Flex's Good, bad, and uglier>.....

[Wankel7]

I had floating rest with the company I was doing charter work with...fun stuff.

So, how often do you you guys get the screws put to you with the floating rest?

Wankel

 

[walshsfly]

I had floating rest with the company I was doing charter work with...fun stuff.

So, how often do you you guys get the screws put to you with the floating rest?

Wankel

I have only had my rest changed maybe and thats a big maybe once every other month. I can't remember the last time I got an early wake up call. can it happen yes, does it happen yes, does it suck yes, is it better than always having min rest just to sit standby at an FBO YES!

 

[Av8tor]

If you are on or off duty, does not mean you are required to sit an FBO. All it means that you are NOT contactable before your show time. Once you are contactable, you are than on duty. Simple as that. The only reason Flex has the floating rest, is that Mangement has the UPPER hand. They are not required to hire more people to staf us appropriately. Hence the 3.8 pilots per aircraft. It is all a money issue and once again the pilots are the ones to suffer. Floating rest has to stop at Flex, that is what this whole 91k thing is about.

 

[pilotpat]

I'm not on with a fractional yet...but my charter company does both floating rest and FBO standby. Let's see, sleep being disturbed at 6am to tell you to go back to sleep because now you're not coming on duty til 4pm to do a 6pm departure out of TEB to BUR on a Friday afternoon when you know damn well you're not getting a release time until sometime after 8pm. Wind up (after fuel stop) in BUR around 2am EST, close up shop and get to hotel by 3am EST only to get a phone call from the office around 8am because no one knew you were on the West Coast. Yeah...that's happened a couple times before.

I'll take the sitting at the FBO with my friggin' laptop watching movies all day thank you very much.

 

[ProFracPilot]

Wind up (after fuel stop) in BUR around 2am EST, close up shop and get to hotel by 3am EST only to get a phone call from the office around 8am because no one knew you were on the West Coast.

WHY in the WORLD would you answer the phone?? Oh, yeah. No enforceable work rules. Only FAR's to ignore. I can see that you don't advocate this type of scheduling, but your comments illustrate the problem very clearly.

I used to be a company guy. I'd bend the 10 hour rest rule or go an hour or two over 14 (thereby negating the 10 hours of rest in 24 lookback provision). I'm mission oriented, and want to complete the trips for the folks paying the freight. I've learned that not only is this illeagal, but it is unsafe. Management will exploit the lack of firm work rules and will attempt to invoke the so-called "interpretations" of 135.267 that claim to allow this rule to be bent. The day will come when these "interpretations" will be fully vetted in a court of law, likely after a fatal accident. I, nor my estate, will be a defendant in this lawsuit.

When I'm released from duty, and especially when I'm moved to the back side of my circadian clock, I go stealth. The only way anyone can reach me is to bang on my door. If this happens before my scheduled Duty-On time - regardless of the amount of scheduled rest, my 10 hour rest clock starts all over again.

Floating rest is illegal and unsafe. In the words of Nancy Regan, Just Say No. Better yet, I'll let my Union speak for me.

 

[pilotpat]

Profrac...yeah, it was a total mistake on my part to forget to turn off the cell phone, and I didn't answer it, but it did wake me up and I promptly turned it off. When I woke up around 10am PST, I ate breakfast and talked to the other pilot. We were empty going home (I had a day off the next day before FlightSafety), so I told him we weren't leaving until we were ready.

This is one of the main reasons I'm trying to get on with a fractional. I know 7/7 or whatever is tough, however it sure beats the old goat I'm playing with right now. How do you like the idea of, "Well you're on call from 8am until 6pm but we can call you at 3pm for a trip 'cuz you really weren't on duty even if the trip goes for 10 hours duty". WHAT??? I've called them on it and get stumped by the CP because how could we make money if we weren't flexible? Get me the f outta here!

If I knew then...

 

[haulingthemail]

I see it like this. Do your research on both and then decide where you want to work. Choose the lesser of two evils. If you want to be part of a union, go to NJA. If you don't want a union go to Flex. Don't come over here and try to change my happiness because I chose to not be affiliated with unions any longer. I think they all suck.

 

[Pacific]

Just be happy we have jobs and not have to suffer like the pilots at the airlines.

Baiiley

With that mentality we'll be "suffering" soon enough.