Originally Posted by sulkair

Want to imagine your life commuting on RSV?

Grab a calendar, pick a 31 day month. Pick 11 days off, make sure they are in groupings of 2 or more. Each grouping of these "OFF" days must have 3 to 6 days "ON" between them. However you arrange it, it must fit these rules.

Now, imagine taking a flight into CLT or IAD on your last day off before you begin your reserve stretch, because starting at 0400 or 0700 whatever it is will not allow you to fly in "day of" Oh and maybe you better leave that afternoon as to not wait until the very last flight, cause what if you don't get on or it cancels?

Now imagine flying until 22:45 on your last day of reserve. Not saying that will always happen, but it will happen at least a fair amount.

Therefore imagine finding a hotel on your dime, or heading to the crash pad awaiting the next morning (your first day off) to get home.

Mark it out on the calendar and see how much you will be home.

Now imagine you live in base on reserve (not saying this is an option for you, and I understand not everyone can live in base, but it makes a world of difference)

Calendar looks the same, but now you are home as soon as you can run the shutdown checklist. And you're in your own bed the night before your first reserve shift. Hey maybe you don't get tasked until 2 pm the first day - that's free time at home. Maybe it's just an out & back, and then you have the rest of the afternoon at home. Maybe it's three 2 day trips back to back with 15 hours between each one, which is like free time at home. Maybe you have a 5 hours of normal reserve between flights that you could go home for. Maybe you do four one-day trips that all end at 4 pm - you get the drift.

My point is that commuting to reserve will be miserable, but reserve at Mesa "in base" is not that bad at all.

That said, if you don't have kids, or aren't married, and home is where you hang your hat kind of thing, then you may not mind it at all.

To each his own.

Not trying to be patronizing or anything with this post. Sometimes really spelling it out in really simple terms can cast a light otherwise overlooked.