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Comair time on reserve??

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Mallard

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 8, 2002
Posts
70
I know Comair is hiring very slowly for attrition. With that being said, how long do you think a new hire would be on reserve? Thanks!
 
How many days off does a RSV line have? Are they pretty good about giving you late shows on your first day for commuting??
 
Two years maybe optomistic. I am going on 20 months on reserve as a Captain and there is NO END IN SIGHT. FO side is a little better, but not much. If you are on reserve and nothing is happening.... no growth, no attrition (except jr. fo's leaving) then you are stuck until / if something happens.

Days off are 11 in 30 day months and 12 in 31 day. Except Feb robs one from Jan and March so even though the rest of the world thinks Jan and March are in fact 31 days.... Comair doesn't.

Late shows for commuting.... not on reserve until you are senior enough to hold late windows (A6 - 14:00+ & A7 20:00+).... I haven't looked but would guess the top 1/4 of reserves get the A7 windows. Expect to commute in the day/night before your window. And even when you do get a decent window they can change it on you anytime to any window they need. And by the way, only 7/8 days off are hard days off the others are movable.... and on occassion, they do move them.
 
Two years?

Two years may have been possible two years ago but the truth is that nobody can answer the question in this thread at this time--a fact that drives my wife and my mother insane. Since there are no aircraft deliveries scheduled for the foreseeable future the reseve time is indefinite at the moment. I'm not complaining. I love the job so far and have made peace with this concept for the time being, but until they start delivering aircraft again the reserve time is going to stretch out more and more.
 
We do have some pessimistic folks here.

I've been here just about a year and am about 50 or so people from holding a line. There are currently about 30 in various stages of training and classes are running again. At the current rate of new hires, I should be off reserve in 4-6 months.

I commute from the west coast and generally don't have a problem commuting in on the red eye or the morning of.

I can understand why the reserve captains cry doom and gloom as they aren't moving anywhere. There is some movement on the FO side and as a junior reserve, you will fly quite a bit.
 
Is CVG the only crew base? Are there any more on the horizon (like GSO since it will have Mtc. there?).


Thanks!
 
Comair reserve

i think the others above are right on as far as reserve time. while there is hiring going on, most of that hiring is replacing junior FO's. the low timers are going to CHQ, pinnacle, etc for the instant upgrade, while the high timer junior FO's (including fighter pilots, etc) are bailing for SWA, JB, AT, etc. We even had at least one furloughed USAir pilot resign here to ride it out at midatlantic.

on the other hand, we lost 20 captains on the most recent seniority list in the last 6 months. they have been very stingy on captain classes the last year, so naturaly they have gone very senior. there is recently a bid out for 18 i think, so it may start to go slightly less senior again. FO's are spending 18-24 months on reserve depending on timing and equipment.

quick sidebar, welcome moscowcfi. from your posts over the last year or so i see you have been trying very patiently and persistantly to get on here. good to see you finally made it.

as far as lineholder and upgrade time, that all depends on movement and growth. right now we have few retirements and only a little attrition, and unless and until that changes, expect to sit reserve for a while. some new FO's who commute can't get home for 2 weeks from time to time, and although that is the exception and not the rule, be prepared for that. you know, 6 on one off 6 on, with an early show and a late release.
 
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Times sure do change. Way back when, "senior" pilots used to bid reserve so they could enjoy more pool-side time or better run their businesses on the side while collecting the guarantee. Today it seems that reserve is considered to be the equivalent of purgatory.

Way back when, 5 years to upgrade was considered a stroke of great good fortune, even though it meant being on reserve again. Today, new hires are griping if the can't be "captains" in 6 months and "airlines" are flying around with a whole lot of little experience in both seats.

The MTV Generation feels "wronged" if they can't get hired with 500 hours of time in the traffic pattern, can't upgrade when barely squeaking by ATP minimums, and have to spend time on reserve.

