DCA
 

Before I apply to PSA, can anyone give a sample of flying schedule over a week or 2 based in DCA? I'm transitioning from military and do not have any regional/major experience. Thanks.

You will be on reserve for almost a year and can expect to work usually 3-6 days per week. You will get your 11 minimum days off a month so you will work either 19-20 days a month and I’m not sure how much flexibility you will have moving reserve days around. Reserves are flying roughly 20hrs a month.

Thanks, appreciate the info. Are the routes to just the bases listed on the PSA website or much more than that?

PSA flies all over, east of the Mississippi River. Out of DCA we mostly fly the 200 and it’s a lot of NE flying with an occasional flight south.

Ooo ooo ooo don’t forget the endless airport appreciation you’ll be doing!!!! I mean hot reserve!!!

I keep hearing about all the reserve, but I’m not seeing it. My experience, with commute to Raleigh, NC:

- class May 20th, 2019
- type in the last few days of July
- IOE including 200 differences in August
- SCR in September, including eight HRVs
- LCR in October, no HRV
- I just got awarded a BU line for November

It’s true that you’re only getting 11 scheduled days off per month, but go-home days for reserves get easier to skate on because the folks at CS have less use for you in a one bucket.

Let me tell you about my last two weeks-
- scheduled 10 days LCR, four days off
- actually flew six days, spent the other eight days hanging with my family, drinking rum, smoking damn good cigars, and going on my boat

Crew scheduling is the bomb here. They’ve hooked me up right, left, and center. I really enjoy working with these folks. SCR was not my bliss because I didn’t fly enough. HRV is not the hardship people make it out to be. PM me and I can tell you how to make it fun. LCR is just plain awesome.

It’s all about attitude. If you let yourself enjoy your moments, you’ll have a blast. If you nit pick everything, you’ll be miserable.

Very helpful, thanks so much!

While I’m very happy for your experience of little to no time on reserve, I don’t think it’s going to last. This November bid was a fluke with PSA shifting almost all the 200 flying to DCA. My prediction is that very shortly pilots that are reserve in other bases are going to bid DCA to hold a line and the reserve times will even out again. Before November every base was 11+ months to hold a line. I suspect it will be back that way as soon as people see a way to hold a line.

You seem to have caught the timing quite perfectly. The union has been working extremely hard to fix the way CS has been treating reserves since the new LOA came out. Congrats on a BU line (if you do get it). Having the predictability does change life drastically. And I’ll also add that once you hold a R1 line with SAP it feels like you work at a completely different airline.

Congrats again and welcome.

Your experience is definitely not what most new hires will enjoy. The majority of first officers will be on reserve for about a year, and that time on reserve continues to climb as we are hiring as fast as we can but aren't getting much in the way of additional flying.

Reserve quality of life at PSA remains some of the worst in the industry, and is only made tolerable by the light at the end of the tunnel that is SAP.

Then again based on talk from the union it would seem our reps are considering limiting or removing SAP in exchange for PBS, so I wouldn't bank on SAP being around in its current form for more than another year or two.

Try SCR for 2+ years then come talk to us that have been living it. This is a not a typical experience nor is the OP likely to have anything remotely this lucky happen to them. Not trying to discourage the OP but reserve and not so great schedules are just part of being in the airlines. It’s mostly 200 flying out of DCA with a lot of legs.