SWAPA Comments about 717

[redflyer65]

The weak thing is, we haven't seen any good examples of how any of this flying will look. Other than a few examples of the Hawaii flying. They are saying in the US they are looking at around 40 redeyes a day. But it's anyones guess at how the company could turn on a dime and add lots more if they like them.

I'm not sure where the string of redeyes came from. It was either pilots worried of doing them (because of the CBA language), or floated out by the union as a possiblity. We were told in a SWAPA conference call that people would want to fly them, but most people didn't believe that at all. So maybe that would work out for someone like you that would like them. We all have different preferences for sure.

 

[PCL_128]

I think most guys might be surprised at how senior something like that would go. While the majority of pilots wouldn't like it, there is always a small group that really enjoys that sort of flying. Over on this side of the partition, red-eye turns and CDOs go very senior. I'm in the top half of the FO list, and I can't hold a CDO line right now, for example. I haven't looked at the 737 lines lately, but the last time I did, I couldn't hold the red-eye turns, either.

 

[Lear70]

It really depends.

You have a very small core of guys who like the Redeye turns because they live in base and want to be back home every day. A Redeye turn classic example is our ATL-PHX, basically a CDO (Continuous Duty Overnight, Nap or High-speed, depending on what regional you came from). It leaves base around 8 or 9 p.m., blocks into PHX around midnight Eastern time, leaves at 0200, and gets back into ATL around 0600.

With your rig, that would be basically 5.5 HOURS of pay on our side of the fence per duty period. 3 in a row over 4 days would pay 22 hours, which is in line with what most of our 737 lines do, 5-6 hours per day credit, but they don't leave until late and get in early, leaving you the whole day,,, allegedly. I'd collapse and be out most of the day after those, but I'm getting old.

Pre-bankruptcy those things used to pay around 7 hours a day at Legacy carriers, my Dad made 10 years of his career doing those, flying 2 back-to-back over 4 days with 24 hour overnights on the West Coast, making it a 28-hour 4 day. 3 of those a month was 84 hours of pay with 18-19 days off, so they went senior.

Here, they do NOT go senior unless they're on a LINE in ATL. In MKE, they go mid-level seniority, a few CA's and F/O's snatch them up, our MKE F/O rep is one of them. In ATL, there's enough people that like them that they don't get past the top 1/3 of each seat's seniority list. In MCO, the one redeye that was on our lines for the first time ever went almost very bottom of the pile junior.

When Daily open time comes open every month, the very first thing that happens is those line holders who have them scattered on their line drop as many of them to open time as they can, which forces our reserves to fly them, which is a constant complaint with the circadian rhythm "flipping". (We don't have to get someone to pick up our trips if there's good reserve coverage, we can just straight give them back to the company and wait for something else to come up that we like better).

For those of us in smaller bases, there's not enough reserve coverage to get rid of ANY trips, I haven't been able to drop anything the entire month. Therefore, if you get stuck with a redeye somewhere, you're probably just stuck with it.

As for how it will work at Southwest, it really depends on how they build them. With their aversion to soft time and desire to keep everyone maxed out, I'd be shocked if they built them into line of all red-eye flying (which is what they SHOULD do). Also, 40 redeye flights PER DAY sounds a bit high. Even if you had 10 city pairings originating red-eyes at night, you'd have to send them to BWI/MDW/MCO and a 4th East Coast base to get near 40. Do you have 10 West Coast cities that could originate red-eyes to every East Coast base?

Maybe that's a combined number with both of our companies integrated...?

 

[texman]

4 day that pays 22! Is that how its all ways been for yall?

 

[dloop11]

.............

 

[27 driver]

4 day that pays 22! Is that how its all ways been for yall?

We have 4 day trips that pay less than that.

 

[Ty Webb]

4 day that pays 22! Is that how its all ways been for yall?

It depends which aircraft, and what kind of flying you're bidding.

The 717 trips are generally more productive, but have more legs per day.

There are some productive 737 pairings, but the majority seem to be around 21-24 hours. They are, however, usually commutable on both ends.

If you are willing to work for it, you can usually get what you want or need. I'm still on my first wife, so I'll swap those productive four day trips for a commutable 3 or 4 day with long layovers out West or in the Caribbean. The guy with three wives picks up my productive 4 day, and everyone's happy . . .

 

[jonjuan]

Red-eyes as part of a day-scheduled trip are unsafe. Period.

The human body wasn't designed to flip-flop its circadian rhythm like that. That's why our company mainly makes red-eye only lines or at least puts 3 red eyes back-to-back rather than scheduling a day trip then a red-eye.

The worst pairings we have are those that fly a 3 day trip and the last day is a West Coast overnight followed by a red-eye return into domicile. People don't want to call fatigue out there because it's their last day and they're going home, so they suck it up and fly fatigued anyway, just to go home without a delay.

My body can't handle them, hasn't for a long time now, can't go to sleep in the middle of the day to be rested for the evening after being on a day routine all week. They really should only be flown by people who stay on a night rhythm for their entire pairing. Anything else is jeopardizing safety.

/soapbox

Problem is, many will still commute all day before they even start their trip. Heck, most are probably running errands, mowing tn lawn all day before the red eye kicks off. it happens very frequently.

 

[texman]

Sounds like the 717 does 5 to 6 legs a day.

 

[Ty Webb]

Sounds like the 717 does 5 to 6 legs a day.

I've never seen a 6 leg day on my schedule, or anyone else's . . . . Five-leg days were pretty rare, when I was on the 717. Three or four was pretty common.

My trip last week was a 3 day, with 4 legs total . . . Now, that's my kind of flying!