Considering that many can barely shave it makes me smile. I guess it's all a part of the instant gratification syndrome that seems to afflict the coddled and spoiled society. Feeling entitled to something for nothing has become a way of life.

Cest la vie, I guess.
 
Sounds like Comair reserve is much better than ASA reserve. For starters you get more time off. We get 10 days a month and vacation can be counted as part of that 10 days. We have 4 golden days, which can not be moved. Every other day can, and will, be moved. If you have a weekend off, you will lose it. Every one of my days off has been moved in the last 3 months, with notice coming as late as 30 to 40 minutes past midnight for reserve on the following day. ( An ASA day begins at midnight or duty in and ends at 02:00 )

Been on reserve for 3 years out of my 5 at ASA.

~~~^~~~
 
chperplt said:
2 years

Reserve isn't all that bad here...


MY GOD, WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU COME FROM? IT IS THE WORST RESERVE SYSTEM I HAVE EVER HEARD OF OR SEEN FIRST HAND.

IT IS LIKE WATCHING CHICK FLICK THAT LASTS TWO YEARS, IF THAT HELPS. YOU BECOME ONE OF PAVLOV'S DOGS, EVERYTIME THAT PAGER GOES OFF (EVERYDAY) BETWEEN 4-5:30A.M. BUT, INSTEAD OF SALIVATING, YOU HURLE.

I don't mean to be mr. negative, that's just the way it was for me. 8 months.
 
Well, I came from flying a Beech 1900 for a few years.

If you think that we have the worst reserve system, you probably don't have a clue what others have. Either that, or nothing makes you happy.

I don't like the pager anymore than the next guy, but you have to make the best out of any situation. In the year I've been at CMR, I've only felt like yelling at scheduling a couple of times.

I'm usually able to commute in the day of and go home the last day. If I can do that being so close to the bottom, anyone can do that. It's not very difficult to get your schedule changed during the month. I get windows changed and I also get days moved. In all this time, I've only had one soft day moved by the company.

I bet you complain about our work rules as well... Go somewhere that works you to FAR limits each day and realize what you actually have here.
 
DDpaysoff said:
MY GOD, WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU COME FROM? IT IS THE WORST RESERVE SYSTEM I HAVE EVER HEARD OF OR SEEN FIRST HAND.

IT IS LIKE WATCHING CHICK FLICK THAT LASTS TWO YEARS, IF THAT HELPS. YOU BECOME ONE OF PAVLOV'S DOGS, EVERYTIME THAT PAGER GOES OFF (EVERYDAY) BETWEEN 4-5:30A.M. BUT, INSTEAD OF SALIVATING, YOU HURLE.

I don't mean to be mr. negative, that's just the way it was for me. 8 months.

Seriously ask any ASA guy about reserve and how much it sucks. CMR sounds great next to ASA.
 
Times must have changed. They are treating you guys better than they ever treated us.

Not once did I get to commute in and out on the same days together. One or the other, never both. But, then again my last flight was around 9pm.
I was able to swap days pretty easily, but it was usually working on a weekend and taking off a wednesday or something.
Window swaps, not once.

Maybe, when they stop using an archaic computer system and using reserves to hide open time so lineholders can't pick it up at time and a half, and then taking it off your line becuase you are too close to guarentee and giving you a 4am. report for a basketball charter, just to cancel it when you get there to do a midway turn and sit three hours to go to indy and back. Yeah, those where great days.

Or how about having to go explain to the chief pilots an SD, because the pager didn't go off because it was a cloudy day. Comair is too cheap to ever have a decent reserve system.

Everything else for the most part is great. But I have spent almost three years of my life on reserve, and the worst 8 months of it was at Comair. Why are there hundreds of FO's that bypassed upgrade, it ain't for the exotic destinations that holding a line takes you to. It was to stay off reserve, and most of those people live in CVG anyway.

Just giving dude a different perspective, not trying to bash or start a riot or anything. Work rules are fine. There are always a handful of 16 hour 4 days, I don't usually get them, and when I do I don't do 'em so no compliants there.

Maybe Colgan and ASA are worse, but there aren't many more.

Sorry, I just don't accept anything half asssed.. If it's broke, fix the darn thing. Just the way I feel.
 
You're right in that we have many many areas that need to be improved. A 3am page for a 7am report is just wrong. SDs are handed out like they are going out of style.

I just came out of recurrent and they say (CPs) that Fred is spending the money to fix these things and changing personnel as needed.
 
