Thanks for the answers, again, some of this is just general curiosity and for clarification
Originally Posted by
higney85
We have some 4-day trips that credit less with the same obstacles.
Crew utilization
So do we, but it's not too common. The usual low side is 18ish hours. But there are some 4 days where we're flying everyday for 15-16. If we have a calendar day layover, it pays 3 hours credit. Sometimes it simply brings a 3 day up to 20 hours, sometimes it can bring it up to 23-24 with total credit.
My company is efficient crew utilization wise for their purposes, but not from our point of view. By that I mean, it's more efficient to have us doing 12 hour days with sit times. It's opens up the length of the duty period to wedge in more flying . We're limited to a 13.5 hour day, but the norm is 12 to 12.5. If they cut the duty down for us to say 10 being the norm, they can't get 6-7 hours of flying in with our schedules. This comes into play with my point about the hotels........
Originally Posted by
higney85
The issue is having more crewmembers "at work" to accomplish the same block hours of flying. I'm not quite following your "more efficient= more hotels". If pilot's are efficient they hit their credit (whether it's block or simply credit) quicker and are released and off the dole for hotel and perdiem costs. The block hours for the airframes aren't what is the direct discussion, it's the amount of pilots required to do it, and the amount of days those pilots take to get it done.
What I was getting at was this with the hotels; If the day is more efficient for the pilot, say a 5.5 to 6 (average) hour day with only 8-9 nine hours of duty EVERY DAY, it may take 2.5 to 3 total crews on average to staff that airframes daily utilization. By making the duty day 12-13 hours with the 5.5 to 6 hours (on average) and 3-6 hours sit time, that airframe may only take 2-2.5 crews on average to staff. So you can have more crews in the hotels under the more pilot efficient way of doing it. Of course, that's all based on the overall average/spread of total utilization.
Originally Posted by
higney85
I remember the reaction I got from your FO rep (I think you are with ASA) when I showed him one of my summer schedules where I had 10 leg 2-days worth 15 hours- with 15:20 block, 4 day trips worth 28 hours with over 28 hours of block. First reaction was "holy cow, how do you fly so much", followed by "hey, why do you fly more then you get paid for"? I have also had 4 day trips worth less than 15 hours- with lots of sits in DTW so it's not all rosy. Currently at 9E you will fly 75 hours to make 75 hours of pay unless you are on reserve (which can be flying far more than 75 hours or sitting ALOT of days on airport reserve) or a highspeeder that will still only get 10-12 days off depending on the month. For a lineholder to make 75 CURRENTLY, that pilot will typically be flying 75+ hours of block. If you are not in the top 1/3rd it's not especially rosy, ask anybody what happened to schedules in January- lots of folks are down to the 10 day off minimum that used to have 12-16 days off. I think that's where all this started on the company board.
I hope I answered your questions.
Yeah, you answered most, except for the clarification needed above, thanks. I'm XJT, we do have few, so VERY few of your high block examples above, but again, rare. With our furlough situation, we now run down to a 75 hr-ish line divisor. Which can totally suck for some guys. You can be top dog working day trips, or multi days, or a combination with 18 days off and 75ish hours of credit. OR, you can be at the bottom, with 12-13 days off, 300+ hours TAFB, with 75hr-ish credit. There are some higher time lines, but like I said, the furlough situation drives the low line divisor.
Sorry for the thread drift/tangent everybody. To bring it back full circle, we at the regionals need trip/duty rigs. Granted, at my company, it usually balances out that the credit will exceed 50% of the duty time, which most trip/duty rigs aim for. But I know I've had 12 hour/4 leg days with 5 hrs (or less) block. Would be nice to get 6 hrs credit for those days. But to bring it back full circle, it simply means that pilot labor costs go up, the company won't just magically start making more efficient schedules because of being hamstrung by the being at the mercy of the major dictating the schedule, having to balance out the flying, etc.