From Don's Post - Admitedly the FDP can be quite long but within CAP 371
Not so with the recent 3 day TASkent and ADDis trips which were outside the CAP371 but had dispensation from the CAA. Nearly everyone found them shocking
Due to the local summer time change (+1 hour) these trips thankfully become legal according to the CAA. However try telling your body that
From what I can gather, how you view the salary depends on what your used to. If you come from any other Airbus company you will probably think its quite poor. Whereas if your moving up from a regional or turboprop you'll be quite happy.
There are lifestyle issues with both pro's and con's. I think Dons covered that one. The company is also rather flexible as far as your geographic abode. Although the company expects you to be able to report within 1.5 hours of call out they so far do not stipulate that you MUST reside within 1.5 hours of base. This could change but I think realistically they appreciate that BMed is not exactly awash with people trying to climb aboard so would rather attract the right people than have to limit themselves to a 1.5 hour catchment pool.
My opinion is that the salaries and T & C's should be significantly improved in order to retain the hard working and loyal troops that we have. We do not physically work as hard as some of the shorthaul carriers on paper. However, the nature of our flying (Africa and CIS), with many destinations being procedural non procision, whose controllers hardly speak any english, have no radar, poor weather and to top it off some very hostile terrain, means that we do infact come under much more stress than a 4 sector day being guided on to ILSs by switched on European ATC staff. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the company cheque book, otherwise I'd probably emptied the company accounts paying the guys and girls who fly to these destinations