I have been on RSV as an FO for 15 months, and am the most senior guy who did not bid for it, so I expect to get a line next month .

As far as reserve life at Comair, it sure as he!! beats 6+ months at sea, so I am not complaining.
 
I don't think there is a better 'regional' to be at right now than Comair, unless of course your most important objective is movement. But, these people coming in should know what to expect on reserve. Expect the worst, that way you are happy when you find out it may not be that bad.

I agree there are way to many SDs going around, they are not bad until they become UAs. But, it is not right for probationary FO's to have to go do a dance for CP's, because of some incompetant scheduler. I won't even mention x-mas week and scheduling together, there are enough stories out there already. I think butrell will fix some of these issues. He has done a heck of a job so far trimming the fat and cleaning house. That whole department needs to be cleaned out.
 
MidAtlantic

P38Lightning,

The USAir furloughee I believe you're talking about (S.B.) had no intention of going to MidAtlantic -- until a chief pilot called him at the front desk of his hotel and told him to "go to his room".

It's a long story but he got tired of being treated like a child and decided that MidAtlantic was the lesser of two evils.

I think it is fantastic that Comair was kind enough to hire furloughees and (hopefully) to take advantage of the experience that these pilots bring to the cockpit. It is a shame that more effort was not made to change the "academy culture" and retain those pilots.
 
I know a little bit about the reserve system at Comair, I've been on it for 26 of my 49 months here. I spent another year in training or on strike/furlough. In fact I've only been a lineholder for 11 months total in the 4+ years I've been here, and that was as an FO. All of which, I might add, I volunteered for. That's right kiddies, I wasn't drafted, held hostaged, blackmailed, coerced, or in any other way forced to be a pilot at Comair. The only folks that might even remotely have a right to complain are those new FO's that are at their first airline. Everybody else knew, or should have known, the deal prior to signing on the dotted line.

Reserve at Comair just isn't that bad. Unless, of course, you've never held a real full time job in another industry. Minimum 11 days off, sometimes 12. That's minimum and in most case that's all a junior reserve guy will get. The rest of the world gets 8.

I'm home more nights on reserve than I ever was as a lineholder. I spent 4 nights in a hotel in Nov, 5 in Dec and 5 in Jan. I worked every day I was available except 1.

I have never had a scheduler intentionally try to give me an illegal assignment. 3 or 4 times they made a mistake, but once I pointed it out they quickly made it right. The schedulers at Comair do make a lot of goofy decisions. At least it seems that way to those of us that don't have the big picture. Whether or not what they do is smart is irrelevant as long as it's legal. Yeah, they could be way more efficient and proactive, but they aren't. Get over it. As long as the FARs and the contract are adhered to, and they usually are, just roll with it. You'll get an ulcer otherwise.

The scheduling rules are the rules. The main reason some pilots rant about how bad reserve sucks is because they get pissed off when scheduling applies the rules. The best way to survive reserve is to never, ever set yourself up for disappointment. You have nothing coming. A work day is a work day and it could last 15 hours. Just because you would like to call it a day at 9 hours and catch the last flight home is immaterial. If you always set your mind to the idea that you'll work all day then you never get pissed off.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Life is a living hell if you're on reserve and commute, but Comair doesn't have a monopoly on that. Take the job, move to CVG, change your attitude and enjoy life. Commuting is a self-inflicted wound and you'll get no sympathy from me.

Still don't like reserve? Either quit or STFU. I don't want to hear it. You knew what the job was all about prior to signing on. I'm all for improving the work rules when the time comes, but it ain't here yet and you volunteered to be a part of this. Stop making mine and the rest of the crews life's miserable with all your whining. Just do your freaking job and keep your bad attitude to yourself.
 
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go to your room?

FA,

