Looking for some info from fellow junior commuters. I recently switched to MEM as my domicile. I'm in the 100th percentile a300 about 3/4 the way up. So far I've held one hard line and one VtO.

With the apparent reduction in pax flights and what seems to be a decrease in company 300s making the atl trips, is this an incredibly difficult commute for a jr guy to make?

Are the lack of weekend options on company flights and competition on pax airlines prohibitive of this commute being doable without ruining your whole month?

Thanks in advance

Cavok

 

As you know, it's about a 6-hour drive. Should you choose to spend your day driving instead of mowing the lawn, taking the kids to music lessons, wandering the aisles at Target, and whatever else the guys living in Collierville get to do during the day, be careful you don't let a Chief Pilot ... or whatever they're calling themselves these days ... "see" what you're doing. They may feel compelled to "say" something which would ruin your day.

As you know, the FAA places a responsibility on you, the pilot, to determine if you are fit to fly. You and only you can make that determination. The FAA's "IMSAFE" personal checklist can be found inside the front cover of our ALPA FedEx calendar.

Despite this, it seems that we are now subject to Flight Managers taking it upon themselves to make that determination for us.

Here's the current link: Our new expectation: "When you see something, say something"

(Once he's posted his next blog entry, I believe this will change to Our new expectation: "When you see something, say something")

This Flight Manager looked at the jumpseat schedule of two pilots and removed them from their scheduled trips. If he paid them for the trips, that's great, but I have a strong suspicion they were left hanging in the lurch, in Memphis without a place to stay, and now left to Make Up a big trip with very few options in Open Time.

What you do in your off-duty time is your own business. Jumpseating to commute is off-duty. Mowing the yard is off-duty. Driving from ATL to MEM is off-duty.

But now we have the threat of Flight Managers who will "Say" something if they find out about it -- and a union who won't say anything about it.


Be careful out there.






.

 

Well said TonyC. This is disturbing on many levels. Fit for duty is fit for duty. Just because a Manager thinks they can "see" what you are doing is no justification for those actions.

 

That is an interesting piece he wrote. What upsets me is the presumption that these guys couldn't be rested despite napping or daytime sleeping. Isn't that partly what we are paid to do? To determine how to manage our personal lives so that we do report rested and ready? What if I choose to go for a walk or have a gym session during the day on a layover?

If the responsibility is in fact on us, and only we can know our physiological needs and current state, then how can you justify disciplinary action based on a subjective 'hunch'?

Thanks for the head up Tony

Cavok

 

Agree with Tony here.

Someone i know gets up at 6am do all those Collierville things. Goes to bed early and tosses and turns and can't sleep until about 1am. Then gets up and flys 7 hours to Anchorage with a fellow Memphisite who has had the same day.

Commuting an a passenger jet sounds pretty restful to me.

On the other hand as a 777 Captain I send out an email with a rest/work schedule for the long haul flights.

On a 4 man crew I expect two of us to show up fatigued so that they can sleep through the noise and the turbulence for the first 4 hours and wake up rested to replace the other two.

I think with a little bit of lawyering these two will get paid

 

This is a big shift and is worthy an FCIF, not some Hangar blog entry.

From the CBA -

e. The provisions of Section 26.J.2. are predicated upon the
premise that time spent on a pilot scheduled Company
jumpseat is not accrued duty time under this contract or the
FARs. Should the Company be required to consider time spent
on a pilot scheduled Company jumpseat as accrued duty time,
Section 26.J.2., shall become null and void immediately.


So are we nullifying 26.J.2 immediately?? Are there any other parts of CBA being modified by the Fleet Captains?

26.J.2. A pilot may use a Company staging jumpseat to position himself in
Memphis for the start of his scheduled trip in accordance with the
following:

 

It took you guys one post to hijack this dudes thread

 

I think Cavok was asking for more efficient information for jumpseating from ATL to MEM on a regular basis.

Most of us understand our rest and relaxation options.

 

I'm not sure what your monthly schedule is like, but I am assuming you have a crashpad. When I was Jr. I would either Jumpseat or drive the day before R days or a scheduled trip.

After some seniority I ditched the crashpad and would usually spring for two nights at a hotel every month.

The good thing about ATL (my back up plan) is that you have a ton of options. Either flying on us or the folks at Delta and AirTran. And my experiences with them have been great.

 

[QUOTE=TonyC;1430315]As you know, it's about a 6-hour drive. Should you choose to spend your day driving instead of mowing the lawn, taking the kids to music lessons, wandering the aisles at Target, and whatever else the guys living in Collierville get to do during the day, be careful you don't let a Chief Pilot ... or whatever they're calling themselves these days ... "see" what you're doing. They may feel compelled to "say" something which would ruin your day.

As you know, the FAA places a responsibility on you, the pilot, to determine if you are fit to fly. You and only you can make that determination. The FAA's "IMSAFE" personal checklist can be found inside the front cover of our ALPA FedEx calendar.

Despite this, it seems that we are now subject to Flight Managers taking it upon themselves to make that determination for us.

Here's the current link: Our new expectation: "When you see something, say something"

(Once he's posted his next blog entry, I believe this will change to Our new expectation: "When you see something, say something")

This Flight Manager looked at the jumpseat schedule of two pilots and removed them from their scheduled trips. If he paid them for the trips, that's great, but I have a strong suspicion they were left hanging in the lurch, in Memphis without a place to stay, and now left to Make Up a big trip with very few options in Open Time.

What you do in your off-duty time is your own business. Jumpseating to commute is off-duty. Mowing the yard is off-duty. Driving from ATL to MEM is off-duty.

But now we have the threat of Flight Managers who will "Say" something if they find out about it -- and a union who won't say anything about it.


Be careful out there.

I especially like his claim you have to be rested for a 16 hr duty day. They "the company" want and train via Blue Threat about the idea of strategic sleeping. There is no way to do that and be prepared to sleep at the end of the first leg of your scheduled paring for most domestic trips. Also no way to go and sleep in the bunk of a 777 either if you are chosen to rest first.