Nooooooooooo. They can't "keep you on duty if there is no flying to do." That is not a "contractual thing and not a rest issue." If they assigned you flying, and you finish your last segment with no further flying assigned, the FDP ends per Federal statute at that time. You and Mesa management (who I'm beginning to suspect are one and the same) can code it however you want on some poor guy's schedule, but an FDP ends when it ends--which is defined by a Federal law. It doesn't end when you say it does. Your opinion doesn't matter--a law says when it ends.

CBreezy read the definitions section again--airport/standby reserve is only part of an FDP if it occurs BEFORE or BETWEEN flight segements (or if no flight segments are assigned). ONCE flying has been assigned to anyone--lineholder/reserve/whatever--EVERY FDP ends when the plane is in the chocks with no intention of further aircraft movement by the same crewmember (a.k.a. no more flight segments or aircraft repositionings on your schedule when you block in).

Otherwise they would've written the word AFTER in the statutory definition of an FDP, no? Where is the word AFTER? I don't see it there CBreezy--that's because it isn't, and because of that glaring fact, once they fly you--your FDP always ends when the brake is set if no further flying has been assigned.

The only time an FDP ends at a pre-determined release time is when you're sitting airport/standby reserve with no flying assigned, in which case there is no anticipation of further aircraft movement to abide by, since you haven't actually flown/moved an aircraft.

You're attempting to read a Federal statute from a perspective of "how can I read this to support my point?" I get that--I catch myself doing that also from time to time. However, when interpreting the construction of statutory language, one must pay very close attention to logical statements such as if, before, between. You aren't doing that--you aren't respecting the word if or the conditional words before & between and that can burn you in a courtroom, a regulatory proceeding, or a contract negotiation!

117.3 definitions section:

Flight Duty Period "means a period that begins when a flightcrew member is required to report for duty with the intention of conducting a flight, a series of flights, or positioning or ferrying flights, and ends when the aircraft is parked after the last flight and there is no intention for further aircraft movement by the same flightcrew member. A flight duty period includes the duties performed by the flightcrew member on behalf of the certificate holder that occur before a flight segment or between flight segments without a required intervening rest period. Examples of tasks that are part of the flight duty period include deadhead transportation, training conducted in an aircraft or flight simulator, and airport/standby reserve, if the above tasks occur before a flight segment or between flight segments without an intervening required rest period."