For those of you that are going to be furloughed, if you haven't seen it already check out this thread... http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/re...n-classes.html

Lynx is hiring for a few classes coming up. Competitive mins are high.

 

well I'm sure you can find things to cut back on before you "need" to pick up OT. likie bringing your meals with you on a trip instead of buying food for four days straight at airport prices. There are a lot of things one can do to tighten the belt. I rarley have picked up OT while being at Eagle and have never "needed" to pick up OT to make rent. this is what managment wants. please find other ways to either cut costs and/or make a few extra bucks on the side before you go horing yourself out to the company for that little extra %20 2nd year FO pay while freinds of yours are on the street. In my humble oppinion there is no good reason to pick up OT once people are put on the street and I will be calling out FO's that I see doing it.

 

Picking up open time does not directly affect staffing levels. It can send a "message" like you said to management but in turn then they just reassign more senior crews and adjust line values higher. Staffing at most airlines is done on block hours. While it is a tough moral subject and personally wouldn't do it I find it hard to logically throw stones at those who do...

I work for another regional and dont know exactly how eagle forms their staffing model but I am just going off of what most airlines use. Does anyone know for sure?

 

I already take my lunches, my wife babysits on the side, and we cut every coupon we find. I don't have to explain to you why I need ot, and neither do other FOs. Sometimes there are no more corners to cut. I hate this situation but it is where we have been put. What will really show your character is how you treat all your pilot buddies, not just the ones on the street. Calling people out at the airport says a lot about how much thought you have put into this situation. Please don't make emotional desicions, take the time to think about all angles of situation. I've never had to pick up OT yet, but when I look into the near future I very well may. Let's keep out completion and on-time up and just maybe the bonuses will be enough. Should we even be getting those bonuses with furloughed pilots though? Seems to be a little hypocritical.

 

Picking up opentime does directly affect staffing levels. For every hour not picked up must be assigned to reserve pilots. This reduces reserve availability which affects staffing levels. If the minimum reserve for a day is X and consistently has been X-3 due to reserves flying trips assigned from what nobody picked up in open time then the company will probably hire some more (at least 3) pilots, or unfurlough some.

 

Just to be clear, I will pick up all the trips from other pilots posted on the board first before I would ever pick up OT. So let's keep puttin those up before we give it to crew scheduling/swaps and drops.

 

Notes from today's conference call:

-Furloughs due to low attrition, no additional CRJ or ATR aircraft in the future
-MEC has received numerous suggestions from the pilot group to help mitigate furloughs and/or financially help those affected. Will be meeting with the company to discuss.
-Furloughs may last until Feb-May 2010 if status quo doesn't change (Attrition and aircraft acquisition)
-No additional or drawdown of block hours.
-ATR issues in DFW are due to growing pains of reintroduction to mx staff and increased block hours per aircraft vs. SJU and MIA.
-75 is the "sweet spot" on a cost/benefit basis for retraining despite being 130 overstaffed.
-Displacement bid will be posted on 3/31/09

If there is anything I missed that someone else wants to add from the call please feel free. It was a very long call and I'm sure that much more can be added.

 

For those on the bottom (like me) this will sure be a crappy end to a crappy first year....(displaced 3 times and now the furlough) Thanks eagle.

 

If there are no more corners to cut than find a part time job that will allow you to work on your days off. picking up OT flying while people are furloughed is an awfull thing to do. I have put thought into it. And I can appreciate how tight a situation can be with a wife and kids but please think about what you are doing before you go around flying on your days off. Even picking stuff off the board is bad in this situation. That is flying that a RSV pilot could do. In the end you are only hurting yourself becuase the company wont see a need to bring people back thus making your QOL worse.

ANd no I wont be "calling people out in the crew room" but I will be paying attention to who is flying OT this summer while our guys are furloughed at least on the EMJ FO side. And If I see them, I might speak to them in private about their descisions.

 

I agree. I am about to start a part time job next month to help out. Quite honestly there wasn't much OT for DFA the past couple months and what OT there was really wasn't worth picking up. I can make more delivering pizzas or at some other part time job than picking up that 3 hours of flying with an overnight in OT burning two days off. Let a reserve fly that trip. At some point reserve coverage will be so high that they are going to have to run recall classes. The sooner they do that the better off all of us will be.