Originally Posted by
Scooter2525
Show up at a designated time. Preflight a plane. Sit around. If someone calls it sick, you fly. If they have a special come up, you fly. If a plane breaks, you fly. If not, you go home. When I was based in OAK, I would show at 4:45, preflight a plane, go sleep upstairs until noon or so, then call it a day.
This is pretty standard. Unlike a reserve at a 121 airline where you are mostly a crew reserve. At AMF you are a crew and aircraft reserve.
There is an AM and PM reserve. Reserve is normally 12 hours, but most guys don't go beyond 8 hours.
The AM reserve can, at times, be out the entire day if a pilot calls out sick, then you fly their line that day. The PM reserve usually has a better chance of not being out all day since you are normally covering the PM flights. Charters/specials are always a possible as well. Those can be interesting. I was doing PM reserve one night in BUR and almost getting ready to be released by dispatch when they called and said they had a special to San Antonio, TX (KSAT). Being it was a 99, it made for a long night/morning.