Box lunches and stuff like that is delivered to the aircraft for us. We just have to carry it up the stairs and stow it.
I will talk from a 'first tour' LRP perspective, from after you are Wings qual'd and posted to a Sqn; maybe a MH community pers will speak up about their life.
- once you are posted, you will have to wait for the next course to start. Could be a few weeks to several months depending on a variety of factors. While you are waiting, you will be employed in a spot that has some relevance to the job on the plane you will be doing, or how the Sqn operates. You will get the opportunity to get up flying (as a passenger; you can't hold a crew spot until you are qualified). Actually the flying is a requirement now for people waiting their next course. During this time you could find yourself on a handful of different qualification/currency trg that our community is required to maintain such as weapons qual, CBRN, first aid, etc.
- time winds down and you start your platform course. This will take you approx. 6 months. You will go thru a ground phase (classroom), a simulator / flying phase. Lots of studying, exams at the first and then your system knowledge will be assessed further in the flying phase on the aircraft.
- graduate your course..now what? I think this is the part you're looking for.
You will return to the Sqn and be put on a crew and start doing the 'day to day' job. This includes actual flying which is pretty much broken down in what I will call "crew events" and "pilot proficiency flights". Crew events are longer and you go thru a variety of different scenarios; ASW, SAR, etc. PPFs are more for the flight deck types and we go along to look after things in the back end and perform various crew duties. These are more 3-4 hour flights where you have time to enjoy the scenery and you aren't staring at a screen the whole time. Great way to get out of the crew room and away from the computer stuff. I'd say you can expect 3 flying events a week as a normal expectation. Could be less, or more but 3 is a safe number. Some events require no prep work and others you could start prep work some time before it.
While not flying, as a first tour operator you will spend a lot of time enhancing your knowledge, both from a systems and tactical perspective covering a whole range of topics (I won't get into specifics on here obviously). There are some informal/formal ways we do this. We have an OJTP we go thru that details what subjects to what levels we need to touch on.
You have a fair amount of qualifications/currencies to maintain as well concurrently. Some of them are "every 3 months min", annually, etc. Maintaining them and tracking them takes some time.
Once you are qualified and in a crew slot, you will hold 'standby' crew every so often as well. That usually means you have your stuff ready to go at a moments notice and are confined to the geographical area.
All of those things together considered, I would say that 90-95% of your time/daily routine is spent on "flying time and actual AES Op specific work" as a first tour AES Op after you've completed your aircraft-specific course. The OJTP is the focus and it dictates a lot of what you do, which is also AES Op specific so it is very focused.
The other time could be taken up by a secondary duty or other 'generic' stuff that comes up.
I would say your time spent "counting drip-pans" and other "make work" stuff I've seen in previous trades is non-existent. There is more than enough real work to be done.
All in all, a really super trade, if you like flying and can handle it in a multi-tasking environment, sometimes down low and being tossed around by a sporty sea-state.