Jan 30, 2022

Pilots are the ones who put all that high-tech gear to use, so without them, your trip won’t go very far. Commercial airlines have a minimum of two pilots every trip, and many have three.

An airline pilot’s work schedule might vary substantially based on seniority and the sort of flying the pilot undertakes. Often, these two elements operate hand in hand.

When Do Pilots Get Their Schedule?

Airline schedule delivery depends greatly on pilot availability. A month before their first flight, pilots can receive their schedules. However, they can also receive them a few weeks or even days before the flight. Schedules are usually received around the middle of the month. As with many things, the amount of trip trading varies from airlines to airlines.

Do Airline Pilots Work a Set Number of Hours Per Week?

Pilots of commercial airlines are restricted to flying a total of 30 hours in a week, 100 hours in a month, and 1,000 hours in a year. Aviators fly for an average of 85 hours per week and 700 hours per year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Keep in mind that the information above only pertains to flight time, not to all of the other activities that pilots perform during the course of the trip, on each leg, and at the conclusion of the trip (paperwork, pre-flights, post-flights, clearances).

Do Pilots Get a Week of Vacation?

Once again, seniority reigns supreme. While junior pilots may expect to get a minimum of 12 days off each year, experienced pilots can expect to have upwards of 20 days off each year. The average length of time is around 15 days. Pilots aren’t required to take any certain number of days off in a row; nevertheless, they often take between two and three days off every week.

How to Read a Trip Sheet?

This is called a “trip”. It lasts 4 days. Saturday at 14:54 or 2:54pm. This trip is my report time at my home airport in Phoenix. Each number on the left shows the leg, so on the 1st day has 3 legs, 2nd day has 4 legs, 3rd day has 2 legs, and 4th day has 3 legs. 

Typically the captain and first officer split the legs 2 by 2, so for example the flies legs 1 & 2, I fly 3 & 4, he flies 5 and 6, etc. The flight column shows the flight number. So even though my company is called Skywest, because we are regional, we fly our own planes and the pilots are paid by Skywest, we fly the route for American Airlines, which is why the flight number is AA3034, AA3085, etc. 

The Tail number is the tail of the aircraft. You can find out where the aircraft is currently by using www.flightradar24.com and searching for either the flight number or the tail number of the aircraft to see where it is currently. It’s what pilots use to figure out where the aircraft is exactly and get ready to go to the gate. Origin and destination as well as departure and arrival times are self-explanatory.

Pax means the number of passengers. The CR7 is a Canadair Regional Jet 700 and can carry a maximum of 65, 70, or 75 passengers depending on the configuration of the aircraft, which tells the flight attendants how much time to think about doing service in flight. Block time is the time from gate to gate. Credit is time we get paid.

The difference usually is because, over a year, a flight might typically take longer than what was planned, i.e. Block is longer than Credit. In our contract, it says we get paid Block or better, which means that if our Block time exceeds Credit, it gets corrected in pink. For example, leg 1 on day 1 shows we flew 2:04, and original credit was 1:54 so our pay got corrected to 2:04, however on leg 5 on day 2 we flew 0:57 but credit was 1:07, so it doesn’t get corrected since it’s worth more than Block time. 

Miles is between airports in a straight line. Dhd means deadhead, meaning it will indicate whether or not the crewmember is going to be flying as a passenger on that particular leg. Sometimes, the schedule shows us moving from one place to another on a flight. We get paid for deadheads, so that’s always nice. In this particular time, there are no deadheads (an “N” under Dhd means it is Not a deadhead).

Turn means time spent at that airport. Sometimes, a small airport is called an outstation. Yuma (YUM) is considered an outstation.

Release in the gray bar under each day means the date and time of when we are no longer on the job. So from the Report time of 14:54 on day 1 until Release at 21:07 on the 18th of the month (21:07/18) we get paid what’s called a per diem of $2/hour (https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/regional/skywest). We get paid our hourly rate (in my case, $51/hr) during block or better. So for example, day 1, there is a total credit time of 4:21, and a total duty time of 6:13, so I got paid 4.35(hr) x $51/hr + 6.2167(hr) x $2/hr = $234.28.

The hotel shuttle, the hotel stay, some (but not all) hotel breakfasts are paid for by the company.

Something to Ponder

When it comes to technology, modern airplanes are incredible pieces of equipment, but they aren’t worth anything unless you have someone who knows how to fly them. It is critical for airline businesses, as well as for you, to have experienced pilots that can get you where you need to go with their abilities and knowledge. The flight attendant staff is also a critical component of the flying process. They include: Trip attendants work hard to ensure that everything runs well on each flight, and they are also trained to cope with the extreme situations that might emerge when things don’t go as planned.