johnso-
It can definitely be confusing.
The problem arises because there are at least 2 definitions of "duty".

See if this helps:
1) For purposes of FAR limits: If you are on call (long or short) you are on duty. (not resting)

2) For purposes of contractual limits: Duty begins at report time for a rotation.

It's not. That is the same girl that was purported to be Tiger's wife on the internet. Google "Tiger's wife" and you will see the very same girl. If your safe-search is off, you can see a WHOLE lot more of her.:eek:

Fine, I will take the picture down. I don't want to put up a picture of an attractive blonde in a swim suit if it isn't the person I thought it was.

:D

Is that okay, take it down or leave it up? Do I need to repost it to get everyones oppinion?

BTW, the December 1, 2009 Scheduling Alert from the MEC Scheduling Committee goes over Reserve Utilization Order and it shows the TC report scheduling runs prior to assigning trips to reserve and goes over how its used. Very informative. Look it up on deltapilots.org under library, scheduling committee, scheduling alert. Or be lazy like me and ask the forums and hope someone like unclesam answers. :D

I did see that it says there was a time where you could reduce your raw only for a specific trip but that is no longer the case. You really are lowering your raw and jumping into the pot. It also says this is done by hand by scheduling and thus lower and raising your raw as you see your trip fly out the window would do nothing for you. :mad: Bummer.

But: Once the computer has identified the pilots who will fly, say 5 trips open then it identifies the 5 that will fly by their RAW score, then RAW score is no longer referenced and their preferences are considered in seniority order.

That is the way I was told it was done. The computer spits out the guys who will cover the trips based on RAW score then the scheduler pulls up each guys requests to see who gets what trip based on those preferences.

It would be very nice to have real time lowering AND highering of the RAW score instead of waiting around for the stupid PCS runs. I also want the ability to see the reserve availability list for the entire month, not just two days worth. It would be kinda nice to know where you may sit on the list at the end of your stretch of reserve days.

I agree. But I also felt like it was a bit preachy, especially since some of the LCAs seemed to be shouting or overemphasizing points by use of bold or CAPITALIZATION.

Finally, I am tired of them telling us what we should do if we have an EPR gauge failure on takeoff. It happened to me. The gauge failed just as I commanded autothrottles on as I pushed them up. As the CA turned on the autothrottles, it pulled back the throttle with the failed EPR, the throttles split, then the autothrottles clicked off -- all of this happening just prior to 80 knots and within a few seconds. The CA took the airplane from me and conducted a low speed abort.

I felt like we did the correct thing. However, from reading their myriad of EPR articles and bulletins, they say we should have taken off with the autothrottles off. I know how to do that. But what happens to our TOLD performance when for a little bit of the takeoff the throttles are split? Also, do they understand it is pretty darn difficult to have this happen, correctly identify "oh its just the EPR gauge -- continue", and to determine that nothing was oversped.

/rant

Ok. Here is my next question.

Is DH(domestic) duty? Can they fly me to hour 16 then DH me back? I say no, but schedulers push on this & I & several others have refused.

Actually, FAR's do not limit the amount of time you can be on duty, but they do limit the amount of time you can go WITHOUT REST. Reserve is defined as neither duty nor rest, and you can only go 16 hours without rest. (Hence time from short call start to duty off cannout exceed 16 hours.)

Deadhead is definately duty from both a contractual and FAR standpoint. The only time you can EVER exceed 16 hours of duty domestically is if the last leg is a part 91 flight (no pax,) as part 91 has no rest rules associated with it. This is still considered duty for contractual purposes, if I'm not mistaken - and I believe the contract gives you the right to refuse a 91 tag on if you will go without rest for 16 hours or more.

Another little side effect of Whitlow that often gets forgotten is that if you go over 15 hours of no rest/duty, your last rest period was reduced, and thus you now need compensitory rest in the rest period you go into.

Complicated question. Short answer:
For FARs - deadhead at the end of a trip is not duty. (it is also not "rest")
For the contract - deadhead is duty.

They CANNOT fly you for 16 hours and then deadhead you back because it would violate your contractual maximum duty day. (you can voluntarily deadhead home if you wish. There is no FAR problem and you are essentially "waiving" your contractual right to a break in duty. That's an "off-rotation" deadhead. For flights over to Europe with an immediate return, they call it "Ironman". Its brutal, but it gets you home a full day early:))

There can be some contract permutations for deadheads.
(off-rotation, surface, beginning of trip, end of trip, etc. etc.)
Look at Section 8.

True statement.

For FARs it may be simpler to say "not resting" than "on duty".