Originally Posted by Roadkill

Pilot utilization observation... I'm amazed at how light Sep is vs. Aug for my category. In AUG there were over 40 trips in open time, 100 pilots in cat, for most of the month. ALV was 82 in Aug with 73% lineholders. Open time was huge, and never filled until last minute.
In Sep, ALV was 72, with 81% lineholders, and there are only 5 trips in open time.

Basically I'm wondering what the mgt theory is to fly fewer of your guys in a high time month like Aug, to a higher level so they can't actually pick up OT, but leave more reserve guys to cover MUCH more OT.

It doesn't make sense, unless I look at it like this: a line guy can only be flown to the ALV (on average), which is capped at 84ish. But RES guys can be flown all the way to ALV+15, without their consent/cooperation. Therefore, in high time months it now makes sense to INCREASE the % of reserves in a category, because you don't actually plan on them sitting reserve at all--you plan on using them as high-time "slop line" flyers mostly! You let a TON of flying go to OT, 4 times as much as in Sep, because you plan on using most of your reserve guys to just churn through all that time that COULD have been given out as more limited lines.

Anyone else notice this in Aug vs. Sep?