Looks like I may be coming in April trying to get an update on how things are looking ?

Ask again after you pass your checkride. You’re looking at a solid 5 months from now and a lot can change in that time. Not trying to be snarky but you really can’t anticipate anything that far out.

Spot on. If you asked this q 5 months ago, everyone would say CAE and MKE for foreseeable future for “what base will I get”. With Short reserve times in both. Maybe off reserve before you are off IOE. 6-12 months to even hold junior reserve in ORD. 12-15 for IAD.

Now none of that is true. Two bids in row all 4 bases held by new hires.

Guys that 3 months ago got displaced from ord res to CAE res/line holder on the FO side are now holding lines in ord in Jan/feb.

There are guys awarded ord res who on feb bid are still in training and can’t even bid. Haven’t had that since before mke opened.

All I can say is it’s trending shorter in all bases. Cae, mke, ord and iad in that order from shortest to longest.

What type of runs are you guys doing out of cae? Cae-iad, cae-ord? Anything else?

CAE and MKE lines are similar to ORD and IAD lines except the first and last leg. Overwhelming majority are 4 day trips (all bases in fact) that simply start with an early AM flight to a hub on day one out of domicile and just like iad and ord lines, continue to do out and backs from both hubs to outststions over the next 4 days, overnighting in outstations, and ending with pm flight into cae or mke.

You cover zw flying out of both iad and ord from all 4 bases. Though ord is bigger so you will have more ord landings than iad. Most flying into and out of cae is covered by crews starting and ending their trips. Ord and iad pilots almost never overnight in those bases anymore and occasionally may do a mid day turn into one.

If you live within 2 hrs is a great option as you will move up the list fast and upgrade fast. If you live 2-4 hours away it’s not terrible since reserve times are low. If you 1 leg it - maybe but early starts and late finishes make it hard. If you two leg it - it sucks.

Agreed with the "ask again once you get out of training" comment, but to give you at least a little idea...

I passed my checkride early December, on IOE 2 days later. On reserve 2 days after getting signed off of IOE, used all but 1 days out of 10 reserve days, plus 1 out and back trip I picked up in open time that was one of the rare FO critical trips anymore.

I got CAE out of ground. I live in Chicago, and got awarded ORD while I was in CPT. I only actually did 1 trip out of CAE, but already had the trip assigned, so heading down the night prior was no big deal. Scheduling let me sit my last week of reserve in CAE in December in ORD, so no commuting was necessary. I'm currently top 3rd in RSV holders in ORD for Feb. Folks junior to me in my class already holding lines in CAE for February. Today was day 1 of a 5 day RSV sequence, didn't get called. Looking at open time tomorrow, there's a 50/50 chance I get called for those. I picked up 1 day trip this month in open time since it was an out and back and long segments, so my credit (at 150%) exceeded my TAFB, which is kind of my magic number to get me to pick stuff up.

After the last month, I can say with certainty living in base makes RSV so much more easier. I take my kids to school, my wife can go take substitute teaching jobs at will (we have emergency backup childcare on call). There's a chance I'll take a stab at MKE if I can hold a line for March, since it's a 90 minute drive.

Good luck in training.