Thats been happening a lot more lately, unfortunately. The good news is since we’re fat on FOs, you can basically drop your reserve days and pick up from the trade board or open time and create your own line. YMMV though

 

This seems to be the common problem across most of the regionals.

 

That only works until open time is empty and now you're getting paid 30 hrs for the month

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

How does this work? I looked at my reserve grid and it’s all red. Which I think means I can’t drop any of it.

 

That is true. Have to do it right when you’re able to drop it. The longer you wait, the less chances there are for trips. Like I said, YMMV

 

Thats correct. When the schedule is awarded, it’ll take a couple of days before you can drop/swap reserve days. Have to do it right when it opens though.

 

New to the forum and just accepted an FO offer at Republic! I live in Richmond, VA close to the airport. Looks like my two best options for bases are DCA or LGA. It looks like there are about 4 Republic flights between RIC and LGA daily, and around 4-8 total depending on the day. LGA also seems to have the potential for RIC overnights where DCA might not? Sounds like a nice way to break up a trip.

That said, DCA is a 2-ish hour drive. Conventional wisdom seems to be "always drive to work if you can." I'm skeptical thought that the DCA drive would be measurably better than the LGA commute for QOL. Would LGA yield RIC overnights regularly and/or more frequently than DCA enough to offset the potential sting of commuting? After holding a line how badly would that commute suck? That drive up 95 to DCA is not for the faint of heart, and with traffic (there is always traffic) it's regularly over the 2 hour short call reserve time limit anyway. Obviously commuting to reserve sucks but I think reserve will suck pretty bad either way. Aside from sitting reserve, which sound like it will be reasonably short lived, which sounds to be my best option? TIA!

 

You will be based in Pittsburg to start.

 

This is really all about personal preference. When I started I was not given my first choice and ended up in LGA, exactly the same scenario for you at DCA. During rush hour, you can't really get there in two hours, especially to the gate in two hours given the parking / busing situation there. I still felt it was better to drive then commute by air to another base and give up those days off getting there and getting home. Keep in mind you'll have choice of base before you have choice of trips from your seniority, so, a lot of "commutable" trips might be hard to find. For estimates, DCA jr line holder is a Nov 21 hire. So take three months from training, that person likely had all of 4 months reserve. (this changes constantly but might help decision making for you)

If it was me, I'd take the drive. On duty days, I'd try to get early reserve, then on the front of the rush hour, reposition yourself to within an hour of DCA somewhere (coffee shop, rest stop, something like that) and hang out till after the rush hour, then start for home. On reserve if you don't have an assignment prior to two hours before the end of the reserve period, you're done. so 3a-1p reserve, I'd wake up at 3 check phone, back to sleep wake up at 5 and head toward LGA, stop short of crossing the bridges (stupid expensive tolls, like $20), wait till around 10 then slow roll home, at 11 you're done anyway. Having said this, at that time, I mostly had an assignment given to me the day before my RAP, almost never called for the "2 hour" call out, maybe 2-3 times. On the RIC overnights, a lot of our overnights are short anyway, so, you'd be able to sleep home, not likely have time for much else.

As far as CFIsoonToBeFO information, it's partly true. The last couple classes were very heavily assigned PIT initially, I have no idea why. Most of them though were in another base before they got out of training. Here's a list of what I'm referring to, these are the jr fo's in each base now.
Class Orig Now
03/08/22 LGA DCA (IOE)
04/05/22 LGA ORD
04/12/22 PIT BOS
04/19/22 PIT SDF
04/26/22 PIT CMH
04/26/22 PIT IND
04/26/22 PIT PHL
05/10/22 LGA LGA
05/24/22 PIT PIT
05/24/22 PIT PIT
05/31/22 EWR EWR

Given the fact that the senior F/O is still in IOE, I'm going to guess the rest must still be in training. You can see where they all are already.
Do any flying at HOVA / OFP? Spent a LOT of time there while in part 91 land!
Good Luck!

 

Great insight, thank for the thorough response! Seems like DCA is the hot ticket with LGA as a backup. I'm going to be honest, if I get PIT without ability to change, I'll probably bail because I simply won't do a two leg commute. I'm choosing Rjet for QOL and sustainability. If I'm forced into a two leg commute I might as well bail for one of the AA WO CJOs and take the money they're throwing at new hires. I straight up told my interviewees that and while obviously they can't guarantee anything, they seemed to be confident that it would be a nonissue. But CFI seems to be extremely confident so now I'm VERY confused. /s

This is a reasonable strategy. I have a lot of friends in Nova and DC, and I'll never complain about hanging out at the Udvar-Hazy for unreasonable amounts of time!

I figured as much but this is helpful to hear.

There's a first time for everything. (I've been lurking a while. Seems to be a great source of entertainment.)

I have an M20J at HOVA! They just finished the new facility on the east side of the runway. I can imagine FBO rot at the old FBO would have been painful. I used to run the skydiving center over at KOMH so I fly a lot between the two. Unfortunately I think we're selling the Mooney because partner's wife is over it...but that might make room for a aerobatic or water toy!