Both schedules require you to be away from home for the hitch.  What’s your preference?

I think you really have to evaluate your own personal situation. Back in the day when I was doing it, the 14/14 was best for us. With travel days it really turns into 16/12. So when you move to the 7's schedule with travel it really kind of sucked. With the 16/12 I could get home, have a couple day to spend doing chores I missed, and then have free time with the family before heading back to work. With the 7's I barely had anytime to even get chores and stuff done before needing to head back to work. But, like I said. Your situation may be different. 

Especially if you have a long commute.  After a long year of 7/7 I switched to 14/14 and it made a huge positive difference.

I’m just worried about being gone for longer at one time.  Since I already commute, technically I’ll save travel days on the 14/14.  I’ll gain almost an extra week at home across the year.  But when does that stop.  I mean why not 6mo and 6mo? 

  Just my anonymous brain rambling on the internet. 

Op

or is it you getting on the airplane

Let’s say :30 minute commute. Get home at 7:30-7:45 and get up the next morning at 5:30. I mean, it’s not like you have tons of time at home all week. Yes you’re sleeping in your own bed, I’ll give you that.  I have 4, 3-day trips this month all to the same location. Leave 1530 day one, 24-hour layover, and return 1545 2 days later - 50 hours gone and one night in a hotel for each trip. 200 hours & 4 nights in a hotel for the month (that 200 does not include commute time). 7x12=84 x 2 = 178 sitting in your base (at only 4 weeks for the month, so slightly more). My 12 days this month are worth 26k plus 4.5k 401k direct contribution, so a bit over 30 for the month. But yeah, you can be home every night…

Spent 4 years at a regional and have been at my legacy airline since ‘21. I admit and tell everyone that the industry is 100% luck and timing - more so than any industry I can think of, honestly - but the pay off is really off the charts. Hiring has waned a bit, but the retirements are still coming and hiring is still way better than decades past.

Doctor/Lawyer route, then you lost at life.

Go back and start over.

You can't raise kids on aviation shift work wages.

Only old money and generational wealth can afford a family/expenses, this day/age.  If you grew up poor and accidentally knocked up the easy girl back in high school.....you are doomed to never have a day of rest.  Good luck.

I'll drink to that!

yeah, good plan. you’ll be gone all year and live in a truck for 80k. 

https://youtu.be/4rUjkiXyfME?si=i5h2hIpsmV1OqEQP

>

seems we may have finally found something you know a little something about because it sure isn’t aviation: it’s driving a truck 

Say wut guy getting slammed from all sides.  Like a "hard" night on the grinder app....

For me when my kids were little I did a 7/7 so I could be home more often... As they got older I switched to a 14/14 but travel was also twice as far so it was not practical for me to hold a 7/7.. Thankfully I had the opportunity to choose.   Now I have about 30 minutes to and from which is nice.  It does help that my kids still like me.... kinda

leaving the family alone for shorter periods of time is a much better idea, even if it ends up being even a little more time away. 

I was flying EMS on a 7/7 when my kids came along.  Wife was an RN working a 12 hour shift as well.  
I was lucky that I lived within commuting distance of the base.  There were many days and nights where we passed the kids off as I was leaving work or she was going to work.  

For the home life aspect, I would think that if there is a stable support system (like inlaws) then a 7/7 would give you more recent exposure versus a 14/14 where every 2 weeks you inturrupt the home life.

Generally, you have to leave your kids at home when you go to work everyday.

He described his 14/14 also as a daily commute, just that it took longer to commute each day.

But, sounded like he came back home each day from his description.

lol awesome 

7/7 worked out well until the kids got older, then I switched to 14/14 which didn't work out so well because my lonely wife started getting some stray... 

You spend any time longer than 7 days and you will soon find out how...."In love"  your wife really is with you.

Hint:   It's all b-ullshyt

When I was in HEMS/HAA, I worked 7/7. Lived local to the base, so it was the second-easiest flying job ever. When I flew  small jet charters for about a year, I had to pick (like you) between an 8/6 or 15/13. Obviously at that job, there was no going home on my off-shift time (unless I happened to be randomly laying over near home). For me at that point, I found the 15/13 to be better. We found that the transition of he’s gone/he’s home/he’s gone/he’s home…. to be the most stressful aspect. The 15/13 totaled out to a few less transitions and travel days throughout the year (and it paid a little better).

If I was in your situation and your family resembled mine, I’d gut out the 14/14, but I’d have my resume out and be networking for a job where I didn’t have to commute. Commuting sucks. It is the single-biggest factor that affects quality of life. Good luck.

what does your wife want to do. do that

soy boys who try to act all Alpha in front of the guys, but when he gets home the wife pulls out the strap on and pegs him.

the maga obsession with butt holes and butt sex is totally normal and not weird at all

I don't push my hetero lifestyle on anybody. that you like to have sex with guru is your business 

sorry only one weiner allowed in say wuts room. 

Well that turned into quite the kerfluffle. 

Me: “Hey… I found that something akin to the 14/14 worked better for me and the family. By the way, commuting sucks, so don’t do it any longer than you have to.”

The Peanut Gallery: “Cuckboy!! Get outta here with that making-your-wife-happy-stuff!!! You obviously get pegged every night, soy boy!!!”

JH Forums never disappoints. Always good for a laugh. 

you need a minimum 2.5 years semi experience to drive for walmart and you have to live in a truck. not ideal

from walmart bro

your grasp on reality is tenuous at best but you got that compass app going for you tho lol

A person can become a driver for Walmart in 13.5 months with almost zero experience driving anything.   And, earn as much as a HAA helicopter pilot in the first year driving.

Sorry that you aren't competent enough to know even the simplest of things

no and no

sorry you’ll never be anything more than a truck driver but it’s not my fault and some people like it so make the most of it bro

and here you have jumped in to put them beneath you?

The OP was simply stating his opinion that it wasn't worth the effort and liability being a helicopter pilot.  You jumped in to assert your pettiness.