MinFlyer

I am looking for information on how airline scheduling meshes with military reserve scheduling. I know they have to let you drill and I know airlines will have different rules, but how does it affect your line or airline reserve schedule? ie if a normal airline reserve schedule has you on reserve for 20 days, do you need to fit your drill days into the 10-11 days off per month? How about for the 2 week annual training period or other orders?

I am a helo/tilt guy looking to start out in the regionals. I commute from the midwest to the east coast for drill, but plan to live in base for my regional airline.

I apologize if this has been talked about in the past, but I've spent a good deal of time looking and searching on here to no avail. Any info and personal experience would be appreciated.

Chris99

You don't have to fit it into your days off. You can take it whenever the military needs you to take it. If your company ever gives you trouble about it, then talk to the ESGR (www.esgr.mil). Become familiar with what is contained in USERRA because it is likely your company will attempt to take liberties if you don't. The problem occurs if you start taking mil leave opportunistically to only benefit you (e.g., consistently over holidays, over trips you want to drop, over trips you couldn't get time off for). Be sure to give your company as much advance notice that you can.

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HoursHore

My advice, worth what you paid for it.

Do not drop mil leave before your schedule is done if you are PBS. When I was at a pbs carrier dropping mil leave on a pbs schedule while junior put me on reserve, since I was too junior to to hold weekends off.

MinFlyer

Thanks for the responses. It definitely gives me a better idea of the options.

hmontgom

Hello,
I'm new to this site but I am researching folks who are in the military reserves and work as pilots. I saw this thread and was hoping I could ask people a couple questions- OP, I see this was from about a month ago, have you tried scheduling around your military obligations yet and did you have problems?
Other posters, practically speaking, have you had problems with airlines not giving you the time off you need for reserve military work? Have any of you just bid on schedules that worked for your reserve obligations without specifically telling the company you needed those days for mil?
Any relevant info on this topic including which airline you had the experience with will be very helpful!!

SaltyDog

Who are you representing? Why this specific research? USERRA covers Military service. Employees and Employers can read available statute info at the DOL VETS website. https://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/

Grumble

Mil leave isn’t a request, it’s a statement of intent.

rickair7777

It's a statement of fact, a notification of what you're going to do.

rickair7777

There are nuances as to when you drop mil leave. It would depend on the specific PBS implementation, and they're all different. You'll want to talk to other mil folks at your airline about that.

Do it too early, and the system might penalize you due to it's mechanics. Do it too late, and you might lose money if they have to remove a lot of flying. They usually remove whole trips, rather than try to swap you out with a reserve in the middle.

Also in some cases managers might get grumpy if you always drop mil leave at the last minute, or after the bid. I would consider that while on probation... they can't bother you for mil leave but if you have already come to their attention due to the mil, and then you have some other issue at work, that might tip the scales against you. On probation you want your CP to just vaguely recall that you're the nice guy who made the effort to stop by and introduce yourself when you got on line.

After probation, do whatever is best for you.