Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Well for one we don't have junior manning and we don't presently use hot reserves (they just give line holders 3hr sits and then reassign them instead). It is in the contract... but it hasn't been used. Yet?

Reserves get 12 days off a month. Short call or Long call... long call goes to 10% of the reserves system wide, so some bases may have more than 10% LCR and some may have none. SCR is 2hr callout +45min showtime prior to departure. You can sit out of base reserve in other bases if they approve it (I did that a lot). On your last day of a SCR sequence you are auto-released 4hr prior to the end of the reserve period if you haven't heard from them. If you're commuting to reserve you can commute during the first two hours of the RAP but you are responsible for anything they put on your schedule during that time (so you may land and discover that you have to show for a trip in 45 minutes).

As far as assignments go they do pull some of the typical stunts... you just have to know the contract and what is legal and what is not. I haven't ever had them try to assign me something that would violate a FAR but I have had them try to bend the contract. I didn't have it happen much though, maybe once or twice in a 6mo period.