dang, that's pretty lame. i believe it though, and that's too bad. from the company's perspective its kind of a catch 22. they always want to hire the "best of the best" and, right or wrong, that's usualy defined as military pilots and pilots who were "good enough" for the majors. so we had the chance to hire a lot of these folks when the market was down and we did, but when it improved (SWA, JB, FX, etc) you quickly realize that the best of the best are also the best of the best at other airlines, some of which offer superior long (and short) term pay, benefits and on occasion even job security.

so hire nothing but fighter jocks and your training department becomes a revolving door (with a one way check valve usualy) but then again you can't hire hundreds of WMU 300 hour delta pre-hire interns either. the key is finding the balance. all the furloughed (and military for that matter) guys i've met have been class acts. i just also wish there were a way to encourage retention. or at least a way not to discourage it.

go to your room? that would be hillarious is it wasn't true. ok its still hillarious (and uncalled for, but hillarios nonetheles)
 
surplus1 said:
Times sure do change. Way back when, "senior" pilots used to bid reserve so they could enjoy more pool-side time or better run their businesses on the side while collecting the guarantee. Today it seems that reserve is considered to be the equivalent of purgatory.

Way back when, 5 years to upgrade was considered a stroke of great good fortune, even though it meant being on reserve again. Today, new hires are griping if the can't be "captains" in 6 months and "airlines" are flying around with a whole lot of little experience in both seats.

The MTV Generation feels "wronged" if they can't get hired with 500 hours of time in the traffic pattern, can't upgrade when barely squeaking by ATP minimums, and have to spend time on reserve.

Considering that many can barely shave it makes me smile. I guess it's all a part of the instant gratification syndrome that seems to afflict the coddled and spoiled society. Feeling entitled to something for nothing has become a way of life.

Cest la vie, I guess.

Careful how you lump all the junior people together there. There are many who simply sit reserve and suck it up, so you don't notice the. Alienating them is a good way to drive a wedge between the pre- and post-strike hires. If you want guys to stand up to the pay freeze and say no, that is not the way to go about it. Pilot unity should also include those who do not have furlough protection. The "I got mine and I will keep it, screw everyone junior" attititude I have been encountering lately will not help protect that which so many walked in circles for 89 days to get. Junior people want to advance. So did you when you were junior. Nothing has changed. There is money and a better quality of life in advancement. Who doesn't want that?

The fact is, Comair mis-manages its reserve system. If you don't believe it, simply look at how many times scheduling is scambling to find a pilot because they are out of reserves. Your days will be unproductive, your duty days will be longer, most of your days off are movable at the whim of scheduling, and your paychecks will not reflect any of it. It is not the worst system out there, but saying that is like saying, "At least we didn't cancel ALL of our flights today". If you come here, plan on at least 18 months of reserve. You won't be disappointed. Reserve is more tolerable if you move to the area. If you choose to commute, then that pain is self-inflicted. CVG may not be the culteral center of the universe, but if you apply to a company where that is the only base, you should plan on spending significant amounts of time there. You could do a lot worse than CMR, but if you can't stick with it for the long haul through some difficulties, you will be happier somewhere else.
 
"The fact is, Comair mis-manages its reserve system. If you don't believe it, simply look at how many times scheduling is scambling to find a pilot because they are out of reserves. Your days will be unproductive, your duty days will be longer, most of your days off are movable at the whim of scheduling, and your paychecks will not reflect any of it. It is not the worst system out there, but saying that is like saying, "At least we didn't cancel ALL of our flights today". If you come here, plan on at least 18 months of reserve. You won't be disappointed. Reserve is more tolerable if you move to the area. If you choose to commute, then that pain is self-inflicted. CVG may not be the culteral center of the universe, but if you apply to a company where that is the only base, you should plan on spending significant amounts of time there. You could do a lot worse than CMR, but if you can't stick with it for the long haul through some difficulties, you will be happier somewhere else."

