Congrats Sam.

And your assessment is almost spot on - except for the "paid handsomely" part

 

To follow up on what Napkin said (+1), Work the system to the best advantage for yourself, but be sure it's within the confines of the contract. There are hundreds of us out here working our assses off to ensure that Atlas is held in compliance to the CBA. There are also a couple of dozen outliers who are greedy and don't see the big picture. This is about unity.

New hires - especially - should strictly adhere to the contract. You will be hung out to dry by the company in a New York heartbeat if you miss an assignment due to some sort of creative non-compliant scheduling deal.

All we have is each other to watch our backs. All we have is the contract to fall back on if a situation falls apart.

8

 

This is the second post referring to the contract without explaining what I suggested would be non-contractual. What is non-contractual about VXing a few days before the trip?

 

Atlas Air Adding Freighter Capacity on Robust Outlook - WSJ

Looks like another good year...............so far

 

Yes. We are paid handsomely compared to RJ pilots, especially those coming from the right seat. However, for the type of flying we do and the places we go, we are are not even in the ballpark of where we should be. Please realize this before you or anyone else comes here.

 

Did they build your pattern with a paid DH from your base to Europe or Asia? Or did you volunteer to start in Europe or Asia? That's the difference. All patterns need to start and end in your base.

Also, was the open time put out for other crew members to bid on. Or did you make a side deal?

I'm not accusing you, but these are a couple things to think about.

 

VXing prior to a trip is totally fine.

If you live overseas and there is a trip published in open time, and it starts where you live, then by all means bid for it. If you get assigned the trip, you should also be assigned the time and pay as though you began the trip from your base of record. In other words, if you live in Amsterdam where the open time trip starts but are based in ANC, you should be scheduled and paid for the time required to reposition to the Netherlands from ANC even though you are already in Amsterdam. You won't be paid the price of the plane ticket, but you'll have the "travel day(s)" at home and be paid the deadhead or Rig Time for that day(s). So there is a way to have it work out to your benefit.

Where the line is crossed (and it is being crossed by a few) is when a pilot calls scheduling and says "I'm in Amsterdam do you have any open trips over here?" and they then assign you a non published open time trip or assign you an open time trip out of seniority (frequently without even publishing the trip to the rest of the pilot group). There would be absolutely no way for another line pilot to track this violation and the company and the pilot assigned to the trip would have gotten away with screwing the rest of the group.

There is no transparency in the assignment of open time trips. If you were motivated, it might be possible to find out who was assigned an open trip (if you could even find out that there was an open trip to be had), but a line pilot would have no idea if it had been assigned correctly.

VX trips should be offered to crews of a specific base (or bases) in seniority order. If a pilot is assigned an unpublished trip or assigned a trip out of seniority, that is where the contract is violated. And it is happening now and it is a violation of the contract and a violation to your fellow pilots.

8

 

DC8 pretty much summed it up. There is nothing contractually wrong with VXing days before a trip. I was referring more to your comment of being willing to leave at a moment's notice and being flexible with scheduling to make things work. I think you will eventually find that they expect us all to be flexible with the CBA. But they especially find their guys in every zip code that they know are extraordinarily flexible.

Just for the hell of it, here's a few thoughts on VXing to be aware of.

Trips that are "open" should be offered to the entire pilot group or appropriate base. To qualify for an open time trip it needs to fit entirely in your days off. i.e. The open time trip needs to begin in your base then get you back to your base before the beginning of your next normal pattern.

For example, you just happen to be in HKG and are trying to get to ANC. You call scheduling and say "Hey I'm already here and I see that there is an open position to AUH. I'll VX a day to keep myself from having to commute to base." That's not okay. That trip should be offered and patterned with a DH from a base to HKG then to AUH.

More than likely they would just rip a guy off his pattern to cover it, but I'm trying to illustrate a point. The one leg you are doing to help you get to work could easily make another pilot (who isn't trying to enjoy the summer, and would rather be working for whatever reason) 3-4 days of pay instead of the 1 you are going to get.

Additionally whatever you were supposed to do in ANC now has to be worked by someone else, who was doing some thing else, etc etc etc.

Please understand, fadec, I'm not trying to be critical. Just merely tossing some information out there is all. You will find all sorts of interpretations of everything out on the line. One of our biggest issues in this pilot group is guys making the system work for them without thinking about the knock-on effect it has for everyone else. I guess it is just a different philosophy of how we all succeed together. Atlas seems to have a higher percentage of guys that just want to take care of #1. But that's just my 2 Yuan.

 

How about VX'ing on the end of your pattern? If you're in a high traffic area overseas and have some VX days on the end of your pattern chances are scheduling will use you to fill holes on those days. The trips you get will probably never go out to open time since they aren't originating from a base. I've heard PtP members advocate this, especially for junior pilots who usually can't hold open time trips.

 

This summer is the PERFECT time to spend your days off with your family.