Originally Posted by
Inop2
Azorian- you have your answer. Every HVA candidate should read this before committing. (except for the BS on the meaning of scab. This group is like the dudes in The Wolf of Wallstreet. Jordan Belford is trying to explain a new pitch to make money and his boys get all caught up in some inconsequential comment.) Just gear up and prepare yourself mentally for sitting reserve. As you may remember, what wears on you over time is coming in on your day off; because your shift starts at 4am. Paying for a hotel room(4 free ones gone in a week), expensive airport food, sitting in a hotel room staring at the walls, sitting on your last day hoping crew scheduling will release you early so you can make a flight home and often denied to sit longer.
Unfortunately this nightmare starts again too soon because you only get 2 days off between reserve sits.
My current job is - phone rings, we need you for a long term project in Newark, NJ; you have to be there within 48 hours & pay your own hotel (so it will be a cheap section 8 POS) plan on being on job site for the next 4 months, 14 hour days, six days a week, Sundays off.
that said, it pays out the wazoo, but there are no work rules preventing me from being moved to Cleveland (or wherever) the day i am released from Newark. where again, i will be staying at an extended stay hotel, and stay there for 3-4 months, 14 hour days, Sundays off. I spent the first 120 days of 2017 on the road without seeing my wife or kids, or home, or sleep in my own bed.
that said, i think i can handle a crash pad a few nights out of every week. and if im in ORD, or LGA, i may as well be sitting ready, because its not like i can sit in my own home. and im sure not going to uproot my whole family to the murder capital of the USA. lol
if i sit reserve for an extended period of time, and end up with a flow... even if that takes 7 years, thats fine.
will another crew base be opened up? dunno
will more 175s be brought on property? that means more captains and FOs needed in two bases.
ive been in and out of this industry for 20 years... it is a fickle SOB and if ive learned anything its that everything can change in any given week