Originally Posted by
Mach86
Thanks for the welcome DWC.
Commuting in from out of town but have relatives in NJ. Plan to sit reserve from there.
In your experience does a Short Call call out for a flight that’s loaded up and waiting for you to “promptly” show up is more of an exception to the rule than a common occurrence?
What would be the average notice before a SC duty?
I'm a NYC commuter as well.
While the "OMG, the FO just fell down the jetway and broke his leg.....call the short call pilot ASAP" does happen, its rare. More realistic is someone bags in sick < 12 Hours out so Scheds isn't able to utilize a long call pilot (our PWA says LC pilots have to used prior to SC pilots in the coverage sequence). Or the incoming transcon flight is delayed, so they have 5'ish hours notice to bring in a short call pilot to fly the outgoing flight to keep the operation moving.
All Reserve at Delta start as Long Call, which is 12 hour notice minimum, so you will always get at least 12 hours notice that scheds is converting you from LC to SC. On your first day of Reserves you can't start prior to 1000 unless you ask for it via Yellow Slip. But in order for scheds to give you anything between 1000-1200 (on your first day only), they have to place it on your schedule NLT 1500 the day prior (your last non-fly day prior to starting Reserve), so in that case you would have at least 19 hours notice. If not on your schedule by 1500 the day prior, then the earliest they can have you start (again, we are talking first day only) would be noon, so they could call you at midnight 01 to inform you that you are starting a SC or reporting for a rotation at noon-01.
In ref to Sched Ref Handbook (SRH) that Sailing is talking about, while it is a great product and it attempts to explain the PWA in plane English, it is just that...a handbook...it holds no contractual or legal weight.
The PWA says SC pilots "must be able to promptly report for an awarded/assigned rotation" and then later states:
"In pilot bases with co-terminal airports, a short call pilot’s availability will be determined as follows:LAX, ONT, SNA, BUR, LGB: Airport Reserve Availability Determined From LAX
JFK, LGA, EWR: Airport Reserve Availability Determined From JFK, LGA or EWR."
So its implied that if you are "promptly available" from one, you could be not "promptly available" from the other two, but the golden extra hour that Sailing alludes to is in no way shape or form mentioned anywhere in the PWA or the FOM.
UTHOR NOTE: for those that are still reading, yes I know the actual rule is 9 hour prior to the end of the non fly day to report as early as 10 hours later....just trying to keep the discussion simple by using local times without bringing up exceptions for PR/PB days.