Dropping down to 50 Question
 

I'm a LUAL furlough returnee and I am struggling with PBS--and just the scheduling process in general. I'm a solid lineholder, but want to drop down to 50-60 hours each month. In other words, drop 1 out of my 4 trips.

What is the sure fire way to do this each month?

Thanks. I've been back a few months after being gone for 15 years and I feel like Rip Van Winkle!

Easy way in my opinion is to go to Crew Companion in Sceduling dropdown, and do a trip drop.

Welcome back!

^^ do so before the 24th of each month when trading first opens. The 50 limit is block hours, not credit hours. I'm doing the exact same thing as a returnee.

Crew companion --> my trades --> create drop

Did we just fly to GVA?

Crew Companion is indeed the easiest way to start a drop request. If you haven’t used it, spend some time with someone who has and they should give you a good idea of what it can and cannot do. 4 day trips seem to be difficult to drop in the summer months. It looks like pilots with 2-3 day trips junior to me had little problems with their drops this month. Meanwhile I only had a 4 day drop that had 2 days in June and the rest carried into July. This is generally a function of tight summer staffing and the coverage issues. So 4 day trips can encounter only 1 day out of the 4 that has below min coverage and now you are stuck with it meanwhile the guy junior to you with a 3 day starting on the same day can drop with no problem.

All: Thanks for the advice. I may have boxed myself into a corner with the 4 day trips, but we'll see how it works out.

I have a LOT to learn about QOL with PBS!

Trip drops are difficult to predict. A lot has to do with how tight the category. Some months you may be able to drop anything other months you may not be able to drop anything. In other words, you can't count on dropping trips as part of any regular plan.

Now having said that I will add that from 2007 to 2012 I dropped 1 or 2 trips every months with no trouble. My wife works and we were trying to get by with me playing "Mr. Mom" for a couple years and thus being gone as little as possible was key, and it worked, but like I said trip drops are not always a sure thing.

The shorter the trip the better, and the more senior you are the better. Drops listed before trading starts are done on a seniority basis when trading begins. I think you can put in for the trade as early as the 21st of each month, but the trading doesn't begin until the 24th. I may be wrong on that, but I think that is how it works. You also don't have to use Crew Companion for that you can use the CCS Trading>Seniority Trip Trading page as well. It is very self explanatory.

I would also recommend that you ADVERTISE the trip for pickup as well. CCS>Trading>Trip advertisements. When you advertise the trip another pilot can pick it up. The main benefit is that it becomes visible in CCS that you want to drop the trip.

Many pilots I talk to never use crew companion. Using advertisements just increases your visibility and also allows a straight pickup by another pilot.

Below 50 hrs?

Not allowed.

Yep. I've gotten rid of a few trips that way (advertising the trip) when I couldn't get rid of them through trip trading.

Most of us still don't know that much. PBS is like Herpes. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

No one really knows what it will do. Heck, a PBS guru-swami type told me if the entire airline bids "award work low" the system will crash.