I have been working in 121 ACMI work for some time now. I flew turboprops for Feeder Services at Empire, now on an MD-11 operation flying long-haul contracts across the globe (Africa, Europe, India, China, Saudi Arabia, South America). The bad? Commercialing 16 hours to Mumbai, or Shanghai into position, being married and seeing the wife 12 days out of the month (I actually love my wife unlike most, so seeing her more is a good thing), not being able to plan anything more than a few days prior except hard days off. Banking, Bill Pay, Important dates either for business, or personal reasons. Jet-Lag, sleeping habits... I'm a church go'er so, becoming actively involved in that requires more time spent at home, which is not possible now. The Good? Long Periods OFF...I mean, OFF!!! No one bugging you, or pissing down your throat about nagging work scedules and scheduling problems. Solid Pay Check, Always On-Time, Always in my bank account, like clock work. Traveling, Traveling....Always seeing new destinations, or repeated old ones with new culture, new way of thinking, differents perspectives. My current position allows me to be home based(BIG PLUS on this one), so I can basically live where I want to in the states, No jump seating to work. I am a pilot who actually enjoys working/bidding reserve lines and so, I get to be constantly flying with people I have not seen for long periods, or with entirely new folks too. I tried to fly corporate for one year in New York, HATED IT!! Nagging, Childs Play, back stabbing, people whining and turning others in for small chicken-crap no-brainer issues. Most corporate is hard to stick with, due to the schedules, the game-playing and the Non-Union environment, plus the pay is no longer what it was in the eighties/nineties, everything is turning Fractional these days, hope all of this is useful.
