My Favorite Perk of Being a Pilot (It's not what you might guess)

CRJ 700

It's been one year since I became an airline pilot.  The past year has been full of change for me professionally and personally.  From Flight Instructor to First Officer; from Phoenix to Minneapolis; from one kid to two--there is much to be grateful for!

I've been reflecting on this new lifestyle that is a result of my job.  Previously as Teacher and then a Flight Instructor I worked very "normal" business hours.  Now life looks very different.  Just an observation! Of course, either way of life has its pros and cons. However there is one perk of being a pilot that I love the most...

My March Work Schedule: Dark Blue = Flying; Gray = Rest; Blank = Day off

My favorite perk is the time off.  

In my experience, each month my schedule has come with somewhere between 10 and 14 days off.  When compared to a typical 9-5, you could expect the weekends & holidays off.  To string together any greater amount of days may require using vacation time or taking a leave of absence.  In my March schedule, I have one week with 5 days off in a row and the next with 4... no vacation time required!

How I use this time is influenced greatly by stage of life.  Being married and having two young boys at home, we like to be intentional with our time. Here's how I try to spend my days off:

• Low-traffic Outings: Whether its grocery shopping, playing at a park with my son, or going on a date with my wife... so many of these things we have the option of doing on a weekday, mid morning or early afternoon together when most places we go are like a ghost town because "everyone" else is at work. Like the time I took my son to see a movie on a weekday morning and one other family was in the theatre! Or a coffee date with my wife.
  
• Weekday Getaways: Each month my wife and I sit down with our calendars and ask the question: where can we go?  Having flight benefits grants my family the opportunity to travel without the expense of airfare.  For now, we have tried to take advantage of this to visit close family or friends in other cities.  Our most recent escape to Phoenix provided a warm reuniting with old friends (literally, it was warm).  We sure miss the valley of the sun!
  
• Daddy Daycare: Because my wife works full-time from home with a flexible schedule that sometimes requires her to work odd hours of the day, or not so odd hours, my schedule frees me up to be available for full days at a time to relieve her from watching the kids so she can work uninterrupted.

As our kids get older I look forward to more getaways with just my wife, just the boys, just me, or the whole family.  And as my seniority increases, each month I find that I am able to have more say in how my schedule looks.  Of course I hear dream stories from pilot friends that have moved on to work for the major airlines and have some nonsense of minimum 16 guaranteed days off a month... that will be the day! 

A final update to share is this map of where I've flown over the past year... I finally made it out of the country!  Canada is nice.

My Routes: First 12 months of Airline Career