Originally Posted by
GogglesPisano
I will, however, be filing this little gem for future tactical PCS'ing. Nice work.
However, I've always had better luck bidding all my RES days in a row so that you, in effect, get an extra few days "off" due to FAR 117 requirements for 30hrs rest (vs getting your rest on X-days and notwithstanding the rare 30-hour layover.) Also, with all your X-days in a row, you have a better chance of the entire GS going above guarantee (ie: being a real-deal GS.)
That being said, I stand by my statement that if the category is fully staffed, this discussion is moot.
Yes, your approach has it's benefits, too. In particular it nets you two 30-hours rest periods on the Company's dime - bonus!
Additionally, if you are more senior and you put all your on-call days at the beginning of the month, you won't fly. And then, if any green slips go out later in the month you will be first in line for them. And if they roll off the back of the month, those payback days go into the Payback Bank. It's also a good stategy.
...and true: if your category is well-staffed, you won't fly much, and there won't be many green slips. But they still seem to happen, as everyone seems to shift their off-days to the weekends and holidays, and somehow every friday they seem to get magically short of pilots and toss out a couple of greenslips.
Additionally I might add: Try to get senior in the smallest possible category you can find. Less pilot population means less flexibility for crew scheduling. In other words, in a category with 100 pilots, min manning for the weekend might be 4 pilots, but out of those 4 maybe none of them are available for a 3-day trip. In a 300 pilot category, that might mean 12-15 guys are on call, very likely have 1-day, 2-day, 3-day and 4+-day pilots available