That must be nice ...

You always know 24 hours in advance when you'll be sick.

You have no issues sharing your private medical information with your SCP designee.

You trust your SCP designee to do the right thing.


I'm a little less perfect.

I don't always know when I'll be sick that soon in advance. When you're driving to work 4-5-ish hours prior to show, I'm probably sleeping. (And I'm not going to tell your ACP you're not resting. ) If I wake up with a sore throat, I may be inside the parameters that would trigger a sick call inquiry.

I rarely know when I'll be injured.

I doubt I'll know in advance when other non-illness and non-injury conditions will occur which despite not meeting the PFC.com announcement's definition of "Sick eligible" events would nevertheless render me unfit to fly according to the FAA's IMSAFE personal checklist.

Finally, I've been burned by ACP "judgment" before, and don't depend on it in the future. I've also had positive interactions, but I don't ever count on them, and I certainly wouldn't bet a paycheck on them.

In my first year at FedEx (which predated a CBA and probation), my new-hire classmate sim partner and I both had 6CH trips on New Year's Eve. His was operate one leg out, one leg back, arrive in Memphis (my home) in the afternoon. Mine was one leg out to an east coast airport near his home, then deadhead back to Memphis. By swapping trips, we could both be at our respective homes almost a half day earlier. My trip was CIC M/U -- first time I did that, and last time. VIPS rejected our swap request because his was a different trip code. VIPS rejected mutual PDO bump. We couldn't DROP and then pick up each other's trips because it was one of "those" holidays. We called scheduling -- they couldn't help. So we called the ACP. His answer was, "If scheduling won't do it, there's nothing I can do about it." We thought about swapping IDs and flying each other's trips, but wound up biting the bullet and both of us got home later than we could have. Thank you ACP, your helpfulness has been repaid with decades of our goodwill.

I also take a dim view of sharing my medical condition with strangers, much less with submitting my medical condition for judgment by people who have no medical training. Sure, it seems harmless and common sensical to tell the boss you felt a cold coming on. Will you feel as comfortable next time explaining that funny rash in your groin?

I imagine The Company would prefer we all open up and use the third option for satisfying the Section 14.A.6. inquiry -- just talk to the SCP designee. It would relieve the need for anybody to provide sick notes, and it would relieve the need to involve The Company's aeromedical adviser. Just tell your ACP, and trust him to reach the same conclusion about your status that you, the pilot actually involved, the pilot actually tasked by the FAA to make the judgment, using your best judgment, made at the time. Just trust them.

Yeah, right.


Let's consider a hypothetical situation and how the "new paradigm" varies from the way sick use has occurred in the past. Let's consider a pilot who lives in base and is preparing to leave the house for the 30-minute drive to work. Suddenly, the calmness is pierced by a blood-curdling scream from his young child. He and his wife run to the sound and find their young daughter covered in blood from an accident of some sort, but they still don't know what exactly happened. What he DOES know is there's an ER visit in the near future, and probably stitches.

In the past, the pilot would not hesitate to scoop up the daughter, perform first aid to stop the bleeding, and head to the ER with his wife and daughter. Before arriving at the ER, he'll have a chance to make the VIPS entry "calling in" SICK, or maybe he'll call crew scheduling to have them do it. He might even explain to the crew scheduler what's going on with his young child being injured.

Under the new paradigm, the pilot will remember that he can only justify SICK calls with a personal injury or illness. He may recall his oldest son starts college at State University soon, and the first tuition payment is due next month. He really can't afford to lose the pay for the 6-day trip he's about to start, so he decides to "compartmentalize." He helps his wife and daughter in the car, takes a few minutes to wipe the blood splatter off his white shirt, and heads to work. He's on the phone with his wife all the way to the parking lot, by which time she has "checked in" at the ER. He rides the crew bus to his own check in, and then heads to the computer to check the flight plan. A text message here, another there, and before long he's on the crew bus headed to the airplane. More text messages, Mom has them checked in at the ER and they're waiting. And waiting. And daughter's nauseous now. The pilot isn't distracted in the least while doing the exterior inspection, because he can "compartmentalize." He'll probably catch any discrepancies. He probably will do OK during his cockpit setup, too, because we're "real men," and the text message from his wife explaining how frustrated she is that they're still in the waiting room won't bother him at all. When he transposes a couple of numbers on the Take-Off data, at least there will be another set of eyes to catch it. His phone vibrates during take-off roll, indicating a new text message from Mom. At least he'll wait until passing through FL180 before reading that his daughter has finally been seen, and it looks like a broken bone, too. It should lead to an interesting conversation at cruise altitude.

