FangsF15

Of course it depends on the airline. At Delta, you would be too junior to get one day trips on the initial bid. On reserve, you can "Personal Drop" (P/D) reserve days IF they exceed their required manning for that day (You can start dropping days on the 20th of the month prior). You can also drop days via Mil Leave either before or after the 20th, but it will affect your days/pay a little if you wait. Mil Leave gives you almost unlimited flexibility, but they will watch for folks abusing it - so don't stein the bros...

Depending on how you dropped the days, you could end up with a single day of reserve, during which they could give you a singe day's trip (probably broken up from an existing trip). More likely, you would be put on Short Call. If you live in base, you stay home and get paid. If not, you will have to commute in for the day.

In the long term, once you hold a line, you can bid for min credit, which would probably give you about three four day trips, or four three day trips. If they have reserve coverage on all those days, you can just P/D the trip, and you are free. If there is not reserve coverage, they may let you drop it if someone else is willing to pick it up from you.

Hope that helps. It's very confusing at first.

WARich

A response from Albie in another thread about the airlines wanting a code of contact.

"The airlines can go suck it.

When I was a Guardsman, the nation got a full up combat qualified F-15C instructor pilot, who was governed by the same UCMJ that covered active duty officers. I was available to be activated, deployed, placed in combat, or in some cases civil defense roles (F-15 pilots in New Orleans manning checkpoints, etc after Katrina) at a moments notice. I maintained the same currencies required by an F-15 pilot on active duty. Cost to the country? About $35-$50k a year or less on average. Medical benefits? None. Retirement? Not until age 60, and then at a discount to the active duty guys. The nation got (and gets from the rest of you still serving) an experienced, capable, ready to go to war group of pilots for pennies on the dollar compared to active duty pilots. Post 9/11 GI Bill? Not for me. Tricare? Nope... But just as much chance to get activated and go get killed in War or Peacetime as anyone else serving....

Airlines get a lot from government, including airfares for GS and military folks, military charter business, CRAF payments, as well as the government paying for the infrastructure of the industry with ATC, the FAA, NTSB, and safety programs in a host of agencies.

What does the government ask in exchange? "Let my servicemen serve unmolested, and protect their jobs..."

To me, its a bargain for the taxpayers. The total force provides great backup and insurance to the active duty, at a cost that saves our nation a tremendous amount of money.

So a few airline CEOs and others don't like the fact a few pilots out there who are serving their country get a break? I don't care. I don't care about their bonus, the shareholder concerns, or their scheduler's complaints. If we are going to defend this country, and deal with threats from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, ISIS, and whoever else wants to challenge us, its going to be expensive. We are broke as a nation, and we need to find a way to do what we do with the resources we have. The ANG and Reserves offer us a way to do more with less expense. Make it too hard to do both jobs, and the pilots will make the choice many have already made--to give up on the military side of things. The government knows that if they bend to the airline CEOs, in a few years they won't have a reserve force to manage. The airlines need to adapt. I think the costs could easily be absorbed with a reduction in management's compensation or stock buyback plans."

I think this pretty much sums it up.......

PRS Guitars

As others have said it depends on the airline. Out and backs tend to go senior since they tend to pay more (for instance an island hop pays about 7.5 hours vs an average of 5 hours a day on a three or four day). I'm saying just fly the minimum hours that you can get away with at your airline. There are ways to improve your QOL, and I'm a 1300 mile commuter ( to the airline) (650 miles to my reserve job), yes a double commuter and still happier than I was on active duty.

What I'm really saying is your retirement is barely going to pay your rent or mortgage. You're losing a lot of tax free pay (bah/BAS) and if you move out of a small crappy AF base town to a nice city, your cost of living is going to sky rocket. You might be worried about being away from home, but trust me your wife is more worried about you putting food on the table and a roof over your heads. The easiest way to do it is the airlines. Before you know it you'll be making far more than you do now, and...enjoying it. You'll get in a groove with being away from home and you'll enjoy having chunks of days off with out even thinking about work. Don't get me wrong the first year will kind of suck, but it gets better.

Or, you could find a job flying locally that might be awesome, but most likely won't be and you'll be under paid and over stressed. Stressed about the job, and stressed about your finances.

USMCFLYR

I appreciate PRS's view of his new found profession; but remember that there are other ways to make a living other than airline flying that doesn't leave you in the same situation claimed in the bolded part above.

It may be the widely traveled path; but it is not the only path.
Open your eyes to what is around.

PRS Guitars

Fair point, but it seems hard to find a good 91 job, and right now it's getting easier to get hired at an airline. I actually wanted to go part 91, but under the time constraints of separating with no job, was able to get picked up by the airline first.

arouth

Just out of curiousity, are there any regional airlines with domiciles in Las Vegas? I did a search on here as well as looked through the regional airline profiles and did not see one. I used to live there, and would prefer to move back.

Sputnik

Cant remember the company, but there is a contract gig flying 737s. Contracts for the govt, takes folks to/from groom lake, etc. Pays decent, home every night. Think it needs an SCI, or at least a TS. Dig around

e6bpilot

Janet Air.

tunes

good luck getting picked up there....that's a hard nut to crack.




Allegiant has a base in Vegas, although not sure how much I would want to go there.

Sputnik

If you dont try the answer is no. Why is it so hard? There cant be all that many folks who have the qualifications.