What types of aviation sectors or specialties should I explore to find pilot positions that achieve optimal Work-Life balance, out of the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area.
Micah,
Your idea of “optimal work-life balance” may be very different than someone else’s.
That said, unless you’re flight instructing part-time or flying recreationally, that work-life balance won’t come for many years after you gain seniority. Pilots by definition travel which takes you away from home at least half the month. Further most chase the bigger equipment (and the bigger paychecks that go with it) throughout their careers.
Long short if you’re looking for an “optimal work-life balance” being a pilot probably isn’t it.
Adam
Micah,
I am curious what your optimum work life balance is? While I enjoy time at home, I also get bored after a while and truly enjoy going to work. I find purpose and meaning in having a career, others I suppose do not.
Pilots are gone several nights per month, that rarely changes for even the most senior of pilots. If your goal is to be home every night, and you want to work in aviation, you could consider being a gate agent or a mechanic.
Micah,
It depends what optimal work life balance means to you. If you want to fly and still be home a lot then you can eventually achieve that with some seniority. You can maximize your time at home by living in base and choosing not to commute. If you’re in the Dallas area, American would be a good choice. If you want to just be home as many nights as possible, you could also consider the training department at American. Those instructors typically do eight hour shifts in the Sims and then come home at night.
Hannah
Thank you Hannah for the reply. I definitely want to live in base and I am looking into American as well. I understand I will be traveling over night I am just wondering what is the average. and if there is a balance or will I be missing all birthdays and events? My other question is what other type of sectors or specialties(cargo,medevac) I can look into, what does that life style look like?
Micah,
EVERYTHING at the airlines is based on seniority. When you start you’ll have none and you’ll work when and how much the airline needs you to. That means yes you will miss birthdays, holidays, proms, ball games, dance recitals, etc etc etc. Upgrade and you’re back to the bottom again. Move to a Major, bottom again. Bigger airplane, guess what?
Cargo can be even worse. Many cargo pilots are gone up to 18 days a month. Medivac is better and will keep you close but the pay is sub par.
New airline pilot and work-balance are seldom in the same sentence.
Adam
Micah,
As someone within the American network (American Eagle), you have two regional airlines that are based in the Texas locality: Envoy Air and PSA Airlines. While PSA is generally seeing pilots being based elsewhere, Envoy (Roscoe could probably back this) are seeing Chicago based out of training. Everything in the airline industry is seniority based, so you may not get your first choice right away, or for a little bit of time.
Hey Adam, I must be lucky guy then… 
Truthfully Micah, you’re probably going to be missing some of the “most important” holidays in your life while building seniority and that is something we as pilots adapt too. I can’t speak as much as family events like Adam or Chris, but I’ve found a passion for working on the holidays to get passengers to their loved ones or relatives to where they need to be for their family time. These are the sacrifices that we make in the industry and our own life. I’ve worked both my birthdays in my 2+ years at Piedmont and I don’t regret it. These were some of my better flights and crews made it fun, and time flew by.
We won’t sit here and sugarcoat the seniority or life events that you will miss because it’s what comes with the job.
Brady
Micah,
Take a look at the schedules section below. These are the mentors actual schedules from month to month. You can see the differences in regional schedules (Brady and Roscoe), Major schedules (Chris, Adam and myself) and even some cargo (Kamrin and Kyle).
No matter where you fly, every airline runs on seniority. If you go to a regional and stay you will get more senior and stay pretty senior because of the rapid turnover. If you want to get to a major well you will get senior at the regional, then hop to the left seat where you start back at the bottom as a junior captain. Then when you get hired at a major, you start over again as the most junior FO and start working your way up again. With seniority comes the schedule you want. It can happen but takes time. How much time depends on your timing and the industry hiring climate.
Hannah
Micah,
The others have addressed this topic well enough. Ultimately the ‘optimal work-life balance’ is what you make of the job. Seniority will dictate a lot of your schedule opportunities and may limit the days off that you want. You may end up missing important days or holidays but how that affects you is up to your (and those around you) expectations of the career. As Brady mentioned, being new to an airline will probably mean you work on holidays, but if you are flexible and set your expectations right, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. The way I have approached this career, and explained to my family and friends, is that I will try my best to be off on certain days, but if I can’t make it, we’ll make something else work. If we have to celebrate a holiday on a different day, then we make it work.
I think there is often a ‘doom and gloom’ associated with this career about missing things. Yes it can be really tough when you start out to miss stuff and not be able to choose a schedule that you are happy with. BUT if you are prepared for it and flexible, you will be pleasantly surprised with how good the lifestyle can be, even when you are junior. I still had a better schedule (in my opinion) than my friends who worked 9-5 when I first started at a regional. But if you are looking for a job with guarantees and weekends/holidays off, then an airline career might not be for you. There are not a lot of flying jobs out here that can fit that lifestyle either. Another thing that can significantly affect you in this career is commuting. This can and will really throw a wrench in your lifestyle and will certainly take away days off each month. I highly suggest living in base if you can help it, at least whilst on reserve.
It typically doesn’t take long to gain seniority at a regional. In two years, I usually get one of my top 10 choices for my schedule as a DFW FO for Envoy. I can hold holidays and weekends off. But when I upgrade I’ll go right back to the bottom of the list for CA’s with little choice of schedule. This is just the way the career progression works. A lot of seniority and movement can come with industry timing and luck. I started here right as things picked up post COVID, so the seniority list moved very quickly. Right now it’s a little slower.
If you’d like to see my schedules to see what my months look like, I have posted them every month since I started at Envoy. This will give you a pretty good idea what your days off might look like when you start at a regional.
Roscoe
Thank you all for sharing your time and knowledge. I appreciate the thorough and insightful responses you’ve provided to my questions, You’ve greatly enhanced my understanding of the topic. Thank you Roscoe for sharing your schedule.
The reason for my questions is that my past careers one being a Train Conductor for BNSF Railroad where I was on call 24/7 with none existent schedule. The other is for the movie industry working 80-90+ hours a week with no predictability. So coming from careers like that I am wondering if I can make my dream career a reality with a chance of having somewhat of a life.
After reviewing some of the schedules I have come to the conclusion that it is definitely possible and one key factor is the word “schedule” a word that i have really never come to know.
Thank you
Micah
Micah,
I have always had a fascination with the railroads myself. What I have come to understand is that train crews work very tough schedules with very little predictability. While there can be moments like that in the airlines, things generally are not that way. Once you get off reserve and have a line, the schedules tend to be rather predictable and steady. I get my schedule for the next month and usually fly about half of it, the other half I make trip trades to get into more desirable trips, but the days I work usually do not change.
Chris