To update on where Zach is at with his career...He is based in Detroit and has been since the beginning of working for SkyWest. He is on reserve which means he is basically the on call pilot when flights need a pilot last minute. When he is working, he has to be 2 hours from the plane. Since he is based in Detroit, this means he has to live there for several days at a time in case he gets called on a trip. So instead of purchasing hotels for each night, we pay monthly rent for a crash pad which is a house for pilots. He lives with other pilots and sleeps in a bunk bed with 3 other people in the same room. Fun...! He has really preferred this though over being alone all the time because he hasn't gotten called in much unfortunately during this time. They have a shared car and pickup/drop off each other from the airport and get to talk airplane stuff all day :)
Because of the commute to Detroit, he has to leave a full day sooner than he is scheduled to work and gets home almost a full day after he is technically off. So when his schedule only has 2 days between reserve blocks, it isn't enough time to get home and go back, meaning he just stays at the pad. So in April we went 12 days of Zach being in Detroit. It was long for sure!
We have been super excited to get his May schedule because he was supposed to be a guaranteed line holder. This means instead of being on reserve, he gets a full month of scheduled trips. So you know when you are flying, there's no sitting around at the pad waiting, you get paid more, and you get to finally start building air time! Every pilot gets to bid for their schedule, and this in itself is a doozy to learn the ins and outs of. You bid your preferences and a computer system works it all out according to seniority and spits out a schedule. And when it came time for his May bid to be awarded, he was given an all reserve schedule instead of holding a line. It was devastating to him (and me!) because we weren't anticipating that. He has since been able to learn what he did wrong in his bidding process and hopefully will get it right for June's schedule. You do this each month and will only know a month's schedule at a time.
As far as bases go, you put your priorities of where you want to be. We obviously have SLC as our top pick that we have been waiting for. We thought he would get it for May, but he didn't. He did however get to the #1 position! This means the next time they awarded people to SLC, he would be the first to get it. The awardings for June came out yesterday and he didn't get it. Two other pilots more senior than him last minute changed their preference to SLC and they only took two pilots in for June. So he remains at #1 on the list. Now we have to wait and hope to get it for July. Once he gets SLC, he can be on reserve at home! He can wait at home and be with us until he gets called in vs. having to live in Detroit while he waits at the pad. It was another huge devastation for us as we were so confident he would get to be home for June :(
So for April he has only been in town a few days the entire month and those few days have had to be spent doing a cabinet job. Zach the handy man committed himself to install Ikea cabinets through an entire new construction home (kitchen and bathrooms) and it had to be done this month. So we haven't got to spend time with our guy for what seems like forever. It's hard and we miss him A LOT. But I'm so thankful we have been learning how to best communicate during this time and are always learning that distance really makes the heart grow fonder. I appreciate my time with him 100x more than I did before this career path. Time is precious and never wasted now and I think that is a great thing to get to always be reminded of to keep our relationships within our family held with great value.
Other than all that hard stuff, Zach is so happy about his job. When he gets to fly he is loving it. He is flying to lots of places he's never been back east and learning so much as he gets to meet and talk with other pilots. We know this difficult stage isn't forever and we are doing all we can to keep our spirits high and stay positive with each other. I'm so thankful for Zach and his incredible work ethic and his ability to keep his eye on his long term goals. I'm so proud of him.
Coming home from his 12 day trip, Eli woke up to the garage door at 11:30pm. He came out of his room wanting to hug daddy. "Is daddy home?" It was the sweetest thing ever.
Jack was so excited in the morning to see him before he headed off to his cabinet job.
And Joelle was SOOO cute and all smiles.
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