This is an excellent response, and is exactly right. You are not actually required to do anything in that 30 hours, even if it is your interest to do so.

 

There is only one time that you can ascertain if something is on your schedule no later than 1200, and that's at 1200. The overall context in the PWA is talking about when CS has to call you or not, and the 2 situations are prior to your release from a rotation (when you are required to check your schedule), and 12 hours before the end of your last non-fly day. Furthermore, the SRH says for such an assignment "it is the pilot's responsibility to ascertain any such assignment. If nothing appears on a reserve pilot's schedule at that 12-hour point... blah blah".

Seems clear to me one has a responsibility to ascertain this at noon, otherwise it would be impossible for them to know if they are on an 18 hour leash or not and exactly what their reserve responsibilities are starting at midnight. One must know before a reserve period begins when the reserve period begins, so you need to know before midnight if you're actually on LC or not, it can't be a guessing game where you find out exactly at midnight whether you are on reserve or rest.

 

You can determine when an assignment was made without checking your schedule right at noon. The daily trip coverage report timestamps when a rotation was assigned. For SC you’d have to call scheduling but they can tell you what time it was placed on your schedule. Just because it’s inconvenient doesn’t negate that it is a way to do so.

Again, I’m not going to argue the technical details of not being aware of something until midnight or later. No one on this board can change anything. Your best place to start is a dart to the scheduling committee, and I guarantee they will tell you basically what I have. If you truly want to affect change then you’re going to have to take the fight to the FAA level. Don’t ascertain things until well after midnight when you then wouldn’t have 10 hours prospective rest. Start declining to report for assignments due to your perceived FAR 117 violations. File ASAPs every time. Until the FAA says this setup isn’t legal then neither the company nor the union will push to affect change.

 

But you don't have a responsibility to ascertain at noon (really, 12 hour before starting LC). That's the point. You are conflating FAR rules and PWA 'legality'. IF the company places it on your schedule before then, you can be made to report as early at 10 hours after starting LC. WHEN you make yourself aware of that is completely up to you. A commuter may have a different decision than a local, but it's ultimately irrelevant. What difference does it make to you the individual? You are perfectly welcome to wake up at midnight and check your schedule. You have that flexibility. And you don't have to determine the PWA 'legality' at/after noon. You can choose to check it, and screenshot a blank schedule as a hedge against an illegally placed assignment to fight that later, but that has nothing to do with the FAR's.

This is how it works. And frankly, you don't want it to work differently. Kinda like SC report time. You don't want it defined. Because then, if you scan on one minute late, you are subject to discipline. Likewise, you don't want to be forced to do a schedule check at midnight, because that's the only way around it.

You seem tone afraid you are violating the FAR's by checking your schedule. You 100% are not.

 

Ok, so we don't have an obligation to check it at noon, but we have an obligation to take an action at some point all the same. When you do that action would either be prior to midnight or after midnight. If you do it prior to midnight, it would violate your 30 hr rest. If you do it at or after, it would violate your 10 hour rest for a 10am FDP or RAP. Either way, this obligation would violate rest. You also couldn't legally start LC without knowing the LC start time beforehand, meaning really you'd have to check it prior to LC starting at midnight.

I want to believe I'm wrong on this. But nothing I've heard addresses the logic I've outlined adequately.

 

Then take your battle to the scheduling committee, the company, and the FAA. In the strictest technical sense you are correct. But ALPA, the company, and most importantly the FAA don't agree/care. In the end the scheduling cannot force you to work in violation of the FARs. If you believe you are violating a FAR then don't report for these assignments, if that's a hill you're willing to die on.

 

You don't have to believe. You are wrong. Checking your schedule at a time of your own choosing is not a violation of rest. It's in the LOI. There is only one required schedule check, the one after you finish an assignment. You are never required to answer the phone or acknowledge an assignment on LC and you're never required to answer the phone on short call. You trying to make an issue out of this purely so you can try and say 10am shows are illegal is to the detriment of everyone else.

 

Having a requirement of any kind put on you during rest is a violation of rest. You say I'm wrong, but offer no logic of how I'm wrong. You are assuming my intentions, and doing so incorrectly. You are also assuming the only outcome would be a "detriment" to everyone else. I don't want to violate the FARs. Forcing the company to not violate the FARs would not necessarily be a detriment to anyone. Imagine if they had to contact you to notify you of those trips/SC periods, and couldn't do so unless you were contactable. That would be a great outcome for us, and we would have all the chips since the company would have to solve the problem, and we would have to agree to any solution. We would need only agree to a solution that benefitted us.

 

You are correct. When you are on rest you on the far side of the moon. You don't exist as far as Scheduling is concerned.

However the company can require activity when you are on long call. That activity is a schedule check as soon as you begin LC.

 

They would just call everyone at midnight. If you'd like to go that route, submit a resolution. There is no required schedule check. The agreement with the company is that the PWA waives the required 18 hour call out if it is placed on your schedule at least 12 hours prior to the end of your non fly day. Furthermore, we have asked that the company not notify us of such assignment and we will voluntarily check our own schedules on our last x day to confirm whether anything has been scheduled. If you'd like to be difficult about this, the solution is for scheduling to call at midnight upon becoming contactable. A call at midnight allows for you to get a 10 hour rest prior to any assignment or SC.