The trips during the summer were all over the place. We pretty much got some of everything: ATH, TXL, VCE, NCE, IST etc... you name it, we got it. I saw a guy get a 6 day Moscow "green slip". I know that doesn't mean much if your not familiar with our PWA, but that's pretty huge. The reason again though, is because we were so short of pilots. Whenever someone called in sick his trip went into open time and it had to be covered, usually for the next day. Not that that procedure is any different now, it's just that it's spread out over alot more available reserve pilots and the schedule is dialed back for the off season.

Typically what's left after all is said and done are the following: Manchester, Dublin, London, Shannon and the 4 day Accra (Ghana that is). These always end up there for basically 2 reasons:

1) With the exception of ACC they are the lowest time trips.

2) Because of the flight times less than 8 hours they are 2 man crews. No relief guy = No break.

The 4 day ACC ends up there because you spend 48 hours in Ghana and let's just say that Hawaii it ain't. The hotel is tolerable and you can safely get out in the town with other crew. However; when we start Lagos, Nigeria......well.......not..so..much......

At any rate, a reserve will see more than his/her fair share of these 5 places. The UK places are pretty nice layovers though. Good pubs and such at all, although the exhange rate is killing your dollar to Guiness ratio.

As far as the usual block per month, it's really hard to say. In the summer I was one of those guys who was trying to make hay while the sun shines by green slipping, so I may not represent a fair average. Mind you I never actually flew more than about 70 to 75 hrs a month but I probably averaged around 110 hours of pay per month (best was 146). If you don't try to manipulate your schedule at all and just sit and wait on the call, you'll still fly right up to the 70 - 75 hour range. It's all a matter of whether you can be flexible with your days off changing to get you into the premium pay action. Right now I haven't flown since late October and am not scheduled to again until Dec 22, but that's by design (vacation and such), so it's hard for me to say what the "norm" is right now.

All I'll say about the short call thing is that it's what makes reserve suck the most if you are a commuter, which most in NY are. There is a formula but basically they can put you on it 8 times a month, and they will. Let's say you start with a 31 day month. Your reserve line has 12 days off, so now you're down to 19 days. You're going to fly at least a couple of trips so let's say that they are 4 days. Now your down to 11 days. Of those 11 days, 8 can and probably will be short call. Scheduling seems to use the mentality of "what do we care if we really don't need 13 guys on short call today. We can do it, so we will do it. So sometimes you'll end up hauling your ass up there to sit a 24 short call when you know that the odds are astronomical against you getting used. But that's just how it is. What can I say, it's nothing new that commuting to reserve sucks. Realize though that this is for a properly staffed situation, as I said in an earlier post I've only actually had to go sit a short call 3 times this summer because we were always getting trips and by flying on my days off (in my personal situation, which days I had off didn't matter) I never really left them with an opportunity to short call me.

Probably as clear as mud but hopefully helps some..