Originally Posted by
IllinoisDavidson
Wow. Based on your explanation bafanguy, it really looks like a career pilot must approach their profession like they are playing chess--always 5 steps ahead. You have to line up everything so that eventually, based on seniority, you have the freedom and the authority for some kind of a work-life balance. This is good to know. Very good to know.
Knowing how to fly the airplane is by far the easiest part of an airline pilot's life. Much more time and effort goes into mastering the scheduling and compensation aspects of the job. Very little in an airline pilot's life is predictable to any degree of certainty.