Go through the application process if you’re interested, brother. You ain’t got a decision to make until you get offered a job.

You may get offered long haul or short haul, depending on what they’re short of on the day. Apparently, at the moment, you get offered a job once and once only. Your choice.

if you accept a seat on one of our fleets you will be there for for 5 years unless the company wants to move you. That includes long haul back to short haul.

EK for 10 years? You outta your f’ing mind?

Best of luck, dude!

Buter

Could you please email me the screenshots of the 744 pilots doing 6+ trips, sir?

Regards

Buter

3.5.4.3, by the way...

’Morning Buter...good to finally meet you in person the other week ..

The coffee hasn’t kicked in yet so I may be resistant to detail but a quick 1 minute skim read of iBid final rosters shows at least one 744 P1 with 6 trips completely contained within October, though the individual is so far above CAP they may have deliberately loaded their line up or have been RA’d. It certainly looks like Bidline rule 3.5.4.3 hasn’t been “deployed” or wasn’t in play for some reason.

Even if it’s the case that you don’t ever have to do a 6 trip month there are certainly some who do and for many 5 trips will be the norm on at least some of the Longhaul Fleets, which I suspect may come as a surprise to a few of our readers and prospective joiners.

ATB..

5 trips and two sim days for me I’m the latest bid. Without the sim, that line was a few minutes over CAP. That particular rule not in play sadly, Buter.

I met a junior 747 Captain the other day who claimed to have done 17 trips in a row with just 2 days off between each trip!

Bex88 said:

Just to clarify, the first 7 days of the 28 days reserve are normally ‘fixed days off’. One can elect to work during those days (excepting the final two) but BA can not assign any trips.

NG708: I was 42 when I joined BA, having had 10 years in GA and 10 years in 737 UK Charter Ops (including 8 years in command). I joined onto the 747 fleet and spent 14 happy years there. Then 5 years A320 LHS and now LHS on the 787.

As my BA experience spans the last 20 years, it’s difficult to give advice because the situation is now different but I just wanted to point out that it worked for me.

Hey guys and girls, just wondering if there’s anyone on here that’s starting the 320 typerating on the 7th of Jan? We’re trying to get a watsapp group going before the whole thing starts. Send me a pm if you want.

Skaterboi.

I am ex military and an ex turboprop driver and joined BA SH 3 years ago at age 46. I can honestly say it is the easiest gig I have ever had.

Yes I fly with people who are 15 years younger than me, but that’s not an issue.

Yes I will never get a LH command but frankly It doesn’t bother me, in fact I have deliberately not bid for SH command as it’s about quality of life for me and I have been there and done that.

BA is not the be all and end all and it most definitely has its problems but show me somewhere that doesn’t, other than the night Moscow you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of SH flights that are still airborne after 2330 so that’s a massive plus in my mind, the fact you actually get off the aircraft to explore the city you are in is also a massive plus to me. The biggest plus of all is the ability to move fleets and reinvigorate the job.

there are always people who are unhappy, it goes with the territory, I believe you could put pilots in a bar and give them free beer and a free lap dance and we, as a group, would complain because it’s bitter not lager and a brunette not a blonde, there are 4200 pilots at BA and I can’t believe more than 100 a year (and that’s a very generous estimate) leave for pastures new that’s about 2%, I wonder what the percentages are at other carriers?

like I say BA is not the be all and end all and it has its issues, talk to ex military mates to get a proper feel of how it is but take it from me it’s perfectly easy to enjoy it as an “older” FO.

Nice to meet you as well, sir.

I‘ve had a look through the C744 rosters and some of them look suicide inducing. However, very few of them were in the realm of the 5 trip rule. If you look, many of the trips were picked up at stage 2, IOT or EOT. There’s no protection, and there shouldn’t be, from a pilot loading up his/her roster as much as they want.

Sooooo happy to be on the tanker...

Cheers

Buter

That opens up a whole range of responses..:E

I’ve tried to resolve your unspoken unwritten :confused: by PM........

I’m P2 744. Blind lined. I’ve got 5 and a half trips this month and not beyond CAP.

Just had a row of trip/2 days off/trip rolling from last month. Totally knackered. Just woke from a mammoth 13 hour coma back home after busting through my two (very loud) alarm clocks :O

Trust me, You don’t have to plunder OT to have an eyeball busting P2 jumbo roster, they’ll offer that little service free of charge even on a blind line.

