Ive seen VAS used in several bid periods. But not in a while though.

 

With 6 hour SCs every pilot should be using 2 hour NC to start every SC. Management is using everything in the PWA (and making up sh!t that isn'T IN THE PWA) for max effort.

 

As a local I want to make sure my understanding is correct…

For a 1600 SC start time on Jan 2, I call scheduling around noon on January 1st soon after the SC was assigned and tell them I will be uncontactable. I may or may not actually be notified of this SC based on things and other things.

[If I and the hundreds of pilots on SC across the system all do this we will inundate the phones - works for me!]

At 1601 on Jan 2 I log into Icrew and check my schedule. There shouldn’t be anything there that reports any sooner than 1800 on Jan 2.

[If there is something there reporting between 1600 and 1759, I call scheduling and they must remove this assignment. With less than two hours until report to this non-compliant rotation, they’ve now bought a late report and probably a late departure]

Having simply viewed my schedule on iCrew (not Micrew) at 1601, I have a two-ish hour leash that will now continue until the end of my SC. If there was something posted reporting at 1800 or later, I’ll roughly make report time (give or take some minutes for traffic and give or take a LOT of minutes for NYC/co-terminal considerations).

If I don’t look at my schedule until 1730 having already told them I am uncontactable, I am self-warned that I only have roughly thirty minutes between becoming aware of the rotation and report time. If there’s nothing on my schedule when I check it at 1730, I really needn’t report any earlier than 1930ish.

So what happens when I am on an X day, get a rotation assigned the next day, and before I have called to declare myself non-contactable, they give me a lSC assignment reporting 30 minutes into my SC period? Does my subsequent call to declare myself non-contactable have the power to wipe this assignment out? Have we pressed to test this yet?

Will I receive any notification of a SC assignment that is placed on my schedule an hour before SC starts which reports 3 hours after SC starts? As in…what if I forget to check the schedule myself? Will I get a voicemail left at 1600? At 1800? No VM but a CNO? Are MiCrew CNO acknowledgements just as effective as iCrew acks?

If I am awarded a SC TWO days prior (which I’m led to believe is possible if I YS one), what’s the timeline for my non-contactable notification to scheduling?

 

You must call scheduling to tell them you will be non-contactable before they place a rotation on your SC period. Once it is on your schedule I think you are outta luck. But regardless you still have the promptly available time to get to the airport so it’s not like you have to come in early to make sign in.

 

Lol, that sounds like too much damn work to not work. As a local, I just put in a blanket YS for the SC time I want then go about my day like I would if I wasn't on SC. The hardest part is remembering that I'm actually on call and to not to have a beer during/before my SC period.

 

I have never gotten a trip while NC maybe that's incidental and maybe they are not assigning them to me per the PWA. I haven't needed to press to test yet. Worst case is I show at the airport promptly available 2ish hours into my SC. I don't really care what the report time is. It's simpler than you make it out to be. They know your NC and all they can do is call you when those 2 hours are up (but you will have to be "on property" so to speak)

 

As a local guy I would never call 2 hour non-contactable because the expectation is at T+2:00 you are at the airport ready to head to a gate.

I'll get a SC. Even if they give me a T+0:05 report, I'll get there when I safely can. I was promptly available for EWR lying in bed. Not my problem if they call me to JFK during rush hour in the snow.

 

this a million times how difficult is it folks… there’s no defined time it’s promptly available. Follow your contract to the letter like the company expects you to nothing more, both parties agreed to this.

 

TED74, your premise above seems to be a search for some type of plausible deniability that causes CS to "wipe an assignment out" if its published report time happens to fall within 2 hours of your short call start time. As a short call pilot, this is not your concern. You are not going to be marked "late" for reporting to an assignmentafter the published report time, if you report pursuant to the definition of "promptly available" when notified. The published report time for any given rotation is completely irrelevant when you are on short call, if it happens to conflict with the parameters I just laid out.

For a pilot living in base, exercising the non-contactable option is actually more work, and more of a burden than necessary. Why? For one, you have to call Crew Scheduling. Once you do that, you have signed up to check your schedule. Rather than risk forgetting to do that (I stay busy outside of work), I'd rather have Crew Scheduling call me to notify me of an assignment per usual. Their number is set to emergency override in my phone and will bypass Silent Mode. If they forget to call, that is not my problem. On the other hand, if after exercising the non-contactable option, I forget to check my schedule, and I miss an assignment as a result, that is on me.

 

As a local ATL guy, after this discussion, I officially do not care about the avaiable NC option. Ill get my SC's, and if I get an assignment i'll just get there when I can in a reasonable amount of time.