Furloughedagain
Senior
Merresrat,
I would like nothing more than to take on a second job. There are quite a few challenges that I would have to overcome in order to do so.
First, as other posters have mentioned, in order to fly 75 to 100 hours a month I have to actually be away from home around 20 days a month. My new company guarantees 11 days off a month (7 of which are immovable). A good rule-of-thumb is 5 hours pay for every full day away from home. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less but 5 hours is close. There is a lot of time where pilots and flight attendants are on-duty, but are not actually earning money: In transit to and from hotels and the airport, reporting for work, reviewing the flightplan, dispatch release, and weather, performing the preflight inspection (exterior and interior), starting engines, postflight, time between flights ("productivity breaks") etc. I think that 3 to 1 ratio is probably pretty close to accurate with regard to DUTY TIME vs. PAY TIME.
So, with that in mind, any day that is already committed to work as a pilot will not be available for work at a second job.
The second challenge, as many of you have already eluded to, is that our skills as airline pilots are not readily transferable to any other industry. We are, as a group, educated, intelligent, and motivated -- but our skills are not of value to any other employers. The only thing I have to offer is the ability to learn, and the same strong motivation and work ethic that got me the airline job in the first place.
Sadly, the furloughed airline pilot is probably one of the most useless people in the world -- if you dont have an airplane for us to fly, most of us are pretty oblivious to career opportunities outside of our chosen field.
Whats the old joke? "Dont tell my mom that i''m an airline pilot. She thinks i''m a piano player at a whorehouse!"
I would like nothing more than to take on a second job. There are quite a few challenges that I would have to overcome in order to do so.
First, as other posters have mentioned, in order to fly 75 to 100 hours a month I have to actually be away from home around 20 days a month. My new company guarantees 11 days off a month (7 of which are immovable). A good rule-of-thumb is 5 hours pay for every full day away from home. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less but 5 hours is close. There is a lot of time where pilots and flight attendants are on-duty, but are not actually earning money: In transit to and from hotels and the airport, reporting for work, reviewing the flightplan, dispatch release, and weather, performing the preflight inspection (exterior and interior), starting engines, postflight, time between flights ("productivity breaks") etc. I think that 3 to 1 ratio is probably pretty close to accurate with regard to DUTY TIME vs. PAY TIME.
So, with that in mind, any day that is already committed to work as a pilot will not be available for work at a second job.
The second challenge, as many of you have already eluded to, is that our skills as airline pilots are not readily transferable to any other industry. We are, as a group, educated, intelligent, and motivated -- but our skills are not of value to any other employers. The only thing I have to offer is the ability to learn, and the same strong motivation and work ethic that got me the airline job in the first place.
Sadly, the furloughed airline pilot is probably one of the most useless people in the world -- if you dont have an airplane for us to fly, most of us are pretty oblivious to career opportunities outside of our chosen field.
Whats the old joke? "Dont tell my mom that i''m an airline pilot. She thinks i''m a piano player at a whorehouse!"
