New Born
 

Hi Fellas

If you are a brand new regional FO and in a few months me and my wife will have new born baby .

Can I take a family leave (no pay) for 6 months or a Year ?
If not and I quit will be able to get back in 121 world again after 2 year or will be look bad ?

What is my options ?

Thanks in advance

Some regionals do give you FMLA, but they aren't required to. There will likely be a minimum amount of time you'll need to be on property for that or any other kind of associated leave. Yes, if you leave I would expect it would look bad.

Honestly, I'm not sure any job, let alone an airline, normally gives 6 months to a year leave for that kind of event. You could always ask if you can get one and it's possible they could give you one to keep you around, but I don't know if it's that likely in the current environment where they want bodies in seats.


Your airline will likely have some type of policy covering leaves for events such as a child birth, they probably won't be keen on going much beyond that. Actually, on that note, you should be trying to find out what your company's policy is before you ask this question here.


My concern for you is that if you quit as a new pilot at a first airline job because the leave wasn't enough for you, future airlines would be concerned that you would just quit again if you didn't like the schedule or domicile you were awarded. In the current environment you would likely still be able to get another job after getting flight current again, but it may be something that follows you around.

Have you started class yet?

To clarify, all airlines are required to give you FMLA but not until you've been on property for 12 months. No. You won't get anything close to 6 months and depending on desperate the regional, you won't get a break before the 1 year anniversary.

All employers are required to issue fmla from day one by federal law.

Fmla would be granted if you are a care giver for either your child or wife. They would need some medical diagnoses to qualify. New burns need several dr visits hence your a care giver.

Different companies have different policies for taking off during births including using sick bank.

Not correct. Federal law is that you must be employed 12 months to be eligible. Not sure what you meant about burns, etc. but a father can take paternity leave under fmla.

Yes, you need to be on property for one year, and work a certain amount of hours. In the old days it was hard for reserve crew to meet the minimum hour requirement ("on call" didn't count), but I think congress fixed that (because the FA's complained).


No, actually from day 366. Some states might possibly have more liberal rules.

That would all qualify. But baby bonding also qualifies, for either parent so that's basically at your discretion.

They have to let you take FMLA baby leave in the first year. They can limit when you can take it, but they have to let you take the full 12 weeks. At an airline I suppose they might not want you to take leave over the summer or Nov/Dec (mine did, but different era).

One significant limitation: They only have to let you take ONE block of baby bonding leave. If you want to break it up and spread it out (I did), they are only obligated to let you take the first requested block. So if you really want the full 12 weeks, take it all at once (they can't deny that). I know people who got denied subsequent blocks after the first one.

But as others said, don't take the job if you're just going to bail after a few months. Any departure before completing one year probation will be viewed with suspicion by subsequent employers. You may not even get the opportunity to explain it because they just won't call you.

I'd have to look it up but I'm not sure the employer can tell you you can't use FMLA leave for the birth of a child.

Edit: the dept of labor employee guide says that you must give your employer 30 days notice. It makes it sound like if there is a need and you give them adequate notice, by law they cannot deny your FMLA.

If there is a medical need, then FMLA can be intermittent and is of course not limited to the first 12 months.

For baby bonding, the employer does not have to allow intermittent leave, so use it all at once or risk losing it.

Back in the day, the employer could specify when you took baby bonding leave as long as they allowed it at some point in the first year, maybe that changed.

Yeah. I'm just talking about the initial, not intermittent. The intermittent is optional for the employer.

Under federal law employers are not required to offer FMLA until you have been an employee for one year. Some companies may have other leave policies in place.

https://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/employeeguide.htm

New Born
 

No I have not started yet , only got a class date and in 3 month will be done IOE and month later is the birth of my son :)

I know best to not star and wait maybe 3 years , but that will be another 3 years not flying and not be current in aviation .

