This is a great point. Scheduling will bait you, and try to get you angry enough to curse or or say something bad, then IMMEDIATELY send the recorded conversation to a chief pilot demanding discipline. It IS a game to them, and their twisted minds take great pleasure in it. The schedulers truly hate pilots.

 

Thanks!

So for the long call, can a pilot who is based at ATL be at home in California and commute to ATL once called?

 

Not really. Since you're on call for 24 hours, they will call you at 2am for a 2pm show, and you'd have no way to get there on time. Plus, they WILL use all 7 short call days "just because they can", forcing you to sit in a crash pad. Also, long call goes fairly senior.

 

I REALLY hope this changes with the upcoming contract. I've seen them convert just because they can despite having ample reserves. All they are doing in that instance is creating ill will, and then they wonder why we have some of the pilots vs scheduling issues Tony refers to.

 

I can't see how anyone can commute and be a junior reserve FO on the CRJ. Need the money? There are way better paying jobs. Need the experience? There are better airlines to commute to on reserve. Expressjet has a serious stagnation issue and an a very old school mentality to everything. If you have no choice to but to commute, Xjet isn't the best choice. At least on the LASA side.

Scheduling has a logic and it is, "we do it because we can". Short call conversions and ready reserve are usually assigned with no real need. Just done because there is room to do it.

I was eating in the break room and noticed an FO that looked like he needed help. I started talking to him and he was telling me that he had just finished up his trip in Houston with a DH back to ATL. He had golden days the next day and it was already into the afternoon at this time. He had called scheduling in Houston to request an alternate DH to where he lived in Arizona. They denied his request and made him DH back to ATL. (Atlanta and the majority of the country was clear and a million with no IROPS anywhere and the reserve bucket was full with a guy in ATL on ready reserve). When he got to ATL he called them and they had him sit for an hour. After that hour he called again and they told him he was released. But now had to sleep in the crew lounge and commute home the next day which was his golden day.

All this because they can. That kind of thing sucks and is worth it if you only have to deal with it for a year or so. But 5+ years of that is a career killer. People are going to catch on to these shenanigans scheduling loves to put crew members through.

 

Probably because someone farted in SOCC, called in sick and we were in *********************************SWAP************* ***********************

Love when all those chicken littles start running around with their heads cut off, putting out a smoldering cigarette butt by starting a forest fire. I've been in that situation a few times myself. I've had them insist I DH back to base knowing that when I get there I will only be legal for 1 hour before a block of days off. Now, I know and they know that there is not a damn thing they can do with ONE stinking hour before I time out. But rather than apply simple arithmetic and logic, they would rather jerk you around with nothing to gain but producing MORE ill will among the pilot group. In those cases I've done what I needed to do to not take a huge hit to my QOL and have yet to hear a word about it. The key is making sure your ducks are in a row in case you do get called on it. Most of the chiefs are wise enough still (I hope) to understand why you did what you did.

 

RSV is considered duty time. How can they have you on duty 24 hours?

 

Because with the 12 hour callout that is considered your rest period? It's like Republic they call at 3am to put you on rest for a 259pm show

 

Because you get 12 hours rest before you fly.

 

Reserve is NOT considered duty. However, it is also NOT considered rest. So in a 24 hour lookback period you need to see at least one period of 8 hours to rest. That 12 hours is plenty sufficient.