Originally Posted by
withthatsaid182
being on reserve really sucks the life out of me...i can't stand commuting to NY just so i can sit ready-reserve at the airport for a week without flying once...you begin to wonder what the point of you're job is anymore...i pick up open time on my days off at least once a month to make ends meet. you do this once or twice and you find you're never home...the Mrs. is at home alone while i'm what? hours away doing what? sitting by a phone?
that's how i see it from a reserve stand point...
I feel your pain. Ready reserve in Puerto Rico was the pits. I have more time in the jumpseat of a 757 then I do flying the ATR. When I computed my take-home pay after cost of travel, crash pad, car, food, etc I ended up with the figure of about $6.50 an hour for each hour I sat and flew the recliner. Always away from my wife, friends and family. I began to feel very disconnected from everyone.
Originally Posted by
CAPTAIN INSANO
I'm sorry you didn't research your career choice better. You should be happy you are busting your ass doing manual labor, or pushing papers behind a desk. Everyone has to start somewhere, Rockstar.
Shame of you. Bad form.
Originally Posted by
tzadik
Watch yourself chief… recent scheduling cutbacks and base reductions have seen me go from 39 in base to 83. After a year of holding a line I find myself sitting reserve hundreds of miles away from where I live. Every other phone call is some guy that’s just this side of retarded trying to assign me yet another airport appreciation shift until 3am when the last flight leaves at ten. I spend hundreds of dollars on hotels, deadhead more than I fly, and pick up trips off the trade board on my days off to finance this glorious lifestyle. I’m well aware of the paying your dues concept, it’s become my existence. Don’t you dare go criticizing me or anyone else for voicing their feelings.
When I was hired at AE, we were told we would sit reserve for a month at the most...then hiring stopped. The result, a lot of people around my seniority number sitting reserve (the only line holders we've had have been TDY)...without a choice.
The point Capt Insano choses to overlook is that things change. Nobody expects to be on reserve for a year or more, such a thing wasn't foreseeable. So we could research all we want and not get a true picture. Research up until a year ago would have shown sunshine, roses and fluffly little kittens...but that isn't what many of us have now. We're stuck with a turd sandwich and trying to eat it as best we can.
I just want to add:
'Paying dues' is such a stupid phrase and signifies nothing. You can't quantify it. It's worthless. How does one define 'paying one's dues'? Spending 2 years on reserve? Having 3,000 hrs? Flying cargo planes full of rubber dog crap out of Hong Kong? I think we've all 'paid our dues' by getting our certificates and becoming airline pilots. Some people get an easy road and some get a hard road, but in some form, we have all paid our dues.