Some questions I have never seen on here

[Grambo]

A pilot is a career I am considering, not right now, but for something in the future, after I raise £50k.

I have always wondered though..

1. How do you know where you are flying from, what flight etc? Does a manager call you? Email?

2. The average the pilots seem to work is 80 hours a month, I may be wrong. Say they are on £60k, they probably earn more an hour than doctors. Why do they work so few hours?

[jeff64]

hello

For the flight, it will depend. You will have a planning established for each crewmember by the company which is available, depending on the company, approx 2 weeks before the begin of the month.
In this planning, you have days off, days on, and reserve days. On reserve, you must be (depending company policies) on your base or near the base waiting for a possible call if one crewmember does not show up for the flight.

You can (still depending on company policy) bid for preferred flights before the planning is established.

For the duties hours, the FAA / JAA limits the amount of hour flown by a pilot each day / week / month / year. By month, the limit is about 90 hours and by year, 900 hours. So the company have to plan the days on and off of the pilots to match the requirements.

[ab33t]

£60k , I dont think so . Where are pilots earning that money so I can get a job.

[Wyle E Coyote]

It's bacause pilots are inherently lazy. I don't even do 80.

[Denti]

Actually, you can fly 100 hours within 28 days, but since the limit is 900 a year it would average to around 75 a month.

However, block hours, the time "flown" is not the whole time you work, depending on what kind of operation it can be as low as only a third of your whole working time. My worst year was less than 300 hours flown with close to 1400 hours duty (2000 is the legal limit). But in most companies all you get payed is block hours, not duty time. There are some exceptions, mostly shorthaul where the difference between block hours and duty time is biggest.

About pay, well, that depends on company, country, taxation etc as well as of course time in company and what you do (left/right seat, trainer etc). There are some threads about take home pay in the correct forum for it.

[welliewanger]

What Jeff64 said is pretty accurate, I just want to add something about how long you work for 80 hours (per month) flying.

That 80 hours is calculated from the time the plane starts to move until the time it stops. It doesn't include:
- Flight planning.
- Checking the aircraft.
- Checking weather, NOTAMs etc.
- Dealing with unserviceabilities on the aircraft (what stuff has to be fixed and what can we fly without?)
- Waiting for passengers do board / disembark, luggage etc.
- Paperwork paperwork and more paperwork.

Even if I wanted to fly a little cessna 30 miles (a 20 minute flight) if I were to do all of the above thoroughly, I wouldn't be surprised if it took 45 mins - an hour. Flying longer distances with more complex aircraft across international boundaries etc. can add even more time, none of which counts towards the 900 hour per year limit.

[Rick777]

The two previous replies sum it up pretty well. It is slightly different in the US. We could fly 100 hrs a month and 1000 per year. I averaged around 90 flying for a major US carrier. Since I got about 3 weeks vacation and a couple of colds a year I could fly 90 hrs every full month I worked. The way I explained my job to my friends was that a person who works a 40 hr week works about 160 hrs a month. That is about the amount of time I was on duty. I got paid for about half that time and was away from home a little over twice that. With 18 years service I was making about $130,000 a year. Nobody I knew was interested in trading jobs.

[Clandestino]

Dear Grambo

There are no answers to your questions that would encompass the whole wonderful world of aviation. So my answer will be relevant to my position as Europe based Q400 captain.

1. Monthly roster is issued 3-5 days in advance. Notification of the change can be made via: telephone, e-mail, ACARS, VHF radio, leaving the note in company mailbox... anything goes.

2. This November I'm scheduled to work 121:25 hours, 41:10 of which will be spent actually flying the aeroplane. If I'm lucky, I'll barely make 3000 € net (per diems included) for this. Rest of monthly hours is not all mine to enjoy; about a hundred of them will be spent in downroute hotels.

[Miserlou]

In calculating hourly rates you may also want to first decide what you count as work.
The law says we can work (duty) up to 60 hours in any seven day period though max 200 per month and max 2000 per year. They will all give different results.
40 grand is more realistic for a 10 year first officer in an average size company.
That'll give you an average of 20 squid an hour.

Take into account no extras for weekend, shift or public holidays and we're onto a loser here.

Then work out how much we earn per hour from arriving at work to begin duty to leaving work to go home. There may be many days which you are essentially 'at work' in the sense of not at home and able to see your kids, wife, friends, hobbies....

You might be looking at 10 quid an hour or less.

[Wyle E Coyote]

Man..... it sounds like I've got it good

Sign on 30 minutes before departure, sign off 15minutes after shutdown.

and paperwork? that's why we pay ground staff:ok: