Originally Posted by tennisguru

A 23m7 counter is a bad idea. We all agree that having the top 1-2 pilots in a category vacuuming up all the 23m7 payments, including multiple in a day, is a bad system. Counters work for GS because the pilot in is complete control of what they are choosing. If a senior pilot takes a 1 day as G#1 early in the month, he is knowingly passing up on the shot at a juicy 4 day unless it drops to him again as #2. With m7 many times a pilot doesn’t even know they were skipped until the pay shows up on their time card. And you can’t argue that the senior guys should only put in for the exact trips they really want because it’s nearly impossible to create a slip for every possible rotation contingency. Plus guys who clear their schedule still need to keep rolling WS in because that’s how they fill their schedule every week. A counter is not a fair system when #1 gets m7 #1 as a 1 day trip then probably won’t ever get m7 #2 in any decent sized category.

Let’s not forget that the purpose of m7 is to make whole the pilot who got skipped who theoretically was going to be awarded the rotation. That’s why the footprint system is much more reasonable and fair as it assumes the skipped pilot actually flew the rotation and is then ineligible for any further m7 payments for any rotation that reports during the footprint of the first rotation +10 hours. So that pilot is truly made whole while still being eligible for future skips without waiting for the entire category to get m7 payments. This system would still keep m7 payments as a fairly senior item (except for when they IA a trip in the middle of a coverage step) but would definitely spread the love much more than it is today.