A Month in the Life of Cap’n Aux
A Month in the Life of Cap’n Aux
Folks, in the past several posts, we’ve been talking about a pilot’s schedule. How trips are assigned and flown, how reserve works, and how a commuting pilot deals with the schedule s/he’s dealt.
In this post, we’ll put it all together by looking into an airline pilot’s typical monthly schedule. We’ll do this by taking a look at mine. Sort of a “month in the life of Cap’n Aux.”
We’ll compare my schedule with Bunny’s (a flight attendant), how they change from month to month, week to week, and day to day. And, I’ll share with you a bit of what we do on days off.
Finally, we’ll have some Easter Day fun with Cap’n Dillon!
Enjoy!
But first…
Join Me on Quora!
If you’ve ever visited Quora, you know it’s a great place to get all your questions answered on any topic. Well, I just joined their team to be an “answer man” on their topics of Airlines and Aviation!
So, if you have any questions, c’mon over and ask away!
Here’s the link:
https://capnauxsspace.quora.com
Also…
A request from a fellow Blog Buddy:
Recently, David T. lost his childhood best friend. He is hoping to help the deceased’s family out by helping defray the cost of the funeral. Any amount, however small, will help immensely.
I thank you in advance, my fine fellow Blog Buddies!!!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/dkzzgu-lost-my-childhood-best-friend
And now…
A Month in the Life of Cap'n Aux
Our Schedules
As you may recall from our “Tale of Two Trips” post awhile back, Bunny and I have two different schedules—she as a Flight Attendant, me as a pilot. Sometimes they sync up, sometimes they don’t.
While I’m mostly on reserve schedules these days, her FA contract has her working every 3rd month on reserve. This month, we both had reserve, so spent a lot of time at home waiting for that phone to ring…
April Before
Above: My April schedule (L); R: Bunny’s
For my schedule (L, above), I sat reserve on the green days. Blue days were my days off. (Some days off can be moved, if I get assigned a trip that pushes into a day off.)
In Bunny’s schedule (R), her days off are in yellow and blank days are her On Call days. Same as me, some days off can be moved.
April After
Above: My April Before (L) After (R)
By the end of April, you can see that my line had filled in quite a bit (R). That is, the grey trips are ones that I wound up being assigned to fly. (The red day was a sick day.)
In the end, I was assigned to fly to:
- HNL
- SCL
- LHR
- SCL
In other words, during every block of days I was assigned to sit Standby, I actually wound up flying trips. This is not always the case—in fact, on average, I’d say you’ll typically fly only half that time!
However, an airline always seems to by short on Captains, and heavy on FOs. So, Captains typically do fly more often than FOs.
Also, since an international flight often has 2-3 FOs, there will be MANY more FOs sitting reserve, which lowers an individual’s chances of callout.
So again, in general, on Reserve, you’ll work maybe half of the time you’re scheduled to sit on call. You’ll get a base pay for the month, but will rarely go over that number and make extra. In other words, you’ll work less, but get paid less.
If the planets align, you can sometimes volunteer fly on days off in order to boost above that guaranteed minimum pay. In fact, many pilots I fly with do just that! I’m gonna have to keep learning my system to figure out how they pull of that magic!
Did you know that Cap’n Aux has written no fewer than 9 books? Yep! Everything from true and fictional adventures in the sky, to a 4-mission “fly-spy” novel series!
Check ’em out at:
A Month in the Life of Cap'n Aux
Bunny's April
Above: Bunny’s line filled in as well. She flew most every block as well; however, the blue days were days she sat Short Call reserve and, in some cases, did Not get called out.
Being on Long Call (12 hour callout minimum), I was awarded my trips in plenty time to plan my commute over to DFW to start work.
Bunny, however, only having “Short Call” (see our last post), was often called in at the last minute—including a midnight phone call—to get her keister to the airport to fly a trip with minimal warning!
A bit of stress, but in this biz, you always gotta be flexible, packed, and ready to hit the ground running!
A Month in the Life of Cap'n Aux
Hemisphere Runnin'!
So, there ya go. Still up for a life of flying? Hey, it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure!
Here’s a few pics from my trips…
HNL
It was nice to break up the schedule and fly a domestic trip for once. 1 leg out, 1 leg back, and a 24-hour rest, from afternoon to afternoon. Perfect timing!
SCL
This was a fun one! We had a 35-hour layover in SCL, plenty time to have some fun!
We started by going out for a leisure dinner on the streets of SCL. Plenty of great places to choose from! What’s more, we met up with another crew of pilots, one of whom I used to fly with back in the Bus days.
Yep, a small world!
Finally, the next day, we took a gondola up to the mountain peak, where they were having Palm Sunday service. We had a stunning view of the entire Santiago area, with a population of 8 million!
Remember a few posts ago, I shared the moon and several planets following us along during my first SCL flight? Well, Jupiter and Venus were still hanging around!
A Month in the Life of Cap'n Aux
LHR
Another huge benny for airline crews is that you get to shop the world! It’s funny, sometimes, to hear Bunny talking to her cohorts: “Oh, you couldn’t find it in Singapore last week? Well, I’ll get it for you next week when I head to Paris!”
To wit, Bunny assigned me to grab her some tea accouterments for an upcoming baby shower she’s throwing for our daughter in law. So, on my last LHR, I walked to the famous Harrod’s to gear up. Boy, was I impressed!
A Month in the Life of Cap'n Aux
SCL#2: "Crew Debrief"
A similar trip to the first one. This time, however, since it was Chile’s “Labor Day” holiday, nearly everything was closed.
So, the whole crew got together for a “Crew Debrief,” as we like to call it. We sat poolside at our hotel, and enjoyed the fine weather, fine wine, hors d’oeuvres, and good conversation!
