Ok, I need to know exactly what "Being on Reserve" consitutes. If I am hired by a regional and get placed on Reserve, I realize that I will only fly on an at-need basis. However, am I still going to make a specific minimum salary? The flying part-time is fine, but is there any way I can have an idea what my minimum income will be? I heard that most are guarenteed 75 hrs/month at min. Is this correct? Is getting off reserve and into bidding routes purely based on senority? Thanks for the info.

 

For the first part of your question you'd have to refer to your contract for the information. There's a pay scale calculator from APC which you can plug in your hourly rate and minimum hours per month and get a rough estimate. As for the second part - yes. Holding a line is relevant to seniority in domicille or base. Some pilots sat on reserve for only a few months before being able to hold a line. Others had to spend a year or more. It just depends on what is going on at your company at the time.

 

It is fair to say that most of the "mainstream" regionals that you may be hired at all work under a min guarantee somewhere near 75 hours. You will be paid 75 X (pay rate) every month regardless of whether you fly or not. Depending on how your airline is staffed you can make more money on reserve than you would holding a line. It was not uncommon here for a while that on reserve you could see excess of 100 hours credit. The safe bet is that you only count on 75 hours.

Getting off reserve is strictly seniority plus or minus a few numbers. Some of the senior folks may bid reserve "call me last" in an effort to sit home all month while getting paid. That frees up one line for the next junior guy to get. The general rule however is that all the junior pilots in base will be on reserve.

 

The other "awesome" part of reserve is that you typically must be close to the base during your "on call" times, so that they can call you and you will be at the airport and through security within 2 hours (for example).

So if you're on call 3am-5pm for 6 days, you need to be within 2 hours of your base during those times and watching your phone in case crew scheduling calls.

 

+1 on what they all said....here is a rule of thumb...

reserve while living in a crash pad.....SUCKS
reserve while living in DOMICILE can be (depending on staffing) great

 

Most of the question was answered above. At alot of companies there are two types of reserve.

Home reserve. You have somewhere between 1 and 2 hours from the time you get the call to you get to the airport/plane (depending on what contract says). So if you live in base this is cool because you get paid to be at home.

Airport/Hot/ARC/Ready...You have to sit at the airport and wait on a phone call. There usually isn't much notice (15 mins) between call to the flight.

Pay. Most companies have min pay of 70-75 hours so you know you can sit home reserve all month and get paid min pay. If you fly most companies have a min pay credit per day. You get paid that min credit or block for that day which ever is greater (if thats in your CBA) Same thing is said for airport reserve. You get a min day credit and if you fly you get min credit or block for the day. To figure out your pay you just add up your daily credits. If daily credits are above min pay of 70-75 you get paid what you flew/credited. If it adds up less than min pay of 70-75 you get paid min pay. I'm not sure how it is at all companies, but at mine reserve guys fly or sit airport reserve all of the time so pay credits are normally 90-100 hours.

 

Getting off reserve is pure seniority, and depends on growth/attrition, and what domicile you are in. I spent two years on reserve at one airline, and effectively zero reserve at another.

 

A question that has always bugged me.... Are there 12 or 13 bids per year? The APC calculator goes up to 13, but if they are monthly schedules, wouldnt it be 12?

 

Some airlines, mine included, have 13 28-day bids per year. Other carriers opt for 12 monthly bids. It just depends.

 

Cool, thanks for all the responses! That was going to be my next questions was how much time most airlines require you to be at your plane after getting the "call". In my circumstance, i would live about 2 hours from the airport and would then require more time to get through security, ect. Are most people on call 6 days a week or so?