Thank you

I just had a baby in my first year at my regional. I did not qualify for FMLA but my chief pilot really worked with me and made sure I was home for the birth then got plenty of time off. I was really concerned about it but it turned out to be a non-event and felt like I was treated really well by the company.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to tell them your situation and just push the class date back to 2-3 months after your child is born and not have to worry about any of this? This will keep the company from wasting money on training someone who won’t be able to fly the line and will probably dequal, and keep your skills more current anyway.

New Born
 

Well that’s a good option and advise which I agree and want to do
but I experienced in the past with different situations I tried push the class date a few months back and was no problem they all said ok give us a call back so we can put you in other near future classes and no worries , waooo cool right ?
But when I called later no one even acknowledged or wanted to listen to me like I am the looser and the bad guy (aviation class dates so you snooze you loose) in their mind,you should been in class when it was offered so you didn’t take it and now no more class for you :mad:
As y’all know every few decades is like that big hiring wave comes and if you jump and get on it you’re made it,if not when the hiring waves passes you and doors are closed then doesn’t matter if you have heavy/wide body 121 pic or space shuttle Type Rating with pic time ,the game will be over .
That’s why My friends telling me if at least I finish IOE and be current in Type they are smarter then that to let you go and not work with someone after spending time and money for that pilot .

Or I just wait another year to see what happens which already by then I could have been upgraded .

Thank you for all responses

Live in base and bid reserve, or live where your spouse has a support network to help them with the child and take an easy commute to work if Fmla isn’t an option.

The ogre speaking here.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my spouse and our kids, but I didn’t stand down for 12 weeks after the birth of any of our kids, far less more than that. And that was during my military days. I was around my frau and kinder (or as my wife describes it, ‘under foot’) a whole lot more as a first year regional FO than I ever was while on active duty. And no single trip took me away from getting home for more than four nights, which really beats deployments. And yet I somehow managed to bond exceedingly well to those kids.

I think you may be over valuing your current worth to a potential employer and/or underestimating your spouses ability to handle life in your absence. Possibly you aren’t understanding how easy and natural loving your children really is.

But expecting to do just about enough to get a seniority number and then taking off right after IOE, not even consolidating, seems patently unfair both to your employer who would pretty much have to retrain you de nouveau, as well as to your fellow new hire pilots who would have actually sat the reserve or done the low seniority schedules you would be avoiding. Even more so to those hired immediately after you, who actually pulled their load.

Unless your spouse has special needs or no support whatever from your or her family, that sounds more than a little entitled.

I think it's ridiculous argument to make that you are more of a burden to your family than a help. It's sad that father's at most airlines don't get paid time off to help raise THEIR kids.

You don't "raise" a newborn. You feed it, change its diapers and hope it sleeps well!

And I think that's a ridiculous interpretation to put on anything that I said. If you want to refute anything I actually SAID, feel free to do so. It's a quasi-public forum and within the posting rules. But making up strawman arguments about things I never did say is simply juvenile.

Right, but to say you're more under feet than help is ignorant. I think it's important to be around for your wife and the kid. It would be nice if fathers got some paid time off to be there.

So my wife isn’t allowed to make a joke AT ME without you calling her ignorant? If I’m not offended, why should you be? Worse yet, what gives you status to call her ignorant?

Get a life.

Take a breath snowflake. I just said that claiming that men just get in the way is ignorant and it's counterproductive. Whether or not you get in the way isn't my business.

Women are “ignorant and counterproductive” when they joke with their husbands because ChecklistMonkey says so. That your claim?

He called you a snowflake, that means you’ve already won and he’s just angry.

Some of you boys really need to get a sense of humor. Jeeez.

With the amount of time you are saying you "must" have off, it won't matter that they have spent money on you. At that point the money is lost since you'll be likely to need to start from scratch again anyway.

Your only realistic options are to either defer class (short times work, but the timeline you are talking about really does mean reapplying again) or accept whatever time off they give you (as stated elsewhere, they may still give you some additional time off, but it wont be what you are saying you want). Starting and then demanding you be allowed off after IOE contrary to company policy or (as applicable) union contract will just result in your services no longer being required and a difficult question at every airline interview for the rest of your career.

