regional/cargo family life

[SurfNJ]

Hey. Just wanted to know how your family life is as a regional and as a cargo pilot. I heard cargo is better for family life, why? When your a regional pilot, do you go on 5 day trips often? or is it a once a month thing? how often are you home w/ the both? ty

[Goldmember]

On the main page, click on the link "perspectives" and you'll get what you're looking for and more...

[Kristie]

Not only that, but go to www.pilotfamilies.com because the ladies there can answer your questions too - at least about the regional life!

there's at least 1 cargo wife on there.. definately more regional wives!

[SurfNJ]

Originally Posted by Kristie

Not only that, but go to www.pilotfamilies.com because the ladies there can answer your questions too - at least about the regional life!

there's at least 1 cargo wife on there.. definately more regional wives!

Great website ! I had my girlfriend read it to know what she's getting herself into when she marries me

[Kristie]

Thanks! let her know that if she has any questions - at all - to come on board and ask us! information is the best source to making it work!!

[SurfNJ]

I used to live in fountain hills AZ to hot for me

[EatSleepFly]

Originally Posted by SurfNJ

I heard cargo is better for family life, why?

Depends on the type of cargo. On-demand (ie, you're wearing a pager 24/7), forget about it. QOL can be pretty crappy.

Scheduled stuff like feeders can be a decent schedule. My current schedule would be great (relatively speaking, I guess) for someone with a family:

Mon: 0400 show at the airport, off at 0500, at destination by 0630. Then empty repo flight to another airport 1 hour away, layover until 1530, go back to the airport, off at 1640, back at base by 1745, walking out the door to go home between 1800 and 1830.
Tue: AM Reserve- 0530 show, sleep or watch TV until all of the morning flights get on the ground. If no problems, heading home by noon.
Wed: 0505 show. Back up the other feeder flights at UPS. If none of them bulk out, sit around until 0800, then go home. Show back up at 1345, empty repo flight down to airport mentioned above, pick up a load of boxes, fly back to base, unload, and headed home by 1800-1830. If one of the flights DOES bulk out, then you'll go where you're needed, and do an empty repo to get in position for the afternoon flight and grab a hotel while you wait. In this case, you'd be home by 1800-1830.
Thurs: AM Reserve, see Tuesday
Fri: See Wednesday
Sat/Sun: Off!


My last job (on-demand freight), was something like: Beep beep beep- go to [insert TX border town, or other ghetto place here], wheels off at 10pm, and don't plan on coming home anytime soon. Goodbye! Repeat x6 nights a week.

Hope that gives you a little bit of an idea of the smaller freight side.

[Cheechako]

The typical Skywest schedule is 4-on, 3-off. The 4-on can be a mixture of a 4-day trip, back-to-back 2-day or locals (home every night). There are some domiciles where there are 3-day trips with 4 days off in between. I held those for about 5 months through the summer. Very nice. They're not available in my domicile anymore (scheduling changes across the United and Delta systems). A few years back the company tried 5-day trips with 4 off between, but they got very little positive feedback with those so they nixed them for good. Sometimes during the transition from one month to another, 5, 6, or I've even seen 7 days off in a row can be had!

Now... to throw a big fat monkey wrench into that... we're converting to a Preferential Bid System. We input our preferences (length of trip, individual days off, min days off per month, max work block, min days off between work blocks, etc.) and the computer takes those preferences and matches them up with the trips available in a domicile. It's seniority based, so it'll start at the top and work its way down. I haven't started it yet, so you may want to ask the Skywest-ers here who have already been using the pref-bid for a while.

Here's what I do this month (back-to-back 2-day trips):

R1013 03/07/2006
Block: 11:05 Credit: 11:02 TAFB: 28:39
__________________________________________________ ______________________________
Tuesday 03-07-2006 Report: 07:35 Release: 19:11/07
Flight Org Dest Dep Arr
1. 3912 COS SLC 08:20 10:01
2. 3773 SLC YVR 11:00 12:19
3. 3806 YVR SLC 13:05 16:19
4. 4037 SLC FCA 17:17 18:56
Day Total: 07:53 07:17 Duty: 11:36
Hotel: xxx Layover: 11:53
__________________________________________________ ______________________________
Wednesday 03-08-2006 Report: 07:04 Release: 12:14/08
FlightOrg Dest Dep Arr
5. 3993 FCA SLC 07:49 09:25
6. 3910 SLC COS 10:23 11:59
Day Total: 03:12 03:45 Duty: 05:10
__________________________________________________ ______________________________
R1009 03/09/2006
Block: 09:18 Credit: 09:33 TAFB: 28:39
__________________________________________________ ______________________________
Thursday 03-09-2006 Report: 07:35 Release: 19:11/09
Flight CS Tail Org Dest Dep Arr
1. 3912 COS SLC 08:20 10:01
2. 3872 SLC RNO 11:32 11:58
3. 3875 RNO SLC 13:25 15:45
4. 4037 SLC FCA 17:17 18:56
Day Total: 06:06 05:48 Duty: 11:36
Hotel:xxx Layover: 11:53
__________________________________________________ ______________________________
Friday 03-10-2006 Report: 07:04 Release: 12:14/10
Flight CS Tail Org Dest Dep Arr
5. 3993 FCA SLC 07:49 09:25
6. 3910 SLC COS 10:23 11:59
Day Total: 03:12 03:45 Duty: 05:10
__________________________________________________ ______________________________

[jdflight]

Blech, because the pairings are getting worse as a result. That said, I did okay this month. Last month I had 10 days at home and a six day trip (4x2).