Many overlook the quality of a month isn’t about the 1st to the 31st. Your body doesn’t work 1st to the 31st. You can have a nice little compact rolling roster of pain from the 15th of one month to the 14th of the next and then a shockingly luxurious row of 4/5 days off block mid following month. Which by then consists of crying in a corner and sucking your thumb for the first two days :O

Ouch...

There are some who are of the opinion that the combination of JSS and recruiting will see some relief from that sort of scheduling but TBH and very much IMHO it’s hard to see any regime run by the likes of AC taking their foot off the metaphorical throat once they’ve seen what can be enforced.

I’m very strongly of the opinion that looking ahead for many a career in BA Long Haul will only sustainable if they are able to mitigate the effects by getting onto one of the part time contracts , but that’s obviously just my POV.

Yup! For me it’s now black and white. No more messing about now. Beg for part time whilst I have a mull over (can’t afford it though so not a great long term option), bid for LGW (frying pan/fire?) or get the hell out of dodge. I can feel this in my body now. My time at home is now given to work. I’ve tried to be very positive about work until now. Loads of good aspects of course.. I might be paid 65k but my time “off” and health do belong to BA. I figure they’ve bought me half price :O

I believe you have hit the nail firmly on the head there Wiggy. I see people who have come to the jumbo from short haul, or have just joined from other airlines. They think it is great and say it is a breeze. I always say to them “Yep, that is because it takes about five years for the long term fatigue to really hit you, but it you it will.” They don’t believe me, but give them five years and they’ll be begging for part time or a return to short haul because the current work rate is beyond what the human body can reasonably be expected to do.

i joined from another LH airline and this is the most knackered I’ve ever been. Partly my fault as I knew the method of the rosters. I think BA’s version of LH is elegantly draining. All the flip flop shift reversals with little time to recover for enough weeks to ensure when you do hit leave or a block off you sort of collapse over the line ha. They’re experts at it. I’ve got to admire that. 5 (a fifth of a month!) missing nights sleep a month becomes my problem, not theirs :0 .

What’s not my fault is it’s changed (ing) , optimising since I’ve arrived. What existed when I signed up is moving around under my feet a little. Bidline as a concept is (was) good, don’t get me wrong. But I am surprised at whoever agreed to the the whole CAP thing back in t’ day, emphasis on the number CAP is/ lack of blocks off after LH had their pants pulled right down. Maybe folk who’d never worked outside of BA and they thought they were onto a good number? God knows.

I know having been elsewhere flying life can be really amazingly bad outside of BA (been there, worn the cheap t shirt :o ). But that’s not really any kind of answer. Less gets said/ admitted but the ability to recover or actually use time off after trips can also be a lot better.

All the details and why’s and wherefores are by the by to me. It’s hardly entirely BA’s fault anyway. Money makers will always do what money makers will do. Business attracts naturally greedy people to the top table. And they will do what they will do. Squeeze. The whole idea is we need folk to protect the greedy ones from running amok, then it works well for everyone...

We do have a regulator. I personally think the regulators are a circus act with protecting health in the flying workplace. They’re fine keen about defining the high health standards they want yet notable by their sqirmyness when it comes to having the the brass balls to address the causes of issues the medical lot say kills people. Smoking ban? Yeah fine - ban that as it doesn’t harm the bottom line of big aviation firms. Fly with booze in your body? Oh no, ban that, that’s unsafe, plus the public friggin hate it like the devil. Easy one that to pop a rule on. Land with sleep deprivation equivalent to 5 glasses of wine? “Oh, Er, mm, what’s that over there? Moving on.... I know let’s call this line in the sand, “fatigue” and paint it into the corner along with what causes stress in flying (another thorny one). It’ll be a vague untouchable unreachable thing, a bit like unicorn tears. Yes, Lets define it as something impossible to get. All the rest is “tiredness” and, well, that’s easy. That’s just like you get after a fat man Sunday lunch. Yes those pilots shift reversing are all “tired” that’s it. We’ll also chuck in an after-the-fact approach - make up a few touchy feely “support” and monitoring systems. Essentially means airlines can quietly file reports of this mythical “fatigue” in the grey tin file unit by the desk. Means we don’t have to address the causes and look like a real British regulator anytime the press ask us about it. Job done. We can’t possibly admit the current set up with aviation needs a big kick in the balls”. Bloody useless...

I tend to look if I can enjoy home life and going to work. Im a bear of simple brain and my small brain is just telling me I’m frigging knackered :) Can you tell? :)