hostile23 - greetings!
It seems as though you have limited experience of UK based short haul turbo - prop operators? Certainly your post reflects a well turned naivete. (sorry, no accents today, not much hyperbole either!)
Here then is one perspective for you to mull over.
If you work from one base and one base only, (not dual base - watch that little trap) then it is a considerable upside to operate within a small community. It is really very nice to all pull together when the weather is wintry - or whatever.
In general, roster patterns are inherently unstable but these truths are probably self evident...
Your days off will always start from a late and finish with an early.
Weekends are never guarenteed.
5 days on and 2 off is a suggestion, it is not a legal equirement.
Rostering and Crewing usually cannot cope with too many requests and roster changes are a fact of life and normally never to your advantage.
In addition to this basic guideline, some companies will...
Refuse to count travel time to an away base duty as FDP.
Only ever give you the minimum legal days off, to the extent where one's roster has shown six Captains and six F/Os all on standby with all flights cancelled over Christmas and New Year, but no one actually rostered off.
Expect you to call a standby day on which you do not fly, a day off.
Expect you to position at short notice to other bases, requiring 2.00 am drive starts.
Expect you to hang around the crew room indefinitely after an early finish or cancelled flight,just in case something comes up.
After an early finish, F/Os report to office to sort Notams, update Jeppesens and so on.
Jump seat? Only for VIPs, drunk or sober, at company decision, all others prohibited.
Hmm.You want a jet when? Got to pay with a change of base perhaps?
So you see, old bean, it's perhaps a bit of a nightmare. Having flown for several short haul operators no doubt anyone would wish to fly long haul. One suspects that this pathway has its own downsides too, you know, frisky hostesses and far away places.
But, at the end of the day, retirement is the optimum and the ability to do it early enough the goal in the sky for which to reach.
Best of luck to you with Flybe, they seem fairly inoffensive and used to have a darling girl working in crewing, whose name is Alzheimered, for whom one would do just about anything.
