All depends on if you want to make money. Last month I credited a little over 100 hours and I wasn't on call first. I picked up a little Junior Man and it allowed me to break guarantee. Most of that was 7/9 trips too which woulda been slightly better if I wasn't on first yr pay. I'm on call first now just to help make breaking guarantee a little easier and I live in base so it makes my flexibility with scheduling great.

In my experience, you do not break guarantee on reserve. I am on the Bro which is at the present time better staffed. It sounds like the folks on the jet, as the poster above, have a different story to tell. In my particular case I live in base, and when I was on reserve (and it looks like I will be again here shortly), selecting 'call first' was more of a strategic move to try to get assigned an interesting looking trip in open time. But at my last job, I commuted, and just as you suggested I wanted to FLY if I were away from home.

I commuted the whole time I was on reserve and never once broke guarantee. All of my crashpad room mates had yes to call first because all of us would have rather been out earning some per diem to go along with our 75 guarantee since we were all away from home anyway. I actually used to love TDYs back then because I never got used on TDYs and they would make the company pay for my hotel room with a nice bed rather than sleeping on an air mattress in a crash pad with no A/C.

If I lived in base on reserve I would probably only select call first if I was within 5 hours or so of breaking guarantee. I can see why no one who lives in base would want it.

Ouch...you're headed back to reserve on the Bro after holding a line? Sounds like they're not exactly hurting for Bro pilots @ SFO...

PS Let me know when you have another weekend morning trip...breakfast is on me again

I start the CRJ course next month (2 Jun) and plan on relocating upon completion to live in domicile. Based on your collective experiences, current staffing rates, and historical trends regarding reasonal flying, which bases would give an FNG on reserve the best opportunity to see the cockpit on a regular basis?

I'm not worried about breaking reserve, but I would prefer to fly more often than not on scheduled reserve days.

Any base you go to you're gonna fly. We are running short through the summer. Reserves are being utilized, and your gonna be the first to be called most likely.

msp, ord, iah

Regarding the Brasilia, here's the projected reserve coverage around the system for June:

FAT CA: 44.4%
FAT FO: 30.4%
SLC CA: 17.5%
SLC FO: 20.4%
PSP CA: 33.3%
PSP FO: 22.2%
PDX CA: 25%
PDX FO: 22.2%
LAX CA: 30.8%
LAX FO: 56.7% <---- !!!!!!!!
SBP CA: 16.7%
SBP FO: 18.2%
SFO CA: 47.3%
SFO FO: 40.1%

For you newbies, these numbers mean that in a given base, x% of those pilots will be on reserve. The historical reserve target is about 20%. In summary, FAT, SFO, and LAX are taking a hosing for the ages.

I can't believe this is all just because of runway construction in SFO, but what do I know?

Wow. So, nearly half of SFO Bro crews will be on reserve, and more than half of LAX FOs? :-0

I don't get it. It's not as if any airline could replace the Bros with RJs on those short routes (SFO-SMF, SFO-MRY, SFO-CIC as examples) and make any money. Yet I cannot imagine airline service suspended entirely to communities like CEC or ACV. But what do I know?

Depending upon the necessary cancels, there will be plenty of open time to be covered. Looks like there will be plenty of pilots to cover it. Make sense?