June was a busy month. Reserve schedule with LOTS of union work and my first InterIsland overnights. Loads are fantastic. Lots of full flights Yay!
6/1-10. OFF
6/11. HNL-LIH-HNL-LIH-HNL-LIH-HNL
6/12 HNL-OGG-HNL
6/13-17 Union
6/18. OFF
6/19-21 Reserve No Call
6/22. Union
6/23. HNL-LIH-OGG-KOA-OGG-KOA-LIH
6/24. LIH-HNL-LIH-HNL-LIH-HNL
6/25. 30/7 Mandatory Day Off
6/26. Reserve No Call
6/27. HNL-LIH-HNL-LIH-HNL-LIH
6/28. LIH-OGG-KOA-OGG-LIH-HNL
6/29. Union
6/30. HNL-ITO
7/1. ITO-OGG-HNL-OGG-HNL
No that’s actually an FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation). FAR 117.25 states:
(b) Before beginning any reserve or flight duty period a flightcrew member must be given at least 30 consecutive hours free from all duty within the past 168 consecutive hour period.
This is affectionately known as the 30 in 7 rule since 168hrs is 7days, and it means in any 7 days (168hrs) you have to have been OFF (free from all duty) for 30hrs. If you look at my schedule, even though I didn’t fly for most of it, I was on some type of “duty” (on call resv, union work, etc) from 6/19-6/24. That meant the company was required to give me a day off (30hrs rest) on 6/25. Make sense?
It’s late and I missed the first line where it said 6/1 through 6/10 and read it as 1 day off. I did the same thing for the union days 6/13 through 6/17. I’ve heard of the 7 day rule, it makes sense now. But, at first, I was thinking, “Holy cow Adam’s schedule is insane. He only got 3 days off the whole month?” Would it even be legal to only have 3 days off?
The answer is no neither contractually nor regulatorily. What’s is key to take note of however is there’s nothing in the FARs that state the 30hrs of rest need to be at your home or domicile. Meaning unless the contract prevents it, your airline could keep you on the road for weeks as long as you get those 30hr breaks somewhere. Now again most contracts prevent this but some long haul cargo airlines will actually keep their pilots away up to 20 days
There were a number of reasons but predominantly to better serve the state by allowing us to have earlier flights that originate from the outer islands and later flights to them.