December brought an action-packed month with a lot of diverse flying. I’ve talked with numerous pilots who don’t like to fly in Chicago, but I’ve found it thrilling and rewarding, the operation that runs in Chicago is like none elsewhere. I was excited to return! Being a junior line holder, I was destined to work the holidays, which I expected and actually enjoyed getting others to their families to spend time with.
I was fortunate to visit one of my favorite nights, Montgomery, AL. The hotel we stay at is one of the better ones, it was decorated for holidays, it gave me Home Alone vibes. Traveling to Canada is another favorite of mine, especially to bring some maple syrup and chocolate home for family members. I used the Canada trip on the 17th to get gifts for the holidays.
Totals: 77.5 hours block time, 98 hours credited time, 12 days off
1 - FAY-CLT-TRI-CLT-CHO
2 - CHO-CLT-TLH-
3 - -CLT-TRI-CLT-MDT
4 - OFF
5 - MDT-ORD-CMH-ORD-RIC
6 - RIC-PHL-PVD
7 - PVD-PHL(DH/)ALB-PH-MDT
8 - OFF
9 - OFF
10 - OFF
11 - OFF
12 - MDT-CLT-MGM
13 - MDT-CLT(DH/)PHL-RIC
14 - RIC-ORD-MDT
15 - OFF
16 - OFF
17 - MDT-PHL(DH/)YUL
18 - YUL-PHL-(DIVERT/MHT)-PWM
19 - PWM-PHL(DH/)CLT(DH/)RIC
20 - RIC-ORD-MDT
21 - OFF
22 - OFF
23 - OFF
24 - MDT-CLT-EVV
25 - EVV-CLT-MOB-CLT-HTS
26 - HTS-CLT-AGS-CLT-TRI
27 - TRI-CLT-GSO-PHL-MDT
28 - OFF
29 - OFF
30 - MDT-CLT-GNV
31 - GNV-CLT-TRI-CLT-PHF
Looks like a pretty good month of flying, lots of credit and high flight time! Was any of this OT, or just part of your normal line? And a diversion as well, was this your first one? I’ve been fortunate to not have to divert yet, but there have been a few close times due to weather.
If I did the math, 19 hours were overtime guarantee (OTG) from our guaranteed 75 hours a minimum a month. I got the 4 hours extra pay on Christmas day. However, I believe we had some delays and other over blocks, so my initial award was around 91 hours (if I had to guess, I’m not home to see my printout).
For anyone interested in a follow response, we get block or better, so if we close the door on-time, yet arrive “late,” we are compensated for the block time rather than the original scheduled time. For example, we close the door 10 minutes early, but arrive 5 minutes past our scheduled arrival for a various reason, we are compensated the extra minutes towards our second half of month paycheck.
That’s the one upside to working on the holidays; the premium pay! It seems like we rarely end up over-blocking. And if we do, we make up for it on the next couple of flights. So in the end our actual flight time is almost always less than the planned time for the sequence.