Captain Mainwaring,
I am not sure where you aquire your "information", but it doesn't relate to my experience at all.
"Pilots doing maximum hours"... Not sure what this means exactly. Maximum hours are 900 per year and 100 per month. I have never done anything like ! In any event the company limit is 90 hours per month (28 days). I have reached that twice in the last 6 years and not at all this year. My total hours for the last 5 years amount to 630 / 660 / 575 / 535 / 640. Hardly maximum hours is it ? I would say my experience is average in the sense that there will be people either side of the median, though I doubt by very much.
"One weekend in 4 months if you are lucky"..... Well it sometimes feels that way, though I must be extremely lucky because upon checking I cannot find one single occaission in the last 15 years where I have not had a weekend off in longer than 10 weeks from the previous one (Saturday and Sunday off). Weekends off tend to be more prevalent in Winter, although that is a personal statistical bias rather than a matter of policy. Sometimes I appear to have had 3 weekends off in a month ( rarely).
"Flight and Cabin crew leaving in droves"...... Really ? I know that a few young F/O's have decided to move on to new pastures ( that is pretty normal in this industry generally). Cabin crew resignations don't seem unusually excessive to me. I have noticed very few "last working dates" shown on the flight report sheets.
"Cannot get Xmas or New year confirmed as Off duty"...... This company and indeed this industry is a 24 hour 365/6 day business. That includes Xmas day and New Years day. It follows that crews are contracted to fly on those days. In a few cases people are happy to volunteer to work these periods, however there is rarely enough volunteers to cover the programme. All crew will have been asked for their preference to work over this period. Some will be on leave ( confirmed) some will be on Days off (confirmed) some will be on standby ( luck of the draw) and some will be working. It is inevitable ( in any airline I imagine) that there will be some people dissapointed with their work cycle over this period, but that is the way of the world.
"The Chief Pilot changed recently and the chances of having a family life left with him.".......... I think you mean there was a change of Chief Pilot recently, however it's an amusing image. My family life hasn,t changed at all ! I have not flown with anybody who has expressed such a view.
I can only speak from personal experience, but that experience does involve a lot of direct communication with other crews. You certainly seem to have "heard" some things that are alien to my experience.
[This message has been edited by Jetdriver (edited 03 December 2000).]
How I wish I could spell properly !
[This message has been edited by Jetdriver (edited 03 December 2000).]