I have been asking. My friends at Delta, United and SWA are either positive or neutral, in other words, changes are so small they're barely noticeable.

A pilot's quality of life is directly proportional to the number of pilots behind him/her on the seniority list. Part 117 has forced airlines to hire in record numbers. At one of the WAI job seminars a United recruiter said at least 10% of hiring is due to the new rest rules. Those rules are much more restrictive for night flying. If United, an airline which flies primarily during the day (starting trips, domicile time) imagine how many pilots fedex and ups would have to hire.

Common Sense 101 - if fedex and ups management spends millions and millions of dollars fighting a new regulation you know that regulation must be beneficial to pilots.

 

If the changes are so small they don't matter, than I guess I have one less thing in my life to get spun up about. But I would guess that the impact of the changes depend on whether or not you commute. Most passenger carriers don't have the high percentage of commuters that FedEx does.

 

Best part of 117 is they can no longer push back your showtime and then the duty day is no longer 16 hours. I for one think it's a big improvement.

 

Not sure what you meant by this comment.

But I'd chalk the hiring going on based on the upcoming and currently happening retirements, growth, reduction in regional flying which will increase major flying, FAR 117 staffing and probably some other factors as well. The biggest factor being retirements.

 

You must be senior since 10% extra bodies means nothing to you.
..and those "small changes" apply to primarily day-flying airlines. I'd imagine those changes would be much greater, i.e. more new hires, at primarily night-flying cargo airlines.
PS. Pax airlines have a large percentage of commuters too.

 

There are definitely some good things out of 117. I love not having less than 10 hours. At the regional I was at we would be scheduled with reduced rest. I would fly a 4 day with under 30 hours of scheduled rest on the overnights, all while doing 20+ legs in those 4 days.
Also some bad things....like having to ride DH in the back to LGA just in case the weather gets bad and the crew doing the turn to LGA flying the plane isn't legal to fly it back due to the hard limit on flight time.
This summer was full of those.
I've been lazy and haven't found/paid for an app to track it, but the rolling Duty/time limits are pretty difficult to keep track of.

And you can still do 16 hour days if you take the 2 hr extension.

 

Which kind of proves my point. 10% more pilots to cover the same amount of flying. If you aren't legal to do the same flying pre-117, you are either working more days or getting paid less...unless you are on reserve getting guarantee and min days off. Seniority definitely plays a role, as does pairing generation software and the parameters placed upon it.

Night flying is definitely more restrictive which I think it's extremely important due to the effects on circadian rhythms and internal clocks and the like. I really don't like red eyes at all!

And I truly appreciate the rides you guys have given me while commuting and I certainly don't envy the night schedules.

Again, I don't agree with the FAAs decision and I think 117 should be applied to all operators. And it definitely makes sense to me why management would spend the money, saves them a ton of money over the long run. Hopefully it can be applied to you cargo guys soon. Not sure what the best way to go about it is, other than to continue to lobby elected officials, and emphasize physiological factors in any ASAP reports.

 

The big difference is staffing for adequate reserve coverage. No more endless reserve days where they can call you out for a 16 hour duty day at the end of your reserve coverage window.....

 

You realize this means a carrier that runs a quality operation has to staff more reserve pilots, right?

Yeah -- you can sell a mansion for $100, too -- but why would you?

 

I said "10% extra bodies means nothing"? Maybe I'm too junior to understand the impact of that. Hopefully you are senior enough to explain it to me.