Generally speaking, in my category, almost every lineholder seems to be either positioning themselves for greenslips (which are unpredictable) or going for as close to 100hrs straight time as possible. One guy often drops his whole month though so he brings the average down.

I am one of the guys that shoots for greenslips. To do it well, you really have to risk a low pay month though. Some guys are too afraid to do this...fine. For me its recreational greenslip hunting, IOW, I dont really care if I get one. Part of the GS chasing requirement though is I alternate reserve and regular months due to 117 lookback requirements.

It just what I see and do and observe.

The Capts generally shoot for crediting 100hrs/mo. High credit/soft time trips are highly valued. When the annual lookback closes in on 1000, they take two months off with a reserve bid...rare regardless of which strategy you use.

 

You do know that the MEC Committee Chairmen pay themselves the 'Average' of what line holders are flying, right? That number has been fluctuating between 87-92 hours per month, for many years. If you don't believe me, call the DALPA office and ask them.

Under our old line of time bidding, we had a fixed cap of 75-78 hours, any more than that went into your bow wave for the next month, or into our bank until you filled it up at +60.

I picked 90 hours as it's between 87-92, it also makes the math much easier. 90 is 15 hours per month more than 75, and that my friend is 20% more flying, per month, (than 75) which means they need 20% fewer pilots to cover the schedule.

And on the FAR 117 thing, as Scambo pointed out, the FAR is based on block time, my 90 hour number is not, it is credit and block.

Let's just look at one feature of PBS to see what effect it had. Let's look at vacation. When we had a 75 hour cap, we also dropped trips that touched our vacation weeks (which we had more of too...) and you could NOT pick up more flying. More reserve pilots were needed in every category to cover those trips dropped for vacation, and for training as well. Back then, our split of regular/reserve pilots was about 70/30%. What is it today? I doubt we need anywhere near 30% reserve coverage in any category, because now line holders can pick up more time, the only limit is the FAR.

Now, with our current PBS rules, you CAN pick up more flying, because the week of vacation is pay only, after the initial bid run. So most guys I know are picking up MORE flying during a vacation month! If we just changed our vacation to pay AND credit, so guys could NOT pick up another trip management would need to add more pilots to every category to cover that flying. We could also change our PBS rules back to a hard cap, and we could change the swap board pick up and swap with the pot rules back to a hard cap as well, and bring back the bow wave/bank system. All of that would require MORE pilots, just like when we had a 75 hour cap years ago.

 

You are talking about FAR's which is block time only, that is not what we get paid.

You've got to add in all the DH, Vacation, Training, sick time, etc. My math is not off, but you might want to check yours, or just pick up the pone and call the DALPA office and ask them, "What is the average line holder getting paid today?". It'll be north of 87 hours. For every guy with a 72 hour month, there's another guy with a 100+ hour month. Our PBS rules allow it.

 

I don't think people are flying 90 hours a month, but are averaging about 90 hours of credit for pay.


Scoop

 

Correct. The average regular line holder averages 89 hours of credit for pay/month.

 

When deviating from deadhead on the front end, is there a requirement and/or an expectation to comply with the commuter clause? Deviating flight would be mainline DAL.

 

There is something like that. I deviated on a mainline 320 once and after pushback we sat on the ramp for like 2 hours. I called scheduling and got read a minor riot act. Anyway, i was unaware...until then.

It felt like i was talking to my wife.

 

As I recall, when you DV8 on the front end you are on your own. It is your responsibility to get where you need to be in time. I would not expect any help from crew skeds unless the are desperate.

 

You are nowhere near right.

Vacation. Credit time. (I am on a 3 day trip right now. 4 hours of flying and 13 hours of credit time).

I belive our average paid hours per month is over 90 hours.

 

They are talking credit, not actual flight time.

Oh, and it's you're***