CanWeGetTheLeft

Could you tell us more about your extensive personal experience with how mainline operates?

BigWillyCapt

Squib,
Not sure what you're trying to accomplish with your comments. It happens everywhere to some extent. The majors are typically better staffed and have better maintained aircraft/maintenance capabilities from what I've seen.



I will give one example from my previous reference. Both Ice Detectors failed so the aircraft had to be ferried outside of freezing conditions. Dispatch/maintenance asked me to fly the plane back to the hub and stay out of the clouds. The freezing level was like 10k with partial cloudiness and the highest MEA's were around 6,000 which didn't give me much wiggle room if things got tight. I declined to do it. They said okay and I went on my way. You can decide if you think that was pushing, or not.


Making blanket statements like yours is not really helpful to the discussion at hand, although the whole topic is rather subjective. For all the time I spent there, Air Wisconsin was good to me and I wouldn't trade it for any other regional. Your mileage may vary.

PassportPlump

You will not know how dysfunctional and bad Air Wisconsin is until you leave for greener pastures. I will get chastised by the AW faithful for saying that.

It is a great group of people all in it together but the way that things operate at ZW are just bad. From the union to management inclusive of scheduling and staffing it is not a great place to work.

Great insurance and a great group of pilots, but not a great place to work. This should provide insight to the OP’s question, while also exhibiting the toxic relationship between ZW Alpa and ZW management.
http://m.aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/alpa-alleges-pilot-pushing-air-wisconsin

Granted this article is old and ESL is long gone, that was ALPA’s stance on it circa 2014.

Cessnaflyer1213

From the FO side, I recently ran into a day where the delays took us right to the edge of the duty day. The CA was called a few hours before the end of our duty day and advised of the duty "plus 30 minutes" time and the absolute "drop dead after 2 hour extension time". I, the FO, was never called. At 10 minutes prior to timing out, I called crew scheduling and asked what the plan was. They gave me the same times and said they were too busy to call everyone. They would just "assume" that I would work the extension unless I called them first. After a little research, they are only required to call the PIC (Captain) to ask for extra innings. (On this particular day, the CA said he was never really "asked" if he would go into overtime, just told the times.) Unless the FO claims fatigue, you are along for the ride. As previously stated, a fatigue call will put you in touch with a member of management but that is nothing to be afraid of. A good CA will ask the crew if they are willing to go into overtime before telling scheduling yes.

They are careful not to "pilot push" because they have lost legal arguments for it (I met one who claims to have a gotten a sizable little settlement for said act), but sometimes they can get closer than is comfortable. The "assumption" that you will go into overtime is what I don't like. If they called and asked "Say ... it's been a rough weather/maintenance day ... can you hang on for one more leg? Would you be willing to get this plane to the overnight?" I'm the kind of person that will help when asked ... the "assumption" is what ticks me off.

squib

BINGO!

Another BINGO! I left out the link from the original post, look back to read further.



You are required to make your own assessment of fitment for duty. Period. It is not a team effort. Your awful hotel room on scheduled min rest may not have granted a decent nights sleep. Did housekeeping knock on your door at 7am when you have noon show and got in after 1am?

The fact that the assumption is there that you will accept ANY extension and you are instantly transferred to management is absurd. Neither extension is automatic or assumed. Maybe if they didn't build schedules that were legal by 12 minutes in the first place it wouldn't be an issue. 3 hour sit here, 2 hours, another 2 here. More sitting in the middle of nowhere airports than actually flying. Completely unproductive schedules. Those days are also usually found on 1 and 4 of your trip while in days 2 and 3 you sit in a hotel doing nothing with usually a gas station, waffle house, or subway nearby as "suitable eating." Enjoy!

CanWeGetTheLeft

fit·ment

noun: fitment; plural noun: fitments
a fixed item of furniture or piece of equipment, especially in a house.

squib

Thanks. Eye twitching.....ha that was the joke lol.