Originally Posted by
Rotorwashed
How often can I expect to have a 3pm assignment for a 14 hour next morning callout? Is that typical or an outlier?
Do reserves get used a lot? How many days can I expect to be assigned on a typical reserve month?
Narrowbody Miami, you are on call 18 days, max they could use you is 16, averaging it all out you’ll probably get used 14 days or so (more during summer, maybe a bit less winter). It’s fairly uncommon to get a trip assigned prior to noon the day prior. Most of the assignments are being made between noon and 1500. On the narrowbody side, many assignments will be made between 1500 and the evening, as people call in sick, they break up trips from other bases, etc. Getting called at 1800, 1900 for a 1000, 1100 am trip would not be uncommon. Once you are a lineholder with just a bit of seniority (maybe a little over a year) you should be able to consistently get trips in MIA that are commutable, providing you prioritize that over everything else. It might be a few years before you can get fully commutable trips and start being picky about a bunch of other stuff. Most of your reserve time as a MIA FO will be while you are on probation, so becoming an amateur lawyer to your chief with the commuter policy the way some people have suggested is not going to work for you. From what you have described, it seems like for about half the day (most of which is during the prime assignment window) you wouldn’t be able to make it. If you really want to live in Colombia, just get a crashpad in MIA until you can hold a line (not too long, suck it up), and then commute from there.