The planek do prdele
I just got done with a very nice productive three day, and I had time to ponder. The deal is your schedule really impacts your quality of life, and even as a junior f/0 at about 65% at the companies most senior base, I spend more time at home with my loved ones then I did as the big relatively senior Kepten. on the 737. AP you really need to peruse the contract and the ops manual, ( don't read the horrible English versions they are not legally binding), there you will find that your schedule is based once again on the good principals of Marks, Engle, and Lenin., I.E. every one is equal and every one shall get the same "schedule" in a rolling 12 month time frame, +/- 5%. Take a deep breath and think about this one, as in theory it might even sound good if your junior, but you can be the 30 year numero uno in your seat , and some newbie gets the same deal. That to me is just plane garbage. You never "bid" on anything dealing with your schedule, you just GET something. On the 20th of the month you "get" you first ten days, then by midnight on the 28th you get the rest of your Planek. So much for planning life events. No remember that you get paid a substantial portion of your salary by hours flown, so guess what +/- 5% does to your bottom line... Remember the door that says in Czech "flight crew entry prohibited" , that is where the +/- 5% turns into +/wayyyy more. L.E is right in that the fleet as allot to do with your flying. Well A.P unless you own a JAA 737 type you can more or less forget about the 737, you'll be on the automatic tampon remover or the very fine A 320. I looked at my old planek and it kind of reflects the A 320 flying right now. Six days of turns, and on the 7th day an all nighter red eye ( with no IRO), make in essence an 8 day work block. Two days off and more of the same....11 days off with one block of four days off in a row. Let me tell you on those days off you are beat. I/m glad for my remaining brothers that this type of flying went to the gurus on the A-320. The other factor is this, everyone’s "line" is essentially a hybrid mix of line holder/reserve/ airport alert. If you look at someone’s Planek then you will notice the flying, then days with an X, those are immovable days off, then after a pairing you might see two days in a row that are blank, those are essential like reserve days, if your legal and they get you on the phone your assignable, and its non negotiable ( you could just turn off your fine company phone and not give them a land line), but every time you start a pairing and end one, it is at the red kiosk that electronically logs you in our out, and here comes the best part the two blank days before your immoveable day can get assigned as you log out, and now its on your line, so too bad if you had plans, and guess what not a red cent of premium pay, oh ya its non negotiable. So when some one over there tells you they have 20 days off on their planek, ask again when the month is done. Oh ya airport alert, thats a joke, and if you don't fly no money, great deal.... No concept of WOCL/biorhythms. And the fact that you do allot of turns sounds enticing, but since they have no duty/trip rig concept, you can have two AMS turns with sit time every where, be on duty for 12-14 ours and get paid for five hours. On the A320 fleet you will be commuting to and from work 15-19 times a month because of this, or many red eye turns ( on IRO) so the vast amounts of "free" time is a hoax, and the many red eyes in a row will take there toll my friend, but look at the good stuff, a "free" phone, pc, uniform, crew meals- with lots of pork, brand new A-320's. Beer in a two liter plasitc bottles, world famous Start smokes, and the world famous Karosa bus, and Tatra truck ,I'm getting teary eyed the dark forces are calling me back. If you go don't bitch, as unlike the "crew" you have been informed. Read the contract.
Frats Bratko
And please LE and click kiss and make up!!!!