Originally Posted by
grnclvrs
It's even more than better utilization. You will be on RSV for 5 days at a time before a day off. The RSV times are usually 0400-1600 and 1000-2200. Part 117 doesn't allow for 5 starts in a row before 0600 so you get 2x0400 and 3x1000. Always start with a 0400 RSV and end with a 1000.
It would appear that your guys on reserve are getting hosed by your company's incorrect interpretation of FAR 117.
117 only prohibits 3 consecutive "FDPs" that infringe upon WOCL (0200- 0559). A reserve period in and of itself is not an FDP (it is only a RAP: reserve availability period; for example, if you are not assigned a trip during your RAP, your time that day does not count toward FDP limits, as you were not assigned an actual FDP). If a person on reserve starts their RAP at 0400, then is assigned a trip with a show time of 0800, the FDP itself does not begin until 0800, and thus the FDP does not infringe upon the WOCL, and does not count towards the consecutive 3 day limitation.
The only way a person would not be legal to sit 5 days of reserve beginning at o-dark-thirty in the morning, would be if he/she was actually assigned a trip with a show time before 0600, for 3 days in a row.
At my airline, I have sat reserve with RAPs starting very early, for my entire block of 5 days in a row, numerous times.