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Old 10-28-2015, 03:24 PM
  #81  
freezingflyboy
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Joined APC: Dec 2005
Position: 7ER B...whatever that means.
Posts: 3,965
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Originally Posted by Jaww View Post
I picked my jet at the end of the interview. The jet determines whether you go to Atlanta or Houston for training (CRJ and ERJ respectively).

I'm CRJ and all models and bases are on the table as of late. My class of 6 had 2 go to each base. You either fly the 200 or the 700/900. DFW only has 200s and DTW only has 700/900s. There is a lot of movement so if you don't get something on the initial drop you can change your standing bid while still in training and possibly hold your desired base shortly after IOE.

Crash pads are done by many. I am in DFW and the hotels there are only $30/night so I do that and have call me first on my reserve so I can get overnights and thus a free hotel. Not sure on the network but we have an internal classified page. Call me first is also going to be your best bet (on CRJ side) to get a call for more flying. ERJs have a aggressive pick up thing everyday that I'm not intelligent enough to talk about.

You'll be fine with training with your mil background. If you struggle they quickly give you extra sims and attention. They are there to pass not fail you. It's a friendly training department.
Aggressive pick-up on the ERJ side allows you to call the day before and have scheduling assign you a trip that is currently uncovered. There are some rules that go along with it though:
  • You have to call during a specific window the day prior to the trip and it is first come, first serve.
  • Window for the long-call (12 hour) reserves opens before short-call (2 hour) reserves so they have first crack at it. Also, a long call doesn't have to worry about the start time of the trip (see below).
  • The trip you are trying to pick up has to fit the footprint of your reserve days. If you are good for 2 days, the trip must be a 2-day. If you are good for 3 days, you can NOT pick up a 1- or 2-day trip. However, if you are good for 4+ days, then you can pick up a 4-day, as anything longer than a 4-day is not typically built in open time.
  • In addition to the above, the trip you are trying to pick up must fall into your call out window. If you are a short-call guy, the trip must start AT or AFTER your phone availability window and day 1 must finish before you would run out of duty time, since you are technically still phone liable until the report time of the trip. As an example, if you are an 8AM call out and you are looking at a trip in open time that starts at noon, day 1 must finish by 1130pm to be legal (8am + 15:30 contractual duty limit for reserves).
  • Even if you line up all of these stars and scheduling gives you the trip, a line holder can still steal it from you up to a certain time. (As I recall, long-calls own the trip 12 hours prior to report and short calls own it 8 hours prior to report).
It's a decent system for those that want to fly and if there is a fair amount of open time (which there has been). Just don't be whiny when your sweet trip gets taken from you by a line holder and you get stuck with some crummy 16-leg 4-day.

Oh yeah, there is also "will fly" (aka "call me first") on the ERJ side but my experience was that those guys always ended up getting ready reserve/airport reserve which then puts you at the BOTTOM of the bucket to get called for a trip that comes open. For me it was always aggressive pickup if there was a decent trip or "no preference" and keep my head down and hope they didn't call.
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