It's irony. Too deep obviously for you.

I was in the same position you are in - waiting for both a baby arrive and training to begin. I chose to have the baby first, then begin training 6 weeks later.

If I would've done training first then the baby delivery it would've been a disaster. I think you'll put your 121 career and family at risk, in exchange for a few months' seniority.

An airline training schedule is a best case scenario only, delays are almost assured. You may have to wait for sims, extra sim sessions, insteuctor or check airman calls in sick, wait for IOE or more IOE time needed.

Planning to complete training and IOE exaxtly as scheduled leaves no room for realistic setbacks. Training is never completed early, it is easily and often delayed.

Also, our baby arrived 2 weeks early. Will yours be early, potentially during IOE or sims?

Do you want to go to systems, sims and your checkride while your wife goes through the 3rd trimester alone?

A friend of mine in his first year at a regional was given 2 weeks unpaid leave for childbirth. I wouldn't expect 6 or 12 months to be granted, even if it was given you would have currency issues.

There's an awkward conversation coming between you and the airline. Tell them now and make plans to assure support for your wife and son. Take as much unpaid (unemployed) time as you want. Push back the training date then your fam can support you in training.

I don’t think anyone has mentioned this yet... isn’t there a FAR that requires a new first officer to get some hours right after the checkride? I think it’s 100 hours in 120 days or something like that.

Yeah, consolidation.

Wrong. FMLA is only available for employees after one year of employment.

Google it

Babies suck for the first six months or so, anyways. You can Google that, too. I made sure to be there for all my kids being born, but they aren’t even people until about six months of age.

Yes....I’m a cold and dark monster of a person. Sue me.

Flight crews are treated slightly differently than your average worker. FMLA gives 12 WORK weeks off. Our work week is 6 days, not 5, by department of labor rules. That means we get 72 days off, rather than the 84 that most other workers get.

Generally, you have to be on property for over one year to qualify for FMLA. Your employer can grant you leave earlier than one year, but that is their discretion. Talk with your prospective employer and see what they'll work out. Most places will give you some leave, but nowhere near 6 months to a year.

For anyone else, I'd suggest considering taking intermittent FMLA for spouse health to support your wife right after birth. Save your baby bonding FMLA for later. Baby bonding can only be taken in one continuous block within one year after birth.

I say work with your chief and establish a good relationship. They’re people too and they have families. It’s better than running away.

I think it’s great you want to support your wife and bond with your baby! But here’s another idea. Have you considered hiring part time help for your wife? Maybe you can get a nanny for couple of hours every week.

The law, as originally written used to preclude many flight crew from FMLA eligibility. The problem was the required number of hours worked, and also the fact that reserve didn't actually legally count as hours worked. This inordinately affected Flight Attendants, so they actually lobbied congress and got flight crew language added to the law. You should review that language to make sure you can qualify when you need to.

That might work. Make sure your wife doesn't screw you by doing a triathlon and posting video on social media (yes that happened to a pilot I knew).

It can be taken in multiple blocks if the employer agrees to it. But they can require that you take it all at once.

If you become a nuisance for the employer you will end up on the unofficial blacklist. This means they will be gunning to get rid of you for any reason and I guess on probation they don’t even have to have one. I would take care of the family first and then deal with the airlines. Don’t worry about pushing a class date you can just apply everywhere else and start when you’re ready.

The State in which your based might offer some relief. I think New York benefits kick in at 6 months.

No you are not, just a realist. If there is not a medical or child care reason to not be home get the heck out. What you should do is be there 24 hours a day when you are home. When home you get up and take care of the baby. You clean the house, make the meals and do the laundry etc. AND make time to take your wife out on a date. You cannot do all that if you take FMLA and are stuck in the baby vortice. You will be just as tired and miserable as mama.

I disagree. The science has shown that early baby bonding is important, even if YOU don't think you're getting much out of it, rest assured the child is. My personal experience checks with that. I was there for the youngest, very good kid, very close relationship with me from the beginning. Mama took max leave too.