In a perfect world automation would be in place so that the moment we go on LC we would be notified if we hadn't acknowledged. Instead we have interpretation.

 

I guess because technically nothing says WHEN you have to ascertain if an assignment has been placed on your schedule. In theory you could wait until midnight or later once you start LC to view your schedule (or the daily trip coverage, or the daily SC assignment log, or text your buddy to view your schedule, etc). While in practice most people check fairly soon after the 12 hour prior point, since that is voluntary at that time it isn’t considered to have broken your rest.

 

I always thought it was a good idea to check at 1201 (or 1 min past the time if on a PR) because that's the cutoff and I wanted to know as far out as possible and also to keep scheduling from adding something later and trying to claim it was there at 1200. But considering you can look at Daily Trip Coverage and Rotation History that's not really necessary. To me having more notice is better than less.

 

As I stated there is only one time spelled out in the PWA that dictates the when and how a pilot has to check their schedule.

The situation you are referring to should actually say when coming off a “non fly day” because that is what the PWA says.

Yes an X day is a non fly day, but so is rest > 24 hours and so is a PB/PR day.

The company can’t dictate that you interrupt your X day or rest, but you can do it if you want.

But how and when a pilot “makes themselves aware” is up to each pilot.

Can they check at 11:59 hours prior? Yes..great technique if they want to take a screen capture.

Can they wait until zero hour of starting LC (could be midnight for X day, could be some other random time for PB/PR day)? Yes.

Could they wait until their morning coffee because they live local and know they can make a 1000 report? Yes.

Different strokes (sched “checks”) for different folks.

 

I agree that is it generally prudent to ascertain if scheduling has assigned anything as close to the cutoff time as possible. It's sad that we have to do this to keep the company honest and have some proof if scheduling tries to pull shenanigans later. However, general prudence is not a mandate, which is all the FAA cares about.

 

How much are you guys flying on reserve now?

I just did a 6-month look back and I am flying nearly 9 days out of 10 of my available reserve days on average (ATL 320A) and almost all SC days turn in to flying. With the stagnation I am looking at being on reserve for a while and it is becoming unmanageable. There are almost no blue days, either, so I can't even move X days anymore. Does anyone have some insight on ways to mitigate the reserve abuse? I am getting pretty worn down.

 

Don't bid into being the plug. Live in base. Use the non-contactable provision. Use P/D to break up long stretches. Yellow slip as appropriate.

Working 9 days a month doesn't sound too bad to me.

 

I didn't say I was working 9 days/month, I said I am working is 9 of 10 available days on average. I generaly have 17-18 days/month of reserve and I am flying nearly all of them....on reserve. I am not the plug, but I am obviously in the reserve range and there have been no awards in 13 months at this point in to my category. I am a car commuter, generally in range of the SC leash.

I am mostly curious if how much the other reserve pilots are being utilized in my category. Reserve wasn't always this way, but it is challenging now.

 

He didn’t say he was working 9 total days a month, he said he was working 9 out of every 10 reserve days.

 

You cant do this every month, but this month I took a few IVD's and an APD and dropped them into the middle of 3 and 4 day reserve stretches, im essentially useless to the company just about all month. Several one day reserve blocks doing that. Bidding 3 and 4 day reserve stretches seems to cut down on me getting used too terribly much.