Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Day 1 A day in the life of a Regional jet pilot

I was thinking I should try to journal a trip. I typically work four day sequences. They vary is number of legs per day, and total flight time.
The one I have this week is really not very desirable. The only reason I have it, is because I traded into it because of the days off. My original bid for the month included 4, 4 day sequences. They started on Saturday and would end on Tuesday. We have a system that allows us to trade our trips. It's automated, so we go into the computer and simply trade for a trip in open time. This month (and last) I managed to trade away all my trips for trips that gave me weekends off, or partial weekends.

This trip was not the best. It will only pay me 14 hours, and about 70 hours’ time away from base; we get per Diem for this time.
Second it was a lot of legs and short trips. Like today, 5 legs, mostly very short flights.

I commute to DFW, so my 1st day starts at the San Antonio Airport. I typically spend 3 hours getting to and from DFW. I'm fortunate actually, my commute is pretty easy.
So I catch the 1050am flight and arrive in Dallas by 1150. My first flight is at 220pm.
This allows me time to head to the crew room, check in for the flight, check to see what new publications might be waiting for me, and to make sure all my manuals, and trip book are ready for the week.
After all that it's time to relax a little before it’s time to fly.
I try to get to the gate a little early that gives me a chance to check the computer again, and meet the rest of the crew. The first trip is DFW to LAW. Lawton OK, or Ft Sill. 42 minutes, gate to gate. We get 30 minutes in Lawton to turn the airplane. Unload people and bags, clean the plane, pre flight it again, fuel it, and re load it. 30 minutes really does not give you a lot of extra time.
Next is Law-DFW. It’s my leg. We usually switch at out-stations. this way everyone gets a chance to fly into a hub, and into the smaller out station airports.
This flight is 41 minutes, again gate to gate.
We track two times. The FMS shows it as OOOI. Out, Off, ON, In. Time out is when break is released at the gate, off is wheels off the ground, on, wheels on and In, main cabin door open at the gate. We are only paid for this time, We don’t get paid for doing pre-post flight, for updating charts and anything else.
It's 430 and we're back in DFW. Now we have a 1hr and 20 minute sit.
Next up is a Ft Hood turn. Another quick flight, we're scheduled for 50 minutes gate to gate.
We made it back to DFW by 756 pm. Now we're down to one more leg. I'm ready for this day to be over. Little do I know its far from over. After a 55 min sit we're ready to go once again. This time to Lerado Tx. Still not a long flight, but at least long enough to climb to altitude. 1 hour and 20 minutes later we're on the ground, and ready to get to the hotel. After we post flight the plane, we head outside to wait for the hotel shuttle, which tonight was not there. Long story short our third party hotel service sent message to our hotel we were not coming. I wish they would have told us. Now the hotel is full, and we're on the phone with crew scheduling trying to find out where to go. Now its 130 am, I’m in a room it’s been a very long day. It's time for sleep. Tomorrow it will be a four leg day.

2 comments:

Cedarglen said...

I know that th is is an old post, but I'll t hrow in my two cents worth: In those hsort legs to military towns, I'd bet that you get a lot of soldiers in uniform. Many airlines upgrade 'as possible' for those uniforms. Some grab the first GI encountered, and some suck-up to the senior colonels. The smart ones try to find t h e *most junior* serviceman/woman for any upgrades. What is your line' policy - or your own policy?

Unknown said...

NIce post!CPL in USA