wannabee

The outlook is pretty grim for FOs on reserve. I get called for 10-20 hours of flying a month, but that’s slowly been dwindling even with the “extra flying” that we’re supposed to see. It’s not uncommon for FOs to go 4, 5 or even 6 weeks without a call. If I had chosen the jet, I would have been a line holder right off of IOE.

I can’t imagine why anyone would take the upgrade on the Q with the QOL diminishing the way it is, unless they have a strong aversion to commuting. But even then, lineholders living in places like Spokane see so many overnights there that they can essentially hold day trips on the jet. My friend said he’s home more often since taking the upgrade on the jet, even with the commute to SEA. I’m sure they’ll keep the airplane around for a while to do PSC, ALW, YYJ, and maybe some Montana turns. But the company is going to have to try real hard to sell that when the jet lines are infinitely better.

I don’t think the company will do anything to incentivize the Q until they reach crisis mode. Once they have to start cancelling flights for lack of pilots (sounds familiar...) then maybe something will change. I’m not really holding my breath though.

MooneyGuy128

In April on reserve I got called for a grand total of 4 legs amounting to 5.5 flights hours! 😂 And the very BEST part of reserve at Horizon is that as a Home Reserve they can “convert you” to airport standby reserve and you get the privilege of going in and sitting in the crew room for 8 hours- had that happen 3 days last month so spent more time by a long shot sitting at the airport bored than I did flying.

Agree with the earlier posts though, they won’t do anything about it till they are in crisis mode so sadly it will likely get worse before it gets better.

Moral of the story.......SHOULD’VE FLOWN THE JET! 😂

11and11

The jet also has very long o/n in GEG. It’s about 30 hours.

11and11

Converting to airport is a common practice at any airline. Union wanted only one pilot per seat to be sitting airport, so it makes sense that if airport reserve gets sick or whatever, they have to send someone new to airport. But yeah, airport is tough! Hopefully you were able to take good naps

MooneyGuy128

Agree that it’s an industry standard at airlines that have airport reserve, some don’t have them at all although I believe that’s rare. But moreover many airlines pay airport reserves on a 1:1 basis - 1 hour pay for every hour sat, not our sit for 8 hours and get paid for 4.

11and11

Hmmm Maybe majors. I know several regionals that bay the same way QX does. The company actually wants to have more airport reserves. Currently looking into jet PM airport reserves, but money is the issue. As always...

MD66

Keep hearing about extra Q flying for the summer. I just looked at all of the FO lines for May and June. Here are the numbers:

May: 108
PDX: 47 / SEA: 17 / GEG: 15 / BOI: 20 / MFR: 9

June: 106
PDX: 45 / SEA: 16 / GEG: 14 / BOI: 22 / MFR: 9

Last I checked it was summer. Extra Q flying for the summer? Not so much.

pacnw77

Still can't believe QX dropped the twice daily MFR-LAX route -- which is probably when having an MFR base made more sense.

DashAviator

That's good information... BUT "extra lines of flying" means different things to management in comparison to how pilots interpret this statement. For example, adding a Portland - Kalispell flight to the schedule is an extra line of flying TO THE COMPANY. This would likely be blended in to the existing bid lines.

I'm a mid-level Portland Dash captain. My schedule for May and June has been extremely busy. My June schedule, for example, averages 4.4 legs per working day. If we actually are fat on pilots, I'd appreciate it if they'd spread the flying around - I could use a little "down" time.

Another long-standing issue at Horizon is use (or abuse) of reserves. Three years ago we were critically short-staffed on FO's and captains. Instead of covering sick calls and schedule disruptions caused by weather and broken aircraft, the reserves were used to cover all the open time that could not be built in to regular lines. During some of the summer months, we had over 300 open trips PER MONTH. This was just on the captain side. This is a truly impressive amount of open time for a pilot group that (at the time) numbered around 650.

In short, there probably is some extra flying on the schedule this summer, but it's probably built in to the regular lines or covered by reserve pilots.

MD66

Thanks for that, Dash. I appreciate the perspective from someone who’s seen a few years of this kind of stuff.

I used to be in management in another transportation industry. One thing I learned is talking to operations folks on the front lines is different than talking to other managers. Not necessarily a different language, but packaging information in a way that is understandable and resonates to an operations perspective. As someone on the front lines of the operation, when I hear “extra flying” I have an expectation there. And what I and other FO’s are experiencing does not remotely “feel” like extra flying. In fact from our perspective it’s quite the opposite. Hence the many posts here about pilots sitting reserve for weeks without flying.

I truly appreciate where management is coming from. As it sounds like you are very aware of, the debacle in 2017 is very much affecting the mindset of today’s AAG management. I would venture to guess that no one on the front lines wants that to happen to today’s operation either. It’s not good for AAG, and it’s not good for any of us in the workgroups.

I truly feel that management needs to bring us along better with what is truly going on. I know that they can’t tell us everything. But they need to be aware and appreciative that we all have lives and families we are trying to manage, not just our careers. And doing so takes good information so we can make good decisions.

I just don’t feel like I am getting good information from management. For instance, I’m having to try and guess what’s happening to my base because the lines keep drying up. And as a commuter this is really affecting my quality of life. The management could “do the right thing” here by throwing us at least a small bone to chew on.

So in the absence of quality information, I’m forced to quantify any data I can to try and come up with trends. And the trends I am seeing just don’t seem to add up to my experience and what the company is telling me. It’s what I’ve got to do to try and manage my life outside of my career in the quest for balance.