Days Off
As for days off, sometimes I have ’em with Bunny, sometimes we’re solo at home.
What to do?
Well, my first day home is always spent running errands to catch up with my life!
Then, if there’s time left, I’ll hit the golf course, the gym or running trail behind my house. I’ll often do some writing, jump in the pool (great time to do that in PHX now!), or just plain chillax in front of the TV!
Also, recently, I got to partake of our extended family’s monthly Zoom meeting. Such a treat to be able to keep up with cousins strewn about across the world!
As for Bunny, every free moment she has at home, she tries to spend with our granddaughter, Lyla!
Here’s a hysterical video of Lyla, laughing at her own hiccups!
Try not to laugh!!
As mentioned above, Lyla has a new sister on the way, due near my birthday next month!
I’ll be sure to share some pics with your right here!
A Month in the Life of Cap'n Aux
Easter with Cap'n Dillon
Speaking of days off, I happened to get Easter off. However, Bunny got called out on a trip! So, once again, I was solo at home.
Everyone’s favorite Cap’n—Cap’n Dillon—and his family took pity on me, and invited me to their family’s party.
It turned out to be a wonderful time, out on a ranch outside the city. Besides airplanes, Cap’n Dillon is also nuts about animals, so they had him feed their horses!
And, of course, what Easter party would be complete without an Easter egg hunt for the kids?!
A Month in the Life of Cap'n Aux
I hope today’s post gave you a better sense of what life is like for an airline pilot. The very nature of this biz guarantees you will NOT be working the daily grind of 9-5 M-F!
But, of course, the wild, and often unpredictable, schedule, comes with its own challenges.
To quote Cap’n Dillon’s favorite line from his video, “Cap’n Dillon’s Ecstatic Adventure“, (http://vimeo.com/capnaux/dillon ):
As an airline pilot, you gotta be ready for anything!
Till the next post,
This is Cap'n Aux
Signing Off!
Cap'n Aux Social Media Links
- Books: Amazon.com
- Email: eric@capnaux.com
- Facebook: CapnAux
- Twitter: @capnaux
- Instagram: @capnaux
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Related Links
- Life of an Airline Pilot:
- Bid Life of an Airline Pilot https://capnaux.com/the-bid-life-of-an-airline-pilot/
- Life as a Reserve Pilot https://capnaux.com/life-as-a-reserve-pilot/
- Life as a Reserve Commuter Pilot https://capnaux.com/life-as-a-reserve-commuter-pilot/
- Top 10 Downers of an Airline Pilot Career https://capnaux.com/top-10-downers-of-an-airline-career/
- An Airline Pilot Retires https://capnaux.com/an-airline-pilot-retires/
- Life of a Test Pilot https://capnaux.com/the-occasionally-exciting-life-of-a-test-pilot/
- The Making of a European Pilot https://capnaux.com/the-making-of-a-european-airline-pilot/
- Confessions of a Former Airline Pilot https://capnaux.com/confessions-of-a-former-airline-pilot/
- 777 Adventures
- Hemisphere Adventures! https://capnaux.com/hemisphere-adventures/
- Dancing the Hemispheres https://capnaux.com/dancing-the-hemispheres/
- Maiden Voyage of the Boeing 777 https://capnaux.com/maiden-voyage-of-the-boeing-777/
- Getting Certified on the Boeing 777 https://capnaux.com/whats-it-like-to-get-certified-on-one-of-the-worlds-largest-airliners-the-boeing-777-type-rating/
- Drinking From a Firehose Part 1 https://capnaux.com/drinking-from-a-firehose-part-1/
- Airbus Adventures
- Fifi’s Final Flight! https://capnaux.com/fifis-final-flight/
- Cap’n Aux’s First Solo https://capnaux.com/blogging-in-formation-solo/
- End of an Aviation Era https://capnaux.com/end-of-an-aviation-era/
- A Tale of Two Upgrades https://capnaux.com/a-tale-of-two-upgrades/
- As the Turbine Turns https://capnaux.com/as-the-turbine-turns/
- Cap’n Aux Vimeo Page https://vimeo.com/capnaux/
- All Word on the Ramp Videos https://vimeo.com/manage/showcases/3162370/info
- Best of Videos https://vimeo.com/manage/showcases/3162373/info
- Fun Stuff and Best of Cap’n Aux
- Top 10 Things to Never Say to a Pilot https://capnaux.com/top-things-never-to-say-to-a-pilot/
- The Airline Cockpit in 7 Steps https://capnaux.com/airline-cockpit-7-steps-updated/
- Top 10 Downers of an Airline Pilot Career https://capnaux.com/top-10-downers-of-an-airline-career/
- Black Swan Event Part 1 (Video Interview with Qantas A380 Captain de Crespigny) https://capnaux.com/black-swan-event-the-captain-de-crespigny-story-pt-1/
- WOTR Video: It’s What Pilots Do! https://capnaux.com/word-on-the-ramp-video-its-what-pilots-do/
- Pilots of the Caribbean https://capnaux.com/there-i-wuz-pilot-of-the-caribbean/
- Part 2: Stranded in Paradise https://capnaux.com/pilot-of-the-caribbean-part-2/
- Life in the Sky with Covid
- Pilots Protest Covid Mandates https://capnaux.com/pilots-protest-covid-mandates/
- The Post-Covid Future of US Aviation https://capnaux.com/the-post-covid-future-of-u-s-aviation/
- Flying in the Age of Covid https://capnaux.com/flying-during-covid/
- Lessons From the Miracle on the Hudson https://capnaux.com/forced-landings-pilot-lessons-from-the-miracle-on-the-hudson-part-1/
