I think in the long run, the over usage will calm down. All it will take is one winter weather system to hit over a weekend late in the month after the've burned everbody's SC allotment to adjust course

 

Just to verify because all the above discussion has me slightly confused, are schedule checks required on Short Call? It's happened twice already where a trip was placed on my schedule comfortably within my SC window and I never got a call from scheduling, just the CNO. Once the trip was placed before the start of the SC window, and one time after. I never acknowledged anything in MiCrew or Icrew, didn't pick up the CNO call, but still never got a call or voicemail from a real person. The second time I didn't even acknowledge or sign in until sitting in the plane at D-15 and still no call.

They were both good trips for me so I showed up anyway, but I'm not going to do it again. My understanding is that on SC even if you check your schedule they still need to call you. CNO counts as notification for conversion to SC but not for a SC assignment. Am I missing something?

 

Right now it's looking like that will hit right around Thanksgiving for NYC7ERA. They are putting everyone not in 30/168 on SC until maxed out. We'll, you get 6. Amd with 15ish days on call, odds are most will be limited out while still having 5-8 days on RES.

 

Maybe....

IF you did the whole non contactable first two hours thing then yes, you are required to check your schedule NLT that the end of the 2 hour window....PWA states "During this period of unavailability, the pilot assumes responsibility for acknowledging any rotation placed on their line by checking their schedule via DBMS or contacting Crew Scheduling."

Outside of that, no there is no required schedule check. Start your SC and don't look at icrew/micrew/VRU...wait for the call....maybe it comes, maybe it doesn't.

CNO call/voicemail (not text, not Micrew) *ONLY* counts for being informed you have been assigned SC. It does NOT count for being informed you have been assigned a rotation....that must come from a live schduler phone call.

The second time I didn't even acknowledge or sign in until sitting in the plane at D-15 and still no call.....why were you sitting in the plane at all? You were never notified so how did you know you even had a rotation? Stop doing schedulings job for them!

So a "good trip for you" means you prevented some other pilot from maybe getting a green slip to cover the trip becuase scheduling can't do their job corretly, or maybe some pilot would have been RR'd didn't get additional RR pay becuase you flew a trip you really shouldn't have The contract is a the contract for a reason....please let it play out the way its suppsoed to.

 

No, you are not required to check your schedule. Unless you choose to self-acknoledge an assignment, a live scheduler must call you during your SC window to notify you of any rotation assignment.

Now, if you call them when the SC is assigned and tell them you will be non-contactable for up to the first 2 hours, there are 2 ways to end that period of non-contactability, both laid out in the SRH. One, you can call scheduling and tell them you are now contactable, or you can view your schedule in icrew or the VRU. In either of those cases if an assignment has been put on your schedule then you are then notified of the assignment.

But it doesn't. Say you've got 1200 SC without going non-contactable. Scheduling calls you at 1200 with a 1215 report. You'd already have had to have left your house to be ready to get to the airport by 1400. Now instead say you go non-contactable. You would not be eligible to be given as 1215 report. Maybe instead they give you a 1400 report instead. But you'd still have to leave your house at the same time to go sit to be in position to report at 1400. The key if you are going to go non-contactable as a local is to check your schedule (thus ending the non-contactable period) as whatever point makes sense based on your distance to the airport. If you are 30 minutes from the parking lot then you wouldn't have to end your non-contactable status until say 1:00 to 1:15 into your SC period. Someone like yourself who is having to drive part way to sit SC would want to do the schedule check/end non-contactability at 0:01 into your SC window. There is nothing that says you must remain non-contactable the entire 2 hour window. You just are non-contactable until you either call scheduling or view your schedule in icrew. Again the point is to "block" scheduling from assigning you a report within your first two hours when non-contactable. If you are contactable they can give you a report right at the start of your window and they are just willing to take the delay for you to get there.

In the end, wether you are contactable or not, the earliest you'd ever have to reasonably be at the airport is roughly 2:00 into your SC window (I understand 2:00 is not a hard rule). But scheduling cannot assign a report time before 2 hours in if you are non-contactable.

And I understand that there is not a hard time for SC callouts.

 

One thing that I think people miss is that "report" does not mean "push." Report still leaves you an hour from push (1.5 hours international).

 

The company has multiple people paid a salary to think about this stuff and devise the best way to drive up reserve utilization. Like I said earlier it’s a game, they make a move and we counter. We make moves and they counter. Why wouldn’t you think about this stuff to improve your QOL? All the reserves said this would happen as a result of the 18 hour long call. I am glad we got that but it changed the game. So we come up with a new game plan and move on. They do too.

 

They will move on in some cases hoping to find “that guy.” Which is fine because he/she can fulfill their own personal obligation to be there “on time.” It’s a win win, they get a sense of pride in doing their duty and saving the day and I stay home.

 

I’m getting 4-6 hours extra pay per month and am being used the same number of days. I think it’s costing the company money when they don’t have a need for GSs. 20 SC hours paid per day is 600 hours a month that may have prevented 1 or 2 GSs. They have the data and will adjust accordingly but for now I don’t mind. We are overstaffed in my cat at the moment so there’s a lot of credit surfers picking up 1 and 2 days that SCs would normally get.

 

Thats exactly what I am doing by asking the question a few pages back. I'm glad we are having the discussion. I'm not trying to figure anything out for the company. Hardly. Im trying to extract as much QOL/benefit/$$ out of whatever scenario I am in. I still really don't see the huge benefit for me in horsing around with this 2-hr non contact thing. If i'm on SC, and I get a trip, ill be there when I can get there using normal behaviors.

In the last few years, a lot on reserve by choice, I have received literally zero trips during a SC sit. Yet.