Originally Posted by
up_north
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if someone at the company could explain rostering. Pardon my ignorance, I flew regionals and now at ULCC on the 737. At both companies I flew 85 hours per month (sometimes up to 100) but still got my 12 GDOs. I’m not understanding how pilots are only getting 8 days off per month given that many of the destinations are 3+ hrs from DXB and are turns. Can someone explain or share a sample roster?
Simple…night flying. Fly Monday night and land Tuesday morning. Fly Wednesday night and land Thursday Morning. Fly Friday night and land Saturday morning. That’s almost an entire week without a day off. Only done 3 flights.
There are long periods between duties. For example, you get home at 9am on a Tuesday then don’t sign on until 8pm on a Wednesday. That’s 35 hours free of duties. However you sleep until the afternoon on the Tuesday then have to plan sleep mid afternoon for your duty on Wednesday.
Some months if your roster has a lot of flying the wrong side of the clock you might only do 65 hours. However you might only end up with 8-9 rostered days off where you get 2 nights in a row in your bed, and a full day off where you don’t need plan some sort of sleep at an odd time of day.
All that said it’s not that bad. With the rotational bidding system, 3 or even 4 rosters out of 5 you can build a pretty decent roster and avoid a lot of the ‘deep’ nights that bring you home after 5am.