acl65pilot

I have done it from ATL. There is only about a half our at night that would make it difficult to be there in 12 hrs. From DCA it will be a piece of cake.

Most of the assignments come out around 8 to 9 in the morning. The only way you would get a shorter one is for an IROP or a sick out. It happens but not that often.

S3toHerk

Thanks for the input. Question #2.

With the same commute from D.C. would you rather take 767ER JFK and risk being on reserve for 12-24 months, or MD-88 LGA and only be on reserve for a few months? Assume that pay is not the primary concern.

acl65pilot

With the 88 you could bid DCA trips and be home every night. That is something that money could never buy. There are also a lot of trips that start with a dead head from LGA to DCA, allowing you to start the trip from home. It all depends on what you want to do. The ER will probably be junior in JFK for sometime to come, allowing you to go to it in a year or two and hold a line. I would go to the 88. It is an aircraft that is good to see from the right seat before you have to upgrade on it. The people on the shuttle are great and 50% of the overnights that it does are in your home town. When you get sick of five leg days you can bid trips that go to FL and back for a change. With PBS you can alternate what you do by week. I liked the shuttle and am very glad that I got to do it.

S3toHerk

Wow. Thanks for the gouge. I've heard about flying the shuttle and going home every night, but now I'm sold. Do you know any gouge about parking at DCA? Does Delta provide anything?

Have you ever bid reserve? How often do you get called? I've been told that you are on reserve 16 days a month, with a maximum of 8 days on short 2 hour call. Does that get you 70 hours of pay?

Xray678

I've been off and on reserve for the last two years. You will fly a lot. Only once have I only ended up with 70 hours. Many months, I end up over 80. In the summer, with the rolling greenslips, I had three straight months over 100 hours pay for about 70 hours of flying.

S3toHerk

I'm a new hire awaiting class date, so I'm not familiure with all the lingo. Thanks for all the good info, which is sparking more questions.

What are rolling greenslips?
How many days a month are you on reserve? Long call? Short call?
How do you get 100 hours pay for 70 hours of flying?
Is there an order on who gets called in?
Do you get a preference of I want to fly or rather not?
What is an IROP?
I am still wondering about parking at DCA, and what Delta provides?

I'm sure a lot of these questions will be answered when I start class, but I'm trying to get smart early. Being an ignorant military guy, I am very curious and excited to see how the system works.

Xray678

A greenslip is basically a trip for overtime pay. This is a real basic explanation, but on reserve, you get a greenslip on your off days, and it is paid at straight rates above the reserve guarantee. The guarantee is 70 hours, so if you get a two day greenslip worth 10 hours, you are now up to 80 hours pay for the month even if you don't fly again. The beauty of a greenslip on reserve is you get your days off back. So you fly a two day greenslip on your days off. When you get your days off back, you put in another greenslip. Rolling greenslips. This also answers how you can get 100 hours pay for 70 or less of flying.

You are on call 18 days a month. You can be on short call up to 8 days a month. Short call is assigned at the discretion of the schedulers. I have had months where I got short call 8 times, I have had other months where I never got short call. Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason to the assignment of short call.

The order of who gets trips is determined by days of availability and the RAW score (more on that in a minute).

Days of availability meaning, if a two day trip pops up and you have two days left on call while everyone else has three of more days, you get the trip. If you only have two days left and a three day trip pops up, then one of the three day guys gets the trip.

Now, RAW score. I could post the formula but its too hard to understand. Basically, its a measure of how much you have flown. Roughly for each day you fly you get about 15 points. Now, lets say you have two guys on call. Each has four days available. Pilot one has a score of 65. Pilot two has a score of 85. If a four day trip comes up, it goes to the first pilot with the lower score since he has flown less.

Do you get a preference on flying or not? Not really. If you want to fly you can go in the computure and lower your RAW score by 15 points. But, as you can see in the above example, if pilot two wants to fly and lowers his score by 15 points, it would not change anything.....pilot one would still get that trip.

As far as parking goes, someone else will have to address that one.

IROP is irregular operations, and it really doesn't apply to pilots. Some of the FA rules are different under IROPS, but it has never come up for me.

S3toHerk

Xray,

You are my hero! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

Xray678

no problem. If my explanations of anything were too brief, or if you have more questions, just say so.

sully606

Since Delta has a Flt Att base in DC all commuting pilots are entitled to a parking pass. This is a contractual obligation for the company.