Where does AJ fly to?

[Messerschmitt Man]

I was just interested about what airports you fly to. Do you just fly around the Pacific Rim area? What is your most favourite airport to fly into and why?

How often do you get a new route to fly? What is the basic pattern of your work hours is it something like 14 days on 7 days off or something?

Sorry for all the questions.

[Chris@YYZ]

also, Anthony, whats a typicle work week like for a '67 pilot?

[AJ]

At the moment our trips vary from 1 to 5 days and consist of Asia flying, Tasman flying or Domestic flying.

The 767 presently serves Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth, Cairns, Darwin, Auckland, Christchurch, Noumea, Jakarta, Singapore, Manila and Tokyo. Honolulu and Seoul come online next month.

Chris, with such variance in trips ther is no average work week! I might come back from a two day trip, have one day off, then launch on a five day trip, have four days off, then a training day then another five day trip and so on.

[scramjet]

I have to admit, the travelling and the odd schedule is one reason why I'm really looking forward to my first airline job (waaaaaaaaay down the road). I love to travel, and there must be nothing like flying a red eye, looking down at the lights and realizing that most people are asleep to get up for their jobs tomorrow, and I'm awake doing something I really enjoy.

[screaming_emu]

I have to admit, the travelling and the odd schedule is one reason why I'm really looking forward to my first airline job (waaaaaaaaay down the road).

Well if you're in the US your first airline job will be flying to exciting places like...Omaha to some hub, then some hub to Bismarck, ND to the hub to another tiny ass town where you've never wanted to go Not quite as cool, gotta pay the dues though I guess.

[Airbus_A320]

How are trips selected? Are they assigned or do you bid on them or something like that? Can you decide what routes you want to fly?

[Crunk415balla]

Well if you're in the US your first airline job will be flying to exciting places like...Omaha to some hub, then some hub to Bismarck, ND to the hub to another tiny ass town where you've never wanted to go Not quite as cool, gotta pay the dues though I guess.

Sounds right, but everyone has to start somewhere right?

[AJ]

How are trips selected? Are they assigned or do you bid on them or something like that? Can you decide what routes you want to fly?

We have what's called a 'preferential bidding system' which is based on seniority. The airline devises all the trips it needs covered for the next roster and then releases them for bidding. Pilots bid for what they want, or the days they want off, and then the trips are allocated based on the pilot's seniority. The bottom of the pile gets 'blank lines', aka reserve rosters, every second roster.
Our 737 fleet uses rotating seniority so that all pilot's get a go at being top of the pile every four months.

[screaming_emu]

Our 737 fleet uses rotating seniority so that all pilot's get a go at being top of the pile every four months.

that sounds pretty fair actually, that way you dont have the new guys sitting around on reserve for months at a time.

[AJ]

From your lips to our senior 747-400s pilot's ears!

[screaming_emu]

So here's a question about something I've heard, though I dont know if is entirely correct. I've heard with a lot of airlines that fly looooooooong distances, a lot of the senior pilots usually bid on equipment that keeps them closer to home, any truth to that?

I could see the reasoning behind somebody not wanting to fly the 747 for Qantas because of how long it takes you to get where you're going. I've heard that with Hawaiian the 717 is actually the more senior plane and that puts a lot of the more junior pilots on the 767.

[AJ]

Yeah, some people choose the 767 for that reason, but the money normally talks so they move to the 744 in the end.

In Australia pilots can fly past 60 so these guys come back to the domestic fleets as they are not allowed in many overseas country's airspace!

[scramjet]

Well if you're in the US your first airline job will be flying to exciting places like...Omaha to some hub, then some hub to Bismarck, ND to the hub to another tiny ass town where you've never wanted to go Not quite as cool, gotta pay the dues though I guess.

It's all good to me. Every town has its interesting things about it.

[screaming_emu]

Every town has its interesting things about it.

evidently you've never been to Grand Forks

[LRJet Guy]

Sample trip for a regional pilot

Show: 1130
CLT-TRI: 1230-1325
TRI-CLT: 1350-1440
CLT-AGS: 1540-1640
AGS-CLT: 1705-1805
CLT-HTS: 1930-2050

Total block: 5 hrs, 5 min
Total Duty: 9 hrs, 35 min
End: 2105 (at the hotel 2130, in the room 2140. Iron the shirt, relax, asleep by 2300)

Show:0635 (wakeup call a 0520, van time at 0620... 6 hrs, 20 min sleep)

HTS-CLT: 0720-0835
CLT-LYH: 0930-1030
LYH-CLT: 1050-1155
CLT-TRI: 1230-1325
TRI-CLT: 1350-1440

End: 1455
Total block: 5 hrs, 5 min
Total Duty: 8 hrs, 20 min

That's a 2 day I have later this month. Its followed by a 3 day trip, 1 day off, and then a 4 day trip followed by 4 days off. Yep, I'm scheduled to work 9 out of 10 days. That puts me close to 30 in 7 on 2 of those days, so if there are any delays, I'm going to be pulled off part of the trip since I won't be legal to cover it all.

I have 14 days off for December, and I'm scheduled to fly 94.6 hours.