. Reno is considered part of the MCC base, San Diego is part of VNY, and Prescott is part of PHX.
If you choose the 17 on, 15 off rotation (and that's 17 days consecutive, then 15 hard days off consecutive) then you can live anywhere in the US you want. I think we've got a newhire that lives in Hawaii.
ALL days off are considered hard days off. If you need/want to be home on those days, you will be home. If you want to work extra and get paid extra, the opportunity does present itself from time to time. Some guys would prefer to extend a day to fly a trip that gets them closer to home rather than sit in coach on a transcon airline flight.
Days 1 and 9, or 1 and 17, are transition days, so you don't always fly. Sometimes you airline to or from home base to meet the airplane (very typical if you're on the 17/15 sched and your plane isn't near your house) and sometimes you sit at home and wait for your plane to get in. The airplane I have been assigned to won't get back to base until 1700 tomorrow, leaving me with most of the day off. Once it gets back, the old crew goes home and starts their 7 days off. If that airplane got home tonight, on the old crews' day 8, I'd cover it starting at midnight and that crew now has 8 days off. It works out pretty well. I hope that wasn't too confusing.
As for the training pay...I think you get 75% pay until you're done with training. But ALL expenses are covered by the company starting from day 1.
