exactly, especially when the solid majority have military retirements also. The majority of Nwa guys I fly with have no intention on flying to 65. They may go out on extended medical leave at the end of their careers though :cool:

I think it was contractual. Many guys would intentionally bid for 18+ days of reserve. This way they'd gain another 2-3 days off because rarely did we receive a 24 hour break. It was almost always a calender day off. Add to that when you had 18 days in a row you weren't in a 4 day bucket, you were in the 18 day bucket. So basically you could pile your days up & be the last to be called for several weeks. It worked very well.

Is that assuming everyone goes to 65?

I can only speak for myself. I'm 50 right now. With having lost the pension, I need that extra 5 years to make up the difference and get to a level in my retirement portfolio where it will provide enough cash flow.

Retiring at age 60 would cause me to come up a little short. I would just have to go out and get another job and continue to build my portfolio for a few more years. And if I'm going to work past age 60, I might as well be doing something I enjoy. That's the way I look at it.

Yes - the numbers are off the ALPA site, and someone made a Excel sheet that calculates it all out.

It did just change in the last month or two - I think the domestic categories can now have 9 days of reserve in a row now.

Methinks somebody needs to read "When Scheduling Calls" again!;) Pay particular attention to the FAR, Rest, and Short Call sections.

Time on call is neither duty nor rest, so the argument you describe above wouldn't be made. Anytime you're assigned duty from call you must be able to look back from the end of each flight segment and find adequate rest.

Somebody who had 8 days of domestic flying in a row without a hard 24 hours off participated in the violation of the FAR's....to which the pilot is jointly responsible with the company for compliance. If it's international, the company bears sole responsibility.

From the Good Book:


Before accepting a domestic

look back 24 hours from the completion of each scheduled flight segment
and find a legally scheduled “normal” or “reduced” rest period within the
previous 24 hours. If the rest is reduced rest, then within 24 hours from
the beginning of the reduced rest, the pilot must be given a compensatory
rest period, the length of which depends on the amount of scheduled and
actual flight time. Under no circumstances may a flight crewmember
receive less than an 8-hour rest within a 24-hour period.

There was actually a note in PBS right above the min-max days on parameters when the bid opened. It stated specific categories that were now increased to a max of 9 days on. I know the 73N & 320 were NOT included.

Here's what the latest scheduling alert says about it:

The requirement to be relieved of all duty for 24 hours in any seven consecutive days applies to all pilots except an international four-man crew. The seven consecutive days are considered to be calendar days, while the 24 hours may be any 24 consecutive hours, i.e., not necessarily a calendar day, and may occur on a layover.


Important note: This is a flight limitation. A pilot may fly for six days and train or deadhead on the seventh day. A reserve pilot may be on call for any number of consecutive days, but must have been released from telephone responsibilities for at least 24 consecutive hours at some point in the past seven days prior to reporting for domestic flight duty. This is not true for international flight duty.

Important note: There is no requirement to place a day of rest on the seventh consecutive on-call day if no 24 hour rest in the past seven days can be found. As long as a pilot has 24 hours rest in seven days prior to reporting for domestic flight duty he is legal. When needed, such rest is placed on the pilot’s line at the time that a domestic trip is assigned. This has the effect of providing him at least 24 hours notice to a domestic reserve flying assignment if he cannot look back and find 24 hours rest in the preceding seven days.

I just looked at the Bid packages, and from what I can see, the only airplanes included were the DC9, 73N and 767 (domestic). (it says on the cover sheet "Max Reserve Days On: 9")