ASA and dropping trips

[jtslc]

How difficult is it to drop trips at ASA? Is there a minimum amount of hours one has to fly a month?

Thanks,
J

 

[73belair]

Depends on coverage. There is no min you HAVE to fly, but if you ask to have a trip dropped then it's unpaid. So if you are below 75 hrs then you don't get guarantee.

 

[jtslc]

Depends on coverage. There is no min you HAVE to fly, but if you ask to have a trip dropped then it's unpaid. So if you are below 75 hrs then you don't get guarantee.

Thanks 73. Does management ask why you are dropping the trip or can you just drop a trip for personal reasons? How has the coverage been? Is there a way to figure out the coverage for certain day(s)? Do they start asking questions if you make a habit of it? I am trying to see if it is feasible to fly "part time" and getting a job that can pay the bills.



Thanks again,

J

 

[~~~^~~~]

JTSLC:

I don't know if you mean fly at ASA part time, or fly somewhere else part time. Flying in the 121 environment is not a part time job and ASA prohibits flying commercially outside of ASA - although exceptions have been made for a very senior IP who was on the airshow circuit.

The best way to have two jobs ( I have two and sometimes three ) is to get second jobs that you can do completely on your schedule. For example, an E-Bay store, renting condo's, home improvement, and sales gigs.

I have had little success getting trips dropped. ( 2 days in 5 years & had to use sick time on one of those two ) Your options are:
(1) Trade with other crew members
(2) Get permission from scheduling - mostly they require you go through your Chief Pilot - and yes they want to know what you are doing.
(3) Take a leave of absence ( lots of legal hoops )

So to answer your question, the answer is pretty much "No." Particularly if the company figures out the reason that you do not want to fly is because you are off making more money elsewhere.

But, to consider all of your options, you could bid "Naps" which are trips that duty in at night, fly a leg, get anywhere from 3 hours to 9 hours on the ground, then fly a leg back in the morning. Senior nap lines allow some people to hold down two jobs while getting adequate rest.

The typical ASA pilot is away from base 290 to 330 hours a month. That is 80 hours a week. If you throw in another job you will not have a life. And there is more to living than working.

Usually ASA is understaffed - particularly during periods of growth ( like right now ) and periods of aircraft transitions ( like right now ). Delta keeps close tabs on how many pilots we can have and there seems to be a lag of several months between what we need and what is available. This is good if you like flying - you can pick up trips at 150% pay if you play your cards right. For me, that is nearly $100 an hour flying an RJ ( not too shabby ) and the pick up trips like Charters usually have some good time in them (6 to 8 hours) and great FD!

Eventually we have to raise our profession to the point where flying a jet pays a living wage that does not require pilots hold two jobs.

~~~^~~~

 

[shamrock]

How difficult is it to drop trips at ASA?

An act of God, a GOOD excuse, and permission of a Chief Pilot might get you a drop, but don't count on it.

Scheduling continues to conveniently chant their "low coverage" mantra so I wouldn't make any plans based on being able to drop trips. I'm in the same boat as Fins when it comes to swapping trips in that I've had very little success. If I need certain days off then I'll try to bid them. If that doesn't work, I'll make a few attempts at a swap but I won't kill myself over it. My sick time is my personal time.

 

[kikejavy]

bottom line is very hard to drop trips here. They don't like to do it for coverage reasons. If is for a wedding you want to attend or something like that the chief pilot might go for it but not in a regular basis like you are talking about. Some guys sell their trips but if you want to make more money obviously you don't want to do that.

 

[RJFlyer]

If you bid day lines or 2-day trips, you can always find another pilot to pick up 1 or 2 of them. Day lines are easiest to get rid of, for obvious reasons. Lots of guys are trying to maximize their flying, and day lines and 2 days fit well into lots of people's schedules.

 

[jtslc]

All,

Thanks for all the replies!

J

 

[atrdriver]

Also, policy right now is that any trip drop or swap that will increase your total number of days off MUST be approved by the CP. CP calls scheduling when you ask, and is told no coverage (they no longer have the ability to check coverage for themselves, for this very reason), and they then deny you the drop or swap.

 

[FL000]

Let me ask a specific question to those in the know...

If one had 3 naps on his schedule, say mon-thurs, and wanted to drop the mon. night nap to pick up a fri. day line, would they go for that?

It's not day for day, but in that case, the lineholder wouldn't have tues. off as a result of the swap anyway since he would start a nap that night.

Bottom line, what are the rules for swapping naps?

Thanks.