Originally Posted by
FangsF15
Not exactly. Open time is assigned before SC is. So, if you are junior, you can YS SC every time and it won’t matter because you’ll have been assigned a trip already as a LC pilot.
What “they” are probably saying is that SC pilots statistically get utilized a minority of the time. So, if you don’t get a trip, sometimes a SC is better than dangling in the wind as an eligible LC pilot. But SC assignments also go in seniority order, so again if you are junior…
This. One thing that can help though is that generally scheduling will not cut short a SC period in order to assign a future trip as long as there is another pilot legal. So let's say you are going to be #1 for a trip assignment on Wednesday morning. So then you'd YS a SC on Tuesday that ends at say 2000. You need 18 hours from the end of SC till report, so now you are protected against a trip reporting before 1400 on Wednesday. But that is a risky play as you first could be assigned a long rotation during your SC period. And like I said it tends to be rare but if scheduling is running out of pilots for Wednesday they can go in and modify or remove your SC period in order to make you legal for a trip assignment Wednesday. Of course they must be able to properly notify you of all of this so sometimes their hands are tied.