Maverick,
I have no delusions that I am at the hands of the rostering department but considering I am at EMA which is a big training base and have been out of training since mid november my hours have been pretty decent.
If you look at my average number of hours its about 60 which is pretty good.
I am a sensible enough to plan for my month off by saving and forward planning. As for the pension and the rest, I sort all that out myself and have a choice of everyone in the market. The out of base payment covers the extras it costs you to reposition etc.
As for the rest of the costs, they are tax deductible so it heps. I have retained 85% of my wage minimum every month.
If you work on 650/700 hrs for the year you will be on the right lines.
Im interested to hear about how your wage has dropped by 12000?