In another thread someone said:
Define "on-call"
I'm sitting at home, have the option to sleep or not. Can do pretty much what I want. I can also choose to accept or decline a trip. This is the typical routine of most corporate/charter pilots. So am I on duty or in rest?
What I am discussing here is charter only, not corporate. The Court defined two different on-call scenarios in their opinion. The first they called a "duty-to-report" status. The other they called a "duty-to-be-available" status. The full definitions are in the opinion if you are really bored, I mean interested.
If I were in your shoes, I would think about the answer to this question to determine which status I fell under. Are you realistically able to choose whether or not to accept a flight? We always have a choice whether we fly or not, but what happens when you choose not to accept a flight (fatigue, etc.)?
If you do not have a choice, then you fall under duty-to-report. The Court upheld the FAA interpretation of rest regarding duty-to-report. In that case everything I said in my previous post clearly applies. Though you are not on duty, you/the company cannot count your on-call time as rest.
If you do have a choice, then you fall under duty-to-be-available. This scenario is not quite as clear. The Court states, "...one footnote in the FAA's brief, and its statements at oral argument, suggest that an unrequited duty-to-be-available is not "rest," but we are unwilling to bind the agency to the less-than-clear litigation position of its lawyers...".
So, the FAA apparently does not consider this scenario to be rest. The Court however failed to decide the issue. Later in the opinion though, it implied if the FAA would clarify its position on the issue than it would find similarly to the duty-to-report scenario. If the FAA violates you for inadequate rest, do you really want to have to take it to the Court of Appeals to find out?
Choice or not, on-call is not rest as far as my certificate is concerned.