You said it a lot more tactfully than I did, but I agree completely.
 
Caveman wrote:

"Take the job, move to CVG, change your attitude and enjoy life. Commuting is a self-inflicted wound and you'll get no sympathy from me."



Respectfully, I don't think any of the commuters need your sympathy. Take this scenerio, you are a junior captain at Comair, they go open JFK, then surprise...........what are you to do? Go back to F/O?

I know, lets take your family and uproot them to New York so that you dont have to commute.

Many, many pilots commute out there not because they enjoy it and not because they are looking for your sympathy, but because they do it for their families. There are many wives (and husbands) that have jobs and also support systems, a.k.a family, to help them to live with this piloting profession and the lifestyle it brings. I certainly never will move to base just because my airline happens to run an operation out of that airport. Anyone who has been in the airlines long enough would know from experience that domiciles can change in a heartbeat, and depending where you are on the seniority list, there is never a guarantee that you will not be a commuter in the future.

So.............why uproot your family to comply with an airline "business plan"? We have all seen how well those work.

So, if you hear a commuter whining, unless you are getting paid to listen, you can probably just walk away, no harm done. They have a right to be upset just like everyone else in this world, just go to concourse C, I'm sure you can get your fill there.
 
"Respectfully, I don't think any of the commuters need your sympathy. Take this scenerio, you are a junior captain at Comair, they go open JFK, then surprise...........what are you to do? Go back to F/O?"

If that were the case you would be correct, but no one on reserve at Comair right now falls into that category. Every pilot on reserve volunteered to be there.
 
I've found that people who simply say "just move to where ever the base is, what's the big deal?" are often single living in an apartment and have no attachments to where they are.
However people who commute, DON'T want to, but a lot of the time they have to. They sacrifice their time and give it to their family, or to pay for the house that they just bought and the company closed the base after 17 years. (ask the DFW Delta or ASA people)
Its easy to say just do it, but its a whole 'nother thing to have to live in the other persons shoes. Just keep that in mind.
 
I've done both. Commuting sucked so I moved to my domicile and my QOL improved dramatically. There is nothing outrageously wrong with the reserve system at Comair. Like most things, it could be improved. Blaming being on reserve for their crappy QOL is inaccurate. Their QOL is crappy because they chose to commute while on reserve. If you live in domicile while on reserve it's not that bad.
 
chperplt said:
80% of all comair pilots commute.. That number is from a CP two days ago.. 80%..

That contrasts drastically with information published by the company about 6-8 months ago. According to that memo, the number was around 40%. 80% does not make logical sense. Using the most recent seniority list that would mean that 1417 of the pilots here commute. Does that sound like a realistic number? The numbers were futher broken down by state. Florida had the largest number of commuters. Somewhere between 10% and 15%, if I recall correctly. Minnesota made a notable contribution as well. Once again, conflicting information coming from different parts of the company...
 
Caveman said:
I've done both. Commuting sucked so I moved to my domicile and my QOL improved dramatically. There is nothing outrageously wrong with the reserve system at Comair. Like most things, it could be improved. Blaming being on reserve for their crappy QOL is inaccurate. Their QOL is crappy because they chose to commute while on reserve. If you live in domicile while on reserve it's not that bad.

I'll second that! My wife and I moved to CVG and bought a house a couple months ago. I'm still on reserve and I am home nearly every day. After a few 6-on 1-off schedules while commuting before (which was killing us), my wife is now starting to complain about seeing me too much! ;) The only downside is that I am playing too much Socom 2. :)

Sure, as another poster pointed out, CVG isn't the cultural mecca, but it's not bad either. The pros far outweigh the cons.
 

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