First day of reserve is tomorrow, finished up IOE a few days ago. Currently staying at place about 2 hours 5 min from my front door to the employee parking lot at CLE. Short call starting 9AM next three days. Any advice on how I should handle this? Drive 30ish min towards CLE and hang out at a Starbucks or something all day?

 

There are a lot of factors to consider when sitting reserve on that 2 hour bubble. It's been a long time since I sat reserve, but here are a few nuggets of good info.

- Take a look at who else is on reserve with you on your day and in your call time.
- Check reserve coverage and open time that fits your call out and days available. Use it to forecast how you may be used.
- Watch the weather. If one of the other northern bases, ORD or EWR, go into SWAP you can bet you may be pulled to one of those bases.
- If your local roads are either congested or ice covered it may be wise to stage closer.
- For more of a sure thing I used to use the aggressive pickup window the day prior to reserve to pick up a trip to fit my reserve time.
- The closer you get to 75 hours of flight time the less likely you'll be used again during the month.

 

thanks for the response
when you say flight time, are you referring to block or credit? I assume block since the 100hr limit per 28 days?

 

I would hang out in libraries closer to CLE. The Hudson, OH library is probably closer than you need to drive, but it’s the best library in Ohio. You can also leave your car there and have a short walk to great restaurants in their downtown. We live an hour drive from Hudson and we still take the kids there instead of our local library. If you’re an Ohio resident you can get a library card there no matter where you live. They also have a cafe and a bookstore.

 

thanks for the tip Unfortunately, Hudson is actually further away for me than CLE is!

 

Yes, block time. The closer you get to guarantee the less likely they are to use you, unless every reserve pilot goes above.

 

What area would you be driving from? That is a big factor too.

 

Columbus area

 

If you live 2 hours away just stay home. You get 15 min to call back scheduling so really you have 2:15 to get to the airport and if your gonna be a few min late thats probably fine. When I was on shortcall i never got a 2 hour call out it was always longer than that.

 

Well since the base is now closing end of March officially so looks like I’m moving to ORD