Originally Posted by RyanP

I was previously a reserve DFW EMB145 CA so can answer some of your questions.

Reserve Living in base is a million times better than commuting. You can't even compare the two because it is a different world completely. Living in DFW and being on RSV is much better than holding a bottom crappy line because you can be very flexible in if you want to work or not, or what flying you want to do (with a little seniority).
You have a 2 hour callout time. You can proffer for available open trips (in seniority order) the day before if you want them. You can bid standby shifts if you want them. (Junior People that are locals and want to spend more time at home tend to bid 6am-2pm standby shifts since they rarely ever get overnights and end up being home everyday). This shift "usually" gets called out for one turn or nothing at all. Pre-assigned 4am RAP doesn't matter if you are local since you don't need to commute on a day off, then after day one you can get switched over to 10AM's if you prefer that. (once you start to learn the RSV tricks).

If you are on 4am RAP you can pretty much sleep through most of your shift if you have some people below you, by the time you wake up they are into 10AM RAPs and your usable time for turns is pretty much done early afternoon. (2 hour callout + trip time) Basically by around 2-3pm they can't really call you for much anymore anyway. Even on 10AM RAP, by 5pm you are off the hook if you proffer for a trip the next day. Once you confirm a next day assignment right at 5pm, you are released for the day from either RAP shift. Very junior on RSV sucks no matter what, you will get called constantly, and get called in to sit standby regularly, but once you start to figure out the system you can make it work to your advantage living in base.

Reserves in DFW do get used a lot, but the trips are pretty much always picked apart and generally start later and finish fairly early. (People picking up OT take the front and back ends off a lot of the open 4 day trips). Leaving the reserves with a 4 day trip worth like 12 hours on average. But on RSV you get your min guarantee of 75 hours either way so easier shorter trips are better anyway.

DFW EMB145 has a lot of crappy short 30-45 min flights to small cities in TX and nearby. You will get those a lot on RSV because the line holders dump a lot of those worthless very low time trips into open time, so the reserves get called in to do them. There is also trips with 2+ hour legs, so it varies a lot.

Most of the flying I had been doing DFW RSV was MIA flying though. There is a ton of MIA flying lately with the Republic problems. It's a Deadhead out there and a Deadhead back when you are done, but some of the best flying and best overnights we do are out there. You can also do Cuba charters out of MIA and Ft Lauderdale which I did quite a bit. I love the MIA flying. Much rather be out on the beach in Key West or MIA then in some crappy town in North Dakota or Iowa.