Flying Reserve

[panampilot]

I can't seem to find any good information about being on reserve as a new hire. As I understand it, you are tied to a pager and your call up time is dependant on what the airline has stipulated.

Do they provide the pagers or can you just give them your cell phone number to call you?

This may sound very naive but I have a family and getting paid to be with them and wait for the call doesn't sound so bad. I'm sure that's not the case though. What am I not understanding?

 

[exeagle]

ASA (nor EGL) provide pagers, but you can give them a cell phone number. ASA has a 2 hour call out for you to get to the airport (I think EGL was 1.5 hours in DFW). The bad thing about reserve is the short notice and not knowing when you're going to work. Ive flown with a few reserve captains with families who dont mind reserve, because they can spend alot of time with their families. However, depending on airline and equipment, you may be flying on most or all of your reserve days.

 

[smellthejeta]

I can't seem to find any good information about being on reserve as a new hire. As I understand it, you are tied to a pager and your call up time is dependant on what the airline has stipulated.

Do they provide the pagers or can you just give them your cell phone number to call you?

This may sound very naive but I have a family and getting paid to be with them and wait for the call doesn't sound so bad. I'm sure that's not the case though. What am I not understanding?

Some places will let you get away with a cell phone. If you're going to use your reserve time to spend it with your family, you'd better live in domicile... Otherwise, if you're a commuter, you'll spend a ton of time at the crash pad. I suppose that the amount of time on reserve spent flying is correlated with your residince. That is, in-domicile pilots who are trying to spend time with their family spend most of it flying, and commuters spend most of it at the pad doing nothing

 

[spike]

I will tell you about reserve

Drop me a PM or ask any question you want. I have been on reserve for the past 8 months.

If whether or not the company provides a pager is you biggest concern, I wouldn't waste your time worrying about such a minor thing. And if you are on reserve that will be the least inconvience.

spike

sorry no offense, but ask away....

 

[Mkay?]

I think that you are going to find a number of differences among the companies and how they treat reserve. In no particular order here are some things to consider:

1. What is the "callout time"? Some companies have only one standard time, others have a "short call" and a "long call".

2. Do you live near the domicile that you will be working from? As previously mentioned, sitting reserve in a crashpad is not the way to go.

3. Do the reserve line holders normally fly or sit at the company you are considering?

4. Usually the reserve line holders have fewer days off than a flying lineholder. Sometimes its tough to get certain days off if needed.

5. How many reserve lines are there at the domicile you think you will be at? The more there are the higher the likelyhood that you could stay at home.

Just some thoughts, feel free to correct anything guys! Hope this helps!

MKAY!!!

 

[metrodriver]

This subject came up somewhere else too and the question is this: If you have a reserve week, are you on call 24hrs a day for the entire period or is there a set time span they can call you and is there a dedicated rest period?
The reason: someone in dispatch decided to call a guy on reserve for a drug/ alcohol test, at a time he reasonably expected not to get a call. Good thing he hadn't used either. The reserve here is a 6 day period, with no specific rest or release period.
How is this at other 121 companies?

 

[trainerjet]

This subject came up somewhere else too and the question is this: If you have a reserve week, are you on call 24hrs a day for the entire period or is there a set time span they can call you and is there a dedicated rest period?
The reason: someone in dispatch decided to call a guy on reserve for a drug/ alcohol test, at a time he reasonably expected not to get a call. Good thing he hadn't used either. The reserve here is a 6 day period, with no specific rest or release period.
How is this at other 121 companies?

I'd question the legality of that practice. I think most 121 companies assign a specific reserve availability period, along with specific rest times.

24 hrs a day, 6 days a week? I don't think so.

 

[Mayday911]

Air Willy provides a pager to all pilots on short call reserve, which is 2 hours. We also have long call reserve that is 48 hours. Some relief lines have an entire month of LC reserveand those guys never fly.

Overall, reserve pilots barley fly at all, at any of our 4 domiciles.

Mayday

 

[spike]

Typical reserve

My company has one basic type of reserve.

You get ten days off a month

On call 12-14hrs a day the other 20 days

Need to be 1 hour to hour and 15 minutes from airport at all times

Some months you fly a lot, but never break guarantee(72hrs)

We have a lot of extra captains and they might only fly 20 hrs.

Can and do get days that have 3 deadheads to fly 1 and a half hours.

A lot of reserves are commuters.

After a month or two you feel lucky to get to fly and feel like crew scheduling basically owns you and is running your life.

Every time I get screwed while on reserve I just thank God I have a job and chalk it all up to " paying my dues"