Originally Posted by bruhaha

Lineholders also get a minimum of 11 days off. Most lines have anywhere from 12 (a lot) to 18 (very few) days off.

I am another unfortunate DFW based CRJ pilot - I was really hoping to get the Saab when I first started working here but ended up getting assigned the CRJ on day one - there was no other choice for DFW for my newhire class.

After a year of this DFW CRJ reserve thing, I've decided that it really isn't that bad on reserve - I think I'll still bid reserve when I can hold a line. With the official 11 days off - I really have ended up with about 16-18 days "off" with the extra 5-7 days "off" being they didn't call me out to fly on my reserve days. As a reserve CRJ pilot, I've averaged maybe 20 hours of flying a month, and I'm quite happy flying that little. And if I do have to go fly - I try to get the late show (5-6pm) one leg out to an overnight, one leg back to DFW by 10am to get released - which has happened quite frequently - it knocks out two reserve days for maybe 17 hours of being away from base. But I live in domicile so that really makes a big difference. As a commuter, the days they don't call you're stuck in Dallas and not Midland - you're still away from home.

The DFW reserve EMJ pilots really are working on all of their reserve days and flying 80-90+ hours a month.

The tack I was try to do when I got hired here at Eagle was Saab - stay on Saab as long as I could for the schedule/QOL until I could hold a line on the jet, transition for the pay and schedule. It didn't work out that way for me, but the way it worked out has been okay (again because I live in base) If I was a commuter - the way it worked out would really blow.

Originally Posted by Fly Navy

Thanks for your thorough info. I have a question for you. Is it true that age is the only thing that drives seniority within a hiring class? In other words, the older guys get first pick of domicile and aircraft? If not, then what other factors go into this process?

Originally Posted by Fly Navy

Do the Saab FOs fly as many hours as the ERJ FOs? I want to make the most of my time, building as much flight time as possible.