the roster, as has been said before, is 6 days on, 5 off. you travel on days 1 and 6. your 5 off are exactly that, standby days are rostered as part of your 6 on. sometimes you might spend a whole tour on standby at home. Add in 22 days vacation, which is offset against duty days and you should see 178 actual days available for work.
What I am saying here is that you can certainly achieve a good work life balance. yes, your 6 on are away from home, so that is 5 nights away as a block. you have no idea where those 5 nights will be spent, just that it almost definitely will not be at your gateway. if that is a problem for you, then this is not the job for you (not being nasty, just honest).
If you and your family can handle that roster you will get, lots of free time in blocks of 5 days, to fly some very nice little (and not so little) aircraft, to work with a great bunch of colleagues from across europe, and visit a variety of places that an airline roster would never take you to.
No it is not perfect, however, I am pretty happy here, and have seen improvements in the package and the way the company does business year on year. Yes there are things that I would like to change but these are not show stoppers. One thing, the company is getting very big now, approx 1100 pilots and 150+ aircraft, a seniority system is now in place, i hear that new joiners, with the right experience, are being told to expect 2 years+ to command, rather than the previous 6 months. Again if this is a deal breaker don't come, it will only frustrate you, on the other hand, how many airlines offer the chance of command that quickly.
The operation is very different to airline, if you like to think on your feet and be pro-active you will probably enjoy it. It is horses for courses though. Have a good one
