October was a good month all around, I was happy with the results. I held a line and had a consistent number of days and lots of flying! There were some new destinations that I had not yet been to and familiar places. Some new challenges like diverting due to degrading weather at destination, refueling and picking back up, and ground delays.
A day before I got off my 1 Year probation at Piedmont, my Captain was being line checked, so on the last day of my probationary period, I got to participate in a line check. I have really grown to love the morning departures, flying into the sunrise and catching a beautiful sight.
Totals: 58 hours block time, 81.15 hours credited time, 12 days off
1 - RIC-PHL(DH/)MDT
2 - OFF
3 - OFF
4 - MDT-PHL-SYR
5 - SYR-PHL-RIC
6 - RIC-PHL-ART-PHL-SBY
7 - SBY-CLT-MDT
8 - OFF
9 - OFF
10 - MDT(DH/)CLT(DH/)ROA
11 - ROA-PHL-YQB-PHL-SBY
12 - SBY-CLT-GNV
13 - GNV-CLT-MDT
14 - OFF
15 - OFF
16 - MDT-CLT-EVV
17 - EVV-CLT-PGV
18 - PGV-CLT(DH/)PHL-BDL
19 - BDL-PHL(DH/)MDT
20 - OFF
21 - OFF
22 - MDT-PHL-RIC-PHL-PVD
23 - PVD-PHL-MDT
24 - OFF
25 - OFF
26 - MDT-CLT-JAN
27 - JAN-CLT-MGM
28 - MGM-CLT-ROA-CLT-LYH
29 - LYH-CLT-MDT
30 - OFF
31 - OFF
I deleted my other comment after looking at your reserve schedule for most of the year.
New question, when you are Very Jr for holding a line, do you only get two days off in a row most of the time? If so, for how long normally? I’m sure it varies by aircraft and airline.
The reason I ask, is because it would be extremely hard to commute with only two days off in between.
Being awarded what you bid comes down to seniority and time, you may not get the “best schedule” the first few bids, but as time goes you may see that more desirable schedule. There’s a lot of factors that go into how lines are built, I’m not in Crew Scheduling, I don’t know their factors. What I do know is my seniority number and preferred lines when I see them. I bid based on block hours, rather than credit time, and I will sort my lines to show me the best block hours.
My base is small where a lot of lines only have 2 days in between, where CLT and PHL base may see a more desirable layout. I know individuals who commute in, some find it challenging, but make it work. I for one, live in base, that is another reason I chose Piedmont.
Thank you for the info, I know what some of that means. Still a lot to learn though and many hours to go anyhow.
I just know if i “could” hold a line and the only option I had was to have two days off in between, probably would make me want to continue to be on reserve until I built a little more seniority. If I was commuting* if it was 3 or 4 days, it would be easier.
But then again, don’t know if that’s smart or not to sit on reserve longer then you have to. I know that you don’t fly as much on reserve, and the ultimate goal when at regional is to fly as much as possible. There also may be other factors I’m not familiar with.
Has nothing to do with smarts, it comes down to what works best for you. I know plenty of pilots who bid Reserve not only for the schedule, but more they get paid whether they fly or not. As for flying as much as you can, as long as you fly enough to get you 1,000hrs 121 time to upgrade it really doesn’t matter.
At most airlines, the systems creates a pilots schedule with a required 2 days off between work blocks. A pilot can waive that to stack flying back to back but is required to have a minimum of 30 hours of rest every 7 days. If you want to try and achieve a minimum number of commutes, you could try to stack your flying.
Once you get a little seniority, you can add a layer for commutable trips meaning ones that start late on the first day and end early enough on the last day to commute home so that you’re 2 days off are maximized as much as possible.
With all that being said, the regional schedule is tough. You want to get a line and start building 121 turbine time as soon as you can. Quality of life will come later with seniority and eventually a job offer at a major.
Thanks for sharing your schedule again and great pic! Seems like you got a good diverse month of flying. Despite the early morning van times, I do enjoy those early morning flights where the frequency is quiet and you can just watch the sunrise. Good luck in recurrent training, if you haven’t already done it!
Reserve is not as good of an option as it might sound like. Being on reserve means that you are at somebody else’s beck and call and that your phone can ring at all hours of the night. I bid reserve for two months last year and really came to regret it. If I could give only one piece of advice on this forum, it would be to move to where you are based.
I’ll add to this. Reserve can be brutal if you are commuting. I moved to base specifically to avoid this. The callout times for each airline differ, but at my airline (and most regionals) the short call reserve time is a minimum of two hours from phone call to show time. Unless you can miraculously jump on a flight after being called and make it in two hours, with a backup flight too, it will still require you to be in base. So if you have the 4:00 AM RSV shift, you will have to commute in the day before. Plus reserve has minimum days off for the month. 12 days off vs 14-18 days off that you can get with a line. If I was a commuter, I’d be trying to get off reserve as quick as possible and try and bid for a line/pick up trips that have late starts and early finishes. It might be a little different here at Envoy, compared to Brady’s schedule at Piedmont, we typically have 4 day trips with 3 days off, which makes commuting a little easier.
With that being said, reserve whilst living in base can actually work out well, depending on seniority. In fact, at Envoy you start making captain pay as an FO at 750 hrs, so the guys that live in base will work hard to get to the 750, then just bid reserve so that they can sit at home all month. They will get the 75 hour minimum guarantee at the captains rate and are mostly senior enough to avoid getting called. I checked for October and it looks like most of them only flew 5-15 hours, some didn’t fly at all.
