If he acknowledges what is on his schedule when he sees it, how is that not flying the contract?

I'm really good at backdooring B's.. but I can't backdoor this one it appears.

I had a beautiful carryout trip with 7:00ish on day one and another 10:30 hours of credit over the next 2 days. Here comes the wrath of the asterisk... now I've still got the nice 7 hour day on the last day of this bid period and only 8 hours for 2 days work in the may bid period. That's poopy. And now I can't swap since the swap trips are in two different bid periods. The Deltamatic9000 would blow up...

After flying 7:00 on the last day of the bid perioid, you're probably going to be ill...

Then you go home, recover, call in well and W/S the two day on May 2! :D

Welcome to the world of Reserve Pilot with Delta. I do believe it was in the last "survey" equal time for equal trips for reserves and line fliers (at least everyone I talked too wanted that) and we see where that went in the last contract.

But 80, since you are a lineholder this month, yes you can swap a trip beginning this month and goes into next month. But that 2 day trip you want begins in May, which as you stated, a different bid month and you will be reserv, and unable to bid it.

If those PDs have put you in a bind financially, consider applying for an interest-free loan from the furlough/emergency relief fund. Call the MEC and they will email you the application form.

I totally agree with this!!! Step up ALPA! This type of stuff would crush the DPA drive!

ALPA should offer!

FYI... United pilots are pay protected for this and the get crew meals! :rolleyes:

Razor,

I think we agree more than we disagree, and perhaps it's semantics that separate our position. You describe the contractual language as "ambiguous." I don't see any ambiguity in the language at all as far as what our minimum obligations are under the PWA. That minimum requirement is a 3 hour acknowledgement.

After all, we've been operating under these same contractual rules for years and there has been no question about what they mean. Just because the FARs changed doesn't mean our contract changed along with it. It didn't. If the company wants to change the terms that they previously agreed to, there's a process to do that. They can't do it by edict. The SD memo is especially insulting since they've known about this issue for 2 full years! They've been "laying behind the log" for us ever since, waiting until just 3 weeks before FAR 117 implementation to spring this on us. They've known about this "crisis" all along and they are using F.U.D. to manipulate us.

Where I think you and I probably agree is that the harmonization of the PWA and 117 raises the issue of "what is reasonable." If a long-call pilot followed the 3-hour acknowledgement to the letter, he would never fly a single trip on long call. That position, contractually sound, is at the far end of the scale. The extreme other end of the continuum has the long-call pilot tied to his phone 24/7, constantly on the ready to acknowledge a trip within 2 hours. This eliminates any possibility of restful sleep, as you must have your phone constantly by your side.

What is reasonable? Supposed CS assigns a trip to you at 0001 on your first long call day, with a report at 2359 the following evening. Is it reasonable to wait until 2101 to acknowledge, given that you've had 21 hours notice? No. Would the pilot be in compliance with the requirements under the PWA? Yes

Now for the other end of the spectrum. Mr. long-call pilot goes to bed at 2100. CS calls at 0001 and leaves a message that they've assigned a trip reporting at 1201. Mr. long-call pilot, according to the SD memo, must acknowledge by 0201 otherwise he gets disciplined in the form of a forced PD day. Reasonable to have to acknowledge within 2 hours? Hell no! That is what SC pilots are for. I don't mind as much answering a call during the day, but I highly resent the company wanting us to be tied to the phone during the nighttime---when we are NOT on SC. Wasn't the whole idea of 117 to make sure pilots are more rested? The company's position on this matter flies directly in the face of the stated intent of 117.

The Scheduling Reference Handbook describes the long-call pilot as having a “12-hour leash.”

It repeats the language contractual language you have above, but also adding that "A long-call pilot has no obligation to check his schedule while on call..."

In spelling out the long-call pilot's contractual obligations, it goes on to say:

"This effectively means a long-call pilot could turn off his phone for as long as nine hours, provided he then checks his messages and/or schedule in order to comply with the above requirements for acknowledgement."

The issue is not what you "can" do, it's what are you "required" to do. The vast majority of the contract tells us what we HAVE to do. You are generally free to do more, and you (generally) will never get disciplined for going "above and beyond." There are exceptions however.

For example, your max contractual crew duty day may be less than what the FAR 117 allows for. If you volunteer to exceed your contractual max duty day, you are free to do so but I wouldn't call this "following the letter of the contract." I would just call that stupid. :D A pilot would, however, find themselves in trouble if they intentionally exceeded FAR 117 duty limits. That is an example where "doing more" than is contractually required will get you in trouble.

So it is possible for you to "do more" and still get in trouble, but generally you only get in trouble if you perform LESS than what the contractual minimum required performance is.