June I bid for a line again. I had my 9 month recurrent training check at the end of the month. It consisted of one classroom session and two simulator sessions with positive space first class travel to and from the training center in Denver.
I also found a new favorite layover station, YVR. Vancouver is gorgeous, clean and had a ton of great outdoor things to do on the layover! Overall it was a great month. I had 14 days off, flew 54 hours of block time and had a line pay value of 91 hours.
31: IAD-YVR
1: YVR-SFO-IAH
2: IAH-CUN-IAD
3: OFF
4: OFF
5: OFF
6: OFF
7: IAD-CUN-EWR
8: EWR-YVR
9:YVR
10: YVR-IAD
11: OFF
12: OFF
13: OFF
14: OFF
15: OFF
16: DCA-IAH-DCA
17:IAD-IAH-CUN
18: CUN-SFO
19: SFO
20: SFO-IAD
21: OFF
22: OFF
23: CQ TRAINING
24: CQ TRAINING
25: CQ TRAINING
26: CQ TRAINING
27: OFF
28: OFF
29: OFF
It is pretty nice… but keep in mind, I realistically worked 74 hours. I only flew 54 hours in the plane, but had an additional 20 hours of pay from CQ training (8 hours in the sim, one 8 hour day in the classroom and 4 hours of briefings). The rest came from soft pay.
I’m wondering what kind of free time you have prior to and after your flights on flying days. I’m someone who likes to be consistent in the gym, with passions for studying languages and practicing martial arts. I’m curious as to how often I could do those things as an airline pilot, and particularly with how that changes on different amount of flights per day, 2, 3, 4 or more.
I’m sure Hannah will respond but I can tell you you’ll have days with virtually zero fee time and days when you’ll have nothing but.
Some trips start at 0 dark 30 with a long duty day and you’ll be lucky to get a decent meal, other trips you’ll have long overnights with 24hrs plus on an overnight and everything in between.
With that in mind if you’re dedicated, disciplined and flexible you’ll find the time to do the things you enjoy (just maybe not every day). I know pilots who are competitive bodybuilders, martial artists, earn advanced degrees and just about anything else you can think of. One of perks of the job is when you’re off, you’re off.
I find that I have time to go to the gym just about every overnight. Sometimes I feel like I am dragging myself there, sometimes I actually have energy. I also usually have time to walk around wherever I am some and get a meal. Now some overnights are super short and I never leave the room, and others I spend 36 hours in the same place, but each of these are extremes.
It totally depends on what airline you’re at, the flying you’re doing on that airplane and your seniority! At the regionals, I rarely had time to work out. We flew 4 legs a day with 12-14 hour overnights which made it difficult to do much more than a good meal and a good night sleep.
Now that I’m at United and on the 737, I fly typically 1 or 2 legs a day and have much longer overnights on average. I find on the road I can consistently work out 2-3 times per trip and still have time for good meals and long nights sleep.
So to answer your question, at the regionals I worked out more at home and prioritized rest on my trips. Now that I’m at United, I can have a nice balance of keeping up my usual return from days off on the road because I have more layover time to accommodate. You’ll just have to find the right balance for you for where you’re at at the time.
