At the most South - westerly airfield we work a core working week. Effectively we have to work 34 Hours a week. We must work from Midday Monday until midday thursday and the times we work are entirelly upto us. Generally, with night flying etc I can achieve my CWW (core working week) by wednesday lunchtime. I.E. I normally start at 0800 on a monday and will work through until completion of night flying about 10.30pm at this time of year. Same goes for Tuesday - 0800-2230 which means that if I start again at 0800 on wednesday then Im all done my lunchtime. Sadly, it doesnt quite work out like that but it does mean that I can bigger off early on a wednesday and thursday so I will finish by 5 or 6 pm on those days. And of course, everyone knows that the FAA always finish at 1200 non a friday. In general, although the CWW is for 34 hours we generally end up doing ITRO 50 ish. As for seeing my family....well, The kids are in bed when I go to work on Monday but by Thursday evening I have generally done enough hours to get home to put them to bed so thats ok.
I know that our maintainers have a good system. they do a week of mornings, a week of afternoons and a week of slips (nights). So week 1 will be 0700 - 1300 each day. week 2 will be 1300 - O/C night flying week 3 will be 1900 - 0600.
Still, at least its better than being at sea. Being at 45 minutes notice for 6 months gets a bit wiery
Last edited by vecvechookattack; 1st Apr 2007 at 19:14.