In March I had fifteen days off.
Yet another trip ending in San Diego haha. Looks like a fun month!
Next week I have a trip with double San Diegos in it, I am there as we speak right now 
How often do you guys do turnarounds at united, or do you just switch aircraft frequently after each flight
Melek,
We switch airplanes pretty frequently in the hubs, but at the outstations we tend to keep the airplane. For example, if we fly EWR-ORD-PHX we will likely change airplanes in ORD as it is a hub, but if we fly EWR-BOS-EWR we will likely not change airplanes as BOS is not a hub. All of that being said, sometimes we do change airplanes in the outstations, it all really depends on how the company is routing the airplanes.
Chris
Chris,
I’m amazed at how short your flight times are on some of the days. I had always thought the airlines worked their pilots pretty hard to get the most bang for the buck. Yet, looking at the first two days of the month; the EWR-PHX trip would be about a 7 hour day and the PHX-DEN trip would be about a 4 hour day, right? Now, I know there are some days that are much longer, but is this scheduling typical of your airline and/or plane or is this fairly standard across legacy carriers?
Thanks,
Mike
Chris,
I see the location at the end of each working day is the same as you begin the next working day, except for March 22nd, you ended up in SAN, and the next working day (29th) you started from EWR. could you please tell us about this and how frequent it happens ? and how do you go back ? … etc.
Merwan.
Mike,
The airlines try to get as much time out of us as possible, but you have to remember that they are putting together a giant puzzle of who fly what equipment to where. Also, keep in mind that pilots are basically limited to 100 hours per month, so that has to be spread out a bit. The days that you see on my schedule are pretty reflective of standard schedules on domestic airplanes at a legacy carrier.
There are plenty of long days in there, too. Today will lend up being about 15 hours of duty.
Chris
Merman,
I think you mean the location that I start and end is that same for each working block, not day. The day on the 22nd was actually a typo that I just corrected.
But, sometimes we do end trips at locations other than our base, when that happens we are provided transportation (known as deadheading) back to our base. For example, today my trip ended in SNA, so I am riding back now as a passenger.
Chris
Yes, That is exactly what I mean.
Deadheading, new term, interesting!
Thanks Chris.
“Deadheading” is actually a railroad term that we co-opted. In the railroad industry it is when an extra locomotive is at the front of the train, but is not providing any power, so it is dead at the head of the train.
Wow, wonderful analogy.
This is very fascinating to read these schedules. I always assumed for some reason that you would have a fairly fixed route you would routinely take, it is surprising to me that it is as varied as it is. Thanks for posting!
We really do fly all over the place. As pilots gain seniority many of them find places that are their favorites and tend to gravitate towards those places. My father ended up flying mostly Dublin trips for the last few years of his career. If you look at my schedule you will notice that I tend to gravitate towards San Diego.
Chris
When you do switch aircrafts, do you get your next flight plan on the next airplane and brief it, or do you generally go to the planning room again?
As usual the answer depends on the airlines procedures. Some stations will bring the paperwork, others you need to go to the crewroom, and others you can just grab them from the computer by the gate. When I was flying interisland, due to the short duration of each flight we 'd get paperwork for the round trip.
Adam
Do most of your first flights of the day start at 6am? Or does this vary for you?
Additionally, when does your last flight home on a trip usually arrive?
My schedule varies widely, as do all pilot’s schedules.
The last flight can be anywhere from a redeye that gets in at 6am to getting in at midnight or even later, it just all depends.