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Yes but that really is the Crux of the question. I don't know you so I can't answer, But I have learned in 6 years that it is actually relatively small number of pilots who are willing to play the game to the point where it puts them ahead. As somewhat biased towards that game I can't say that I understand it fully, but I spent a significant amount of my flights explaining the various hustles to captains and at the end of the day they decide that life is simply easier getting a schedule in PBS and flying it, or sitting for reserve and hoping they don't get the call. Can't really half-ass a hustle. If it requires flexibility, you have to have the family that knows you could miss dinner tonight. If it requires gaming the FAR117 restrictions, then you have to be willing to put in the flight hours to build those conflicts. If it requires holiday flying, weekend flying, or flying long turns that have you going to the airport early in the morning and getting back late at night... You get the idea. If you can commit to a hustle then you will end up with a disproportionate share of a particular airline resource, either pay, time at home, pay per hours worked, whatever. If you half ass it, you'll just end up incredibly frustrated. So if you're the guy that likes predictability, I suspect that the widebody world will treat you better. If not, then it is almost certain you will benefit more from your seniority on the narrow body.

I'm here for the gang bang. Break, Break

FIFY

Well stated. As I have said before, my brother in-law was the A320 CA king of hustle, ie Green Slips and Rolling Thunder at DAL. Can't tell you how many times he missed his wife's Thanksgiving dinners and the crap he was willing to put himself through for a high paying trip. In his last 9 mths (2021) on LTS was pulling in $40K+/mth due to the accumulation effect of the above.

When your enemy is afraid of you, it is exactly the compliment I think it is. Please tell me more about what the cool, edgy, new professor at the zoo thought about the subject though.

My first few deployments I didn't have email. DSN 1110...."I'd like to make an off base call". People were also waiting in line to use the phones. Felt like a prison scene.

Have you drilled down into the more time at home by comparing TAFB? If your airline allows, I'd check the schedules of people around your seniority at the end of the month to see what they're really doing. If able, go back an entire year to get the full picture. If you just want to bid your schedule, fly it and go home, then ya I'd go try WB life for a while. But at 15%, if you have some flexibility, you generally have lots of options available to increase your QOL/pay/time at home. This month I worked 12 days with 4 nights away and blocked 32 hours. My TAFB isn't much more than a single 6-day WB trip I used to fly, not to mention my nights away is far less. My WB schedule usually was two of those 6-days or on reserve I usually got a 6-day and a 3-day or three or four 3/4-days. Obviously the longer drive/more frequent trips to the airport would have to be taken into account, but it's something to consider if you don't care for the drive. 15% provides control over your schedule/life that is hard to beat, especially since you'd be so junior on a WB.

A candidate we can ALL get behind !

I was actually teaching in the SOF WIC when both MC and AC shifts were happening. Frustrated me to no end that we could take A-10 guys that had never done anything with a radar or air to air beyond BFM and stick them in F-35 and TX them in a couple months whereas AFSOC in their infinite wisdom had no short course available to AC-W/U guys going to the J and they were out of pocket for almost a year. And copy the historical precedent for iron shifts taking longer than expected, but the first guys are PCS’ing in a few weeks and the second and third tranches are already ID’d (I was in the second until I went elsewhere). I don’t know what the final solution will look like with OA-1 vs U-28 or when, but the notion that it won’t happen or isn’t imminent is incorrect.

No, as I said, pure speculation from me. But I’m right, lol!

Just be clear on this, two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Pursuing mil aviation and placing high importance on family can occur simultaneously. You don’t need a 9-5 to have a solid family life. Not saying that’s what you are implying, but that could be inferred from your words.

She was there for all of us before, she’ll be there for all of us in the future. BQZip’s Mom 2024!

Depends on what you fly as a narrow body fo. If you're just flying pre-constructed trips out of PBS, from what I understand the quality of life is probably going to be better on the wide body side, even with the lowered ability to pick your days and trips. If you use the seniority on the narrow body to pick up broken stuff, either short or long-term turns (depending on your preference) or my specialty, one short flight out, overnight, one flight back, then you can have a pretty easy life. I will probably never go wide body because the idea of sitting in an airplane for 15 hours when I can fly from DFW to OKC and be done for the day just doesn't make it worth a few extra bucks per hour. For reference, I usually fly 320 to 350 hours per year, actual seat time. I probably deadhead another hundred to 150 (often in first class now thanks to the new contract), and get paid somewhere between 1,300 to 1,500 hours, plus the 401k.

Was that the AUTOVON number? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Nice retro hour!! You might actually remember when the phone number to CBPO at most bases was x2276.

Yeah, but you would think holding people to the same standard, I don’t know, meant that we were “uniform” or something. Oh well—I’m the old guy who is retired now.