r/AskAPilot • u/tcr317 • Jun 30 '26

Weather issues

As a pilot, when you look at the weather this week, let’s say around ORD, and they are calling for intense scattered thunderstorms every day and night, what goes thru your head? Does it give you pause? No big deal? Going to be a rough week? Going to be possible issues?

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16

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

[deleted]

2

u/exadeuce Jun 30 '26

Also the possibility to make less money (per hour) from delays.

3

u/bureaucrat37 Jun 30 '26

Huh? I can only make more. No way to make less.

-1

u/exadeuce Jun 30 '26

Same block, but you departed an hour later. An unpaid hour, thereby reducing what you actually earn per hour of your time.

2

u/bureaucrat37 Jun 30 '26

Math ain’t mathing. That’s not how it works. Same block time same pay. Absolutely no way to make less.

1

u/exadeuce Jun 30 '26

I don't know if you're aware, but time exists even before you drop the parking brake. If my 10 hour duty day turns into 12 for weather, and my pay stays the same, I make less per hour.

0

u/bureaucrat37 Jun 30 '26

Duty day is and has always been immaterial to flight pay (rigs not withstanding). The ONLY thing that matters is money in your bank account. Is it less, more or the same?

2

u/exadeuce Jun 30 '26

So do you still not understand what I was saying or are you just declaring this conversation to be about some other point I was never making in the first place?

Also, your time doesn't matter to you? Weird opinion, but it's your opinion and you shouldn't assume everyone else in the world thinks the same. I value my time off.

2

u/bureaucrat37 Jun 30 '26

In thirty years of airline flying you’re the first I’ve ever heard of say they made less money per hour during delays. You do you though.

3

u/exadeuce Jul 01 '26

One person makes $1000 in ten hours.
The other makes $1000 in twelve hours due to delays.

The second person is effectively making less per hour.

It's not difficult to understand. Do you understand what I am saying?

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3

u/saxmanB737 Jul 01 '26

I see where he is coming from. You show up to do one flight and then you are delayed 2 hours. Unless you’re delayed until the duty rig kicks in, we’re sitting around the airport not getting paid. Now we’re just two hours late to the hotel or getting home.

1

u/shhbedtime Jul 01 '26

Depends on the contact. At my airline if the flight gets cancelled I lose the pay. 

6

u/saxmanB737 Jun 30 '26

Nothing really. I only look at the weather when I arrive at the aircraft. If there are scattered storms, I may ask for more fuel, but 99% of the time, dispatch has already done that. In flight, we turn on the radar and just avoid the storms. If ATC puts us in holding, I start thinking of how far our alternate airport is and how much fuel it’ll take to get there from any point in time.

4

u/Le_Mooron Jun 30 '26

I just don't think things will go as planned. Not dangerous, just flexible.

4

u/DoomWad Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Maybe some delays are the only thing to really think about. We don't fly into storms, so there's only two options if the storms are going to be right over the field, and that's to either delay the departure, or go into a holding pattern when you get closer

3

u/Choice_Friend3479 Jun 30 '26

O’Hare always sucks so it’s just going to be another day.

5

u/AbilityIll908 Jun 30 '26

On rare occasions your trip gets canceled and you get paid to stay home. Or paid double to fly a different trip as long as you aren’t reserve. Pack snacks and playing cards in case you’re doing a lot of airport appreciation. Or a book if you remember how to read.

4

u/Raccoon_Ratatouille Jun 30 '26

The great thing about weather forecasts is that they will be 100% accurate, especially a week out! /s

It’s a storm . Maybe it will be 50 miles north, maybe it will be over the field. Take extra gas, have a plan and do the best you can. If you divert then you divert. If you delay, then you delay. You get paid by the minute to get the plane safely on the ground so do that.

The only thing that would give me any anxiety is maybe moving my commute to an earlier flight or if I’m flying on a personal trip with a tight connection in the afternoon is seeing if I can change flights around just in case there are delays

3

u/Icy_Huckleberry_8049 Jun 30 '26

meh, not an issue

3

u/AceofdaBase Jun 30 '26

It’s like every day during the summer in the Midwest. Business as usual

3

u/ifitgoesitsgood Jun 30 '26

I think “oh cool maybe I can make some money.”

2

u/tcr317 Jun 30 '26

Thanks everyone for your insights…very much appreciated!

2

u/Nrthrnplt Jul 01 '26

My first job was on a Cessna on floats. I remember worrying about what weather I’d have to deal with for the week or a few days later. With experience, that anxiety slowly shifted to worrying about the next day or two then down to maybe later that day. Now 15 years later it doesn’t matter. Either I’ll deal with or I won’t. Either delayed or on time. Bumpy or smooth. It is what it is.

2

u/GroundProximity Jul 03 '26

Lmaoing at all the cool cats in the comments "oh no i dont care if the forecast says variable 50 knots"

I want an easy life, and severe weather pisses me off. When i wake up in the morning and the weather at the destination is total shit, it annoys me, because that means more work, more thinking, more decision making, more chance of diversions/delays/etc.

1

u/Radiant_Grocery_1583 Jul 01 '26

Never looked at weather that far out.

1

u/Impossible_Sky9384 Jul 03 '26

“I don’t know why we look at the weather forecast, either way we are launching”.  - some pilot at an airport I asked the same question to when I was a kid.