Originally Posted by
Timbo
Back in the stone ages, when we had bid sheets and a slightly different reserve system, your first day on call was always a short call day. I liked it because you could plan around it, you knew you were definately going to be on SC those days.
In addition to those SC days, they could put you on SC a few more per month, up to 6 total. If you were a commuter, you would call them ahead and tell them you were going to be in base for that first day, and ask them to put you on SC for the following day, so you wouldn't have to make too many trips to base.
I haven't had to sit reserve under the PBS system, but what do you guys think about going back to that 'first day on call is always SC' type system?
Or perhaps being able to bid all your SC days, just like bidding X days?
What we have now is very similar to what you described. I like that we can put our preference in for what SCs we would like if we have to have SC; and that if we want SC we can ask for it. As has been mentioned, what really takes away from these improvements is that the schedulers have taken a new tactic of using almost all available pilots for SC once they've assigned open time trips out for the next day. So even when you've done 3 SCs (in bucket 2 for the SC buckets), and have done enough flying to be in the higher RAW bucket than anyone else, and are senior to everyone else you can still expect to get assigned SC because you have a pulse. Just having one day of availability remaining doesn't necessarily mean you're going to escape the long line of SC pilots. What sucks even more, IMHO, is when you've maxed your SCs, and you're in the highest bucket, just finished 4 days of flying and because you can't be assigned SC they give you a trip with 13 hrs notice while a pilot with the same availability is assigned to sit his second SC, and has done less than half the flying you have and is considered untouchable because he's a SC asset for the following day. Crazy system. The schedulers, at least in ATL M88 B, have in effect, negated the benefits of the new reserve system by maxing out SCs. And going to 7 SCs will further undermine it.