I just acknowledged a short call assignment and noticed it was 9 hours vs the usual 12 hours. When reading this weeks Flight Ops email, I saw the short call window has been reduced to 9 hours effective 25 October. That was a nice QOL bump for reserve pilots.

 

I got short call tomorrow too. Walking around my house a bunch of times repeating "how come its only 9 hours?"
That email answered my question and was a nice surprise!

 

It is nice. I think what they’ve found is that since the last few hours are hardly used but count as duty in terms of rest before using you again, it’s better to keep the window shorter and be able to use guys earlier the next day(3 hours sooner).

 

They could do that anyway... they would just call you and end the short call. This doesn't give them any earlier timeframe for future usage.

 

I'm a skeptical pilot, what's the catch? Hoping that more pilots aren't assigned shortcall each day to make up the gap in daily SC coverage. If that's the trade-off, I'd rather not. Genuinely curious as to why they'd give up that %5 usage if there wasn't a secondary benefit. Especially right before negotiations open up.

 

My guess is that it’s a carrot that they’re planting now. Next fall when negotiations being they will start assigning 12 hour SC IAW the PWA and then say “we can negotiate it back down to 9 since it’s so important to you”

 

Glad to hear it; I welcome any and all QoL improvements, but let's keep this in perspective. I've sat a lot of short call and I've never been called-out in the last 3 hours of my assignment. Over the past year at the end of every unused SC I'd call CS 2 hours prior to my finish time and ask to be released early, and 100% of the time that request was granted. At the 9 hour point a RES pilot just isn't that usable. My guess is the company ran the numbers and decided that based on historical RES usage in the last 3 hours of a 12 hour call-out it made sense to put that pilot into rest instead of burning the additional 3 hours sitting SC where they can't effectively be used. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly happy about the change as it saves me a phone call and even gives me a bonus hour but this is a practical business decision which some number cruncher has determined will benefit the company in a meaningful way.

 

Any attempt to spin this as bad for a Pilot is ridiculous. So if shorter SCs are bad then I guess we should Lengthen SC? Or is 12 hours the absolute optimum length any any variance up or down is a screw job for us.

Tell the commuter who can now make it home he is really being screwed but he is just too stupid to realize it.

Tell the guy who sits 7 SCs that even though he is on call for 21 less hours he is really working harder.

Guys this is a 25% reduction in SC - it is good news.

Plenty of actual stuff to complain about, how about that middle DH seat or that 47 minute turn between two long flights with no meal.

As a guy who occasionally sits reserve I will suffer through the shortened SCs.

Scoop

 

Scoop,

Usually I agree with you, but I'll go ahead and take the bait.....

This is bad for pilots. There. Ok, I said it.

Here's my concern. By releasing pilots sooner, this is is an advantage to the company as they can now release you to rest and then assign another short call RAP that much sooner. Big picture, this means more short call coverage with fewer pilots. Translation: "job killer". They have identified an inefficiency which requires more pilots, and are looking to trim the fat.

Obviously the end game for the company is NOT to have the same total number of reserve pilots with shorter Short Calls. It's a way to reduce required headcount and keep essentially the same short call coverage to protect the operation.

I sit Reserve in my category a lot. I live in base and actually put in yellow slips sometimes to be first on short call. I still have never had a month of 7 short calls. Even when I ask for it. With this change, I'm predicting an increase in the number of short call periods per month for those exposed to it.

As far as the guy who can now commute home? I don't think it was a big deal as you could have called and got released early most times. (Intl might be different?) Additionally, now you won't be able to go home anyway because guess what, since you're done earlier, you're back on short call tomorrow morning!

Scoop, as someone who argues against the 30-day bid periods as a job killer, I'm surprised you aren't thinking the same way on this change?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

Let me just state that you will likely be in significant minority with this view. If shortening SC from 12 to 9 hours is a "job killer" (it isn't) then can I assume you will be in favor of lengthening SC?