I'm wondering what reserve life is like? How senior do you have to be to get on reserve at IAD as an FO as opposed to EWR? How often do you get the minimum 2-hour notice? I'm a little over 2 hours out from IAD and would be able to easily make a 3-4 hour notice without resorting to a crash pad.

My brother in law lives about an hour out of EWR and has offered to let me crash whenever if I need to cover reserve up there. So, options.

Commutair almost never uses the 2-hour callout. Its almost exclusively airport reserve

So when you're scheduled reserve, you've got a start/finish time where you'll be expected to be at the airport ready to grab an open flight within 30 minutes?

How often do these shifts result in just idle time? 10%? 50%? 80%?

Airport reserve means you have to be at the airport for the duration of your duty, and at the gate 15 minutes after called.

Right, but just because you're on reserve doesn't mean you get to fly. How often do your airport reserve shifts result in just sitting around the airport?

It's a 30 minute callout. Even on airport reserve, I've always had at least an hour notice of an assignment

It really depends on how the operation is doing that day. Of the 20 or so days I had reserve last month, 4 of them I sat and did nothing. Two of those four were at the airport. But, there are days where you can sit for a while then only do one turn. Some days, you can be assigned a multi day trip. It really depends. Almost always before I start a reserve block, I would've been given an assignment already.

So what are some things to do while you are sitting at the airport with nothing assigned? I'll be on reserve at EWR for (I'm guessing) 2-3 months when I finish class, commuting from SYR, and have been thinking what books I might want to consider buying for my reserve airport reading list....

Read...netflix...watch TV or play video games in the crew room. On reserve most people are averaging 60 hrs of flying a month and being used most of the time. Apparently they are moving toward only 2 people on airport reserve at once and the rest short call. That can be changed to airport reserve during your call in period. Airport reserve costs the company per diem and also burns into your flight duty period. Short call doesnt.

When I started I got a kindle and a library card. I can get most of the stuff I want for free and it does not take up much space.


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How long after IOE is it these days before a new FO can hold a line at IAD? Any opportunities to pick up extra flying in open time?