LA Contract Pilot

[Colonel]

[Scudrunner]

That is some good scratch for a quick job, best I did contracting was 3K CAD on a 2 day trip. Airline to Chicago pick up the plane next day operated to TEB sat on my ass drank coffee then to YYZ to airline home the next morning.

$1500 a Day was push pushing it back then, now on my size bird 2K is a deal to help a friend out and they buy the beers.

[Slick Goodlin]

You guys are getting paid? Last time I did a single day side trip I forgot to negotiate a price beforehand so I just comped it.

[Colonel]

It’s not easy getting paid as a freelancer so when it actually happens and the much-delayed check arrives in the mail from the slow-moving accounts payable department, it’s a cause for celebration.

Hey. Dumb question for you union guys. You are limited to 85 hours a month (or something like that) by your contract to give the company the max legal 1000 hours per year. Got that.

So how do you fly GA? Do you just not log it? Or do you have two logbooks, one for 121 and one for 91?

[Nark]

It’s not easy getting paid as a freelancer so when it actually happens and the much-delayed check arrives in the mail from the slow-moving accounts payable department, it’s a cause for celebration.

Hey. Dumb question for you union guys. You are limited to 85 hours a month (or something like that) by your contract to give the company the max legal 1000 hours per year. Got that.

So how do you fly GA? Do you just not log it? Or do you have two logbooks, one for 121 and one for 91?

GA doesn’t count towards 1000, only “commercial flying.”
Plus we aren’t limited to 85/, per se. We could fly (100( I think) but max out at 1000 for the year.

Airline guys get paid for not working. Case in point: I get paid as if I’m flying the bird, when deadheading in the back. Or… we have a rig that pays out a minimum per day. Example: I did an instructing leg from ORD-ATL which was a 2.4, but I was paid at 5.5 because that’s my minimum day. If I fly past 5.5 I get paid at that duration ie. Fly 6.3, paid 6.3.

All same logbook.

The fun is monthly bidding to maximize credit (paid hours) and minimizing block hours (stick wiggling).


Clear as mud?

[Slick Goodlin]

Dumb question for you union guys. You are limited to 85 hours a month (or something like that) by your contract to give the company the max legal 1000 hours per year. Got that.

So how do you fly GA? Do you just not log it? Or do you have two logbooks, one for 121 and one for 91?

Is it not 1200 a year allowed? Fifteen hours a month is more than enough for my little puddlejumpers.

[Colonel]

I'm getting the feeling there are some questions you ask your CP, and some you don't

[Slick Goodlin]

I had to be given two weeks off once (how the hell I hit 120 hours in the first two and a half weeks of the month is beyond me) and all I wanted to do was decompress by shooting a bunch of circuits in a Cub, which would have been illegal at that point.

Meanwhile a two week raging bender is well within the law.

[Nark]

I’ve brain-dumped the CAR’s.

Are you guys saying ALL flight time is capped?


My happy place is busting out circuits in the 180. My wife tells me I get cranky if I don’t fly at least once a week (in the 180, the bus can suck an egg).

[Slick Goodlin]

I’ve brain-dumped the CAR’s.

Are you guys saying ALL flight time is capped?

Unfortunately yes. There was no reference I could find even when I was good at CARs that separated flying for work from flying for fun.

There are operators, and I’m sure I used to work for one, who would just consider empty legs as giving you the plane for free recreational use and subtract it from your rolling total if they could.