The pilot isn't physically ill, nor is he injured, so he didn't qualify for SICK time usage. And yet, according to the FAA's IMSAFE personal checklist, he's NOT fit to be flying.

Why would you trust an SCP designee who pushes the pilot make such a choice?







.

 

Call the Duty Officer and he/she will drop your trip with the emergency code. You don't get paid and you can keep your sick bank intact to sell back at 50%. Win- Win. (Sarcasm in full effect)

 

Nailed it yet again Tony! What could possibly go wrong

 

Must be the only guy who wakes up with a cold on Saturday and is somehow magically able to predict that I'm not going to be fit to fly on a Monday.

Shoot, I probably could fly-coughing 4 or 5 times a minute...but I tend to be of the mindset that if I'm coughing that frequently or having a tough time equalizing the pressure in my ears that an airplane is the last place in the world I want to be.

Driving to work, call him. Call RF right now and tell him there's some guy on the internet who thinks it's somehow okay to drive to work 4-5 hours early instead of resting. I would welcome that conversation anytime.

Personally, I tend to think that's a good example of managing my rest.
Why would anyone hav issues with me making the 25-30 minute trip into the AOC to get a sleep room at 8-9pm? Taking full advantage of our sleep rooms and loving the relatively recent addition of the wakeup call program.

What ifs? What if your hypothetical trip is a single departure in excess of current SL balance? Do I still get to not answer? Do I make something up? Or do I tell my FC why I felt I wasn't fit to fly, asking me if they really want me in the cockpit under situations like that...and then tell them I think it's an unsafe decision illustrating poor judgment and that I'll be filing an ASAP report and requesting my Union to engage with the company in hopes of sanity breaking out.

In my real world experience, my wife and kids happened to be about 2 gates away from Security in N'awlins when whacko guy came through and was shot. There was much chaos and mayhem. I learned of it thanks to a tense, tense call from the wife about 10 minutes prior to bus time. I elected to involve the DO in my decision making. I also don't keep secrets from whomever I am flying with.

 

Or, maybe your Fleet Captain will let you cover your absence with Vacation days.


Some vacation.






.

 

Amen brother! No one gets sick less than 24 hours before a trip!

 

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, refusing to see a different perspective, or just being intentionally dense.

Good for you, you always get sick 2 days before the start of the trip. What if the trip started Saturday afternoon, or you wake up with the cold on Monday, with only hours to go before show time?

Never mind, I think we can expect you to avoid answering.


Do you have a doctor's note explaining why you cannot perform your duties, or are you just making that judgment on your own, like the FAA requires you to do?


You obviously missed the allusion to past conversations about pilots removed from trips by flight operations managers because those managers deemed them unfit to fly their trips because they used a jumpseat to commute to work.

How are they different from locals who are mowing their lawns or driving in to work early? The judgment call is the pilot's, not the manager's.

And if you think I would ever for any reason report a pilot to flight management for ANY reason before taking NUMEROUS other steps to address an issue, you have sorely misjudged me. I thought the inclusion of the only emoticon in my post, the sarcasm look, would have helped you catch the sarcasm. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing you seem intent on missing.


And why would anyone have issues with me sleeping on the jumpseat on the way to work?

