That too. KCM, CASS, online nonrev and probably ID90 nonrev are easily visible.

If you're playing fast and loose with sick call or reserve positioning, put the EFB in a faraday bag, stay off company networks and apps (can probably get away with a VPN), and if you need to fly buy a ticket on a non-affiliated airline.

Careful with VPN's... if it shows you in Madrid when you're on short call at ORD, the company might have enough ammo to start the conversation. If you weren't actually in base, how do you answer that one? Can of worms. Some VPNs allow you to choose where you're routing from.

he also said the only reason he pays income tax on the flying job is because he agreed to do so by filling out at W4 form. If it weren’t for that he would never pay income tax on that either. Only people from American Samoa have to pay income taxes because they are not technically citizens, and any true citizen doesn’t have to pay taxes if they don’t want to if I remember what he said correctly lol.

My previous airline, the worst I’ve seen a base manager do was, tracking the employee parking pass while the crew member is suppose to be on airport reserve. He would also check the non rev listing history. This wasn’t for everyone, just the ones who would take 2+ hrs to get the airplane while on airport reserve, or calling in sick after getting an assignment while on reserve.

Off topic, but good story from EAL. The FO I was with had his vacation cancelled, bust trip, lots of weather delays, Jimmy had enough, told Crew Sked he was sick. Went on his vacation to Innsbruck. Caught, even then, they could see airline travel.. had a spotless for a decade. CP brought him in, great old Boston Irishman named Dempsey. CP asks, Jimmy just said, “the only cure for my illness was a sanatorium in Innsbruck” and produced a doctor’s letter that he was ill, nothing about Austria being a cure. Dempsey said, “case closed, out sick”.

The one thing that I don’t do is facial recognition boarding like DL and JB(?) are pushing now.
It’s BS, doesn’t enhance safety or any of the other excuses and we should fight it as long as we can.

I can be sick AND out of state or out of base. Sick only means I’m not SAFE to fly not that I cannot function in society in other ways. In fact I can easily be legally sick from work and go fishing or skiing or to a wedding you name it.

I agree completely. Every leg, I have to sign a piece of paper saying I am physically fit to fly and completely capable of the responsibilities yada yada. Sometimes that doesn’t mean being curled up in bed, taking medication. Sometimes relaxing on a beach or by a pool is all the therapy I need when I’m burned out from sleeping (poorly) in a hotel bed or waking up at 3:00 am for the 5:20 departure out of Tampa.

​​​​​​That's the spirit!

There's a lot of validity to this. Some event has put a fear into this person's head. You can either just chill out and not worry about it, or you can try to figure out what this fear is really all about. It's rarely as simple as "They have cameras and my job is at risk.". That takes a lot of workm

If you can identify the base layer of fear, you can start to disarm the pilot in a meaningful way. This is a service to your fellow aviators since it stops the person from developing into a progressively more damaged pilot (ADM is a huge part of what we do.).

That takes trust which takes a measure of silence on your part. Doing this right also takes a lot of effort. You can approach your local CIRP folk for guidance if you want to take this on. Be careful about having them contact this person directly since that will reinforce the fear that people are out to report on him. Since there has been no critical incident it may not be appropriate for CIRP officially to get involved either.

There's no shame in just chilling out and not getting involved either.

Yeah that or just furiously take notes when he talks and then tell him not to worry about it when he asks what you’re writing.