[mstrem]

With my dad being an airline pilot and having grown up in the "pilot community" I must say that this style of living is probably by far the exception rather than the norm.

My family, and all my parent's friends (most of which were pilots or air attendants), all had what you could call normal a house with normal lives etc. etc.

By most means life was pretty much the same as anyone else.

[Symbiote]

That was after he had a child — do you know his living arrangements before you were born, or perhaps before he was married?

How often did your dad sleep away from home? That could vary a lot, some schedules must plan to return home every day, but for longer routes that's simply not possible.

[1] says "Short haul pilots for low cost airlines typically start and finish their day at their allocated base", "between 2 and 6 flights a day", but "Long haul pilots fly all over the world and can spend a lot of time away from home. Trips can last from a few days to over a week"

[1] http://www.flightdeckfriend.com/airline-pilot-job-realities