Crew Scheduling sure didn't have any issues with me using the MEM-ANC AM jumpseat to meet an AM launch 2 hours after arriving in ANC -- when it was a draft trip they were trying to fill. Seems like it depends on the "needs of the Company" more than the judgment of the FAA certificated Airman.


That is EXACTLY what YOU do. Tell your Fleet Captain why. Give him a detailed description of the pustules, and send him a picture of the infected area. That will save everyone the trouble of sick notes or the cost of Company Aeromedical advisor involvement.

What > I < do, and what we should all do, is advise the same manager, using the well-established method of calling in SICK via VIPS, that I am not fit to fly. PERIOD. Details are NONE of his damn business.

But you, go ahead. I'm sure you'll get a better deal by describing your malady in detail.


Oh yeah, an ASAP after the fact along with a call to your union will make it OK to fly sick.


Good for you. Now try -- just TRY -- to put yourself in the shoes of someone who will suffer significant economic hardship if he makes that call and throws himself on the mercy of the Fleet Captain's judgment. I know, I know, it's a stretch because you're so much better than that, but try to identify with some of the other 4,572 of us lesser humans.



By the way, are you also of the opinion that we don't really want real time trip trading?





.

 

So the source document, Admin Grievance 13-17 was signed July 2016, that's a year to get it "programmed". Not sure how you came up with days?

Regarding retirement; I think the 260K cap and 25YOS cap is good enough reason to look into a fix. But maybe you would expect someone drop out of the sky and offer us some help on this? Maybe you prefer the 1999 cap on earnings as you blow past that?

Smarten up. Black helicopters and boggie monsters don't fix anything.

 

Why would I not answer?

And no, didn't miss the emoticon but also didn't want you to misunderstand my irritation.

Jumpseat-if FC wants to remove me with pay, all for it. Last line of defense is pilot judgment , and although judgment is impaired by fatigue absent some concrete actions at show time there is absolutely no reason for FC to intervene. (it's never been CRS in my experience, CRS would have no issues scheduling us for 24 hours straight if the computer would let them...I have had CRS use judgment, but it's a rare rare thing. Also never had a DO not support me when I pushed back on CRS BS plan. But I've only been a Capt for about 5 years, so that's recent history)
Back to the JS, our own CBA says that if the FAA ever considers JS duty time that the contractual section becomes null and void.

Back to sick. When I wake up with a cold that's gone from minor to severe, I know that it takes me about a week to recover. If it's 24-48 hours prior to show, then I call in sick. When I scratched my cornea, that's a week+ to recover, so I immediately called in sick. There is nothing preventing me from calling in well prior to the drop time if I recover quicker then expected...but that's not been my experience.
When I became ill driving into the AOC at 1 in the morning, I actually did call CRS and tell them I was sick.

United for awhile required a Drs note with every sick call. American requires their pilots to talk to an actual person to use their SL.

DOL allows companies to ask you for medical documentation in certain circumstances.
Our own contract has a long, long history of allowing the company to request information as to why we called in sick under certain circumstances.

If you're the guy being asked for a note on July 12th and you haven't called in sick for 3 years...then ask the company to explain their good faith reason for doing so, as for me, after pushing back I'm going to tell them I had GI issues (if I did) and offer to provide pictures for future occurrences should theu so desire.

If they say not good enough, then sorry, still filing an ASAP report because quite frankly taking away pay is definitely an illustration of pilot pushing and should be documented as such.

There are exactly 0 trips open in my seat. Explain to me how RTT makes my life better. Would reduce the annoyance of waiting/wondering if a trip went through. But I already have a pretty decent idea of my odds since the software change showing pending trades on specific trips.

Make OTP a never go away provision and then we'll talk about RTT

 

Why do I call in sick early? Not looking it up but still think there's contractual language that indicates we're supposed to call in sick when we're sick.

And, when I was an FE, had a Captain that called in sick 5 minutes prior to show because he was PO'd at the company. Specifically stayed up to call in sick just prior to show. 80 minute delay for the FO and I while CRS found us another Captain

still shaking my head on that one