Monday, April 27, 2009

Day at home

Today is my 6th day on reserve in a row. This is abnormal and not built into a monthly schedule. I moved my reserve days around this month in order to have long weekends off elsewhere in the month. This previous weekend was the first time I worked on a weekend since February I think.

Today I have sit at home reserve from 10AM till 11:59PM. If I am needed crew scheduling must give me a 2 hour call out. They can call me to go sit airport standby, deadhead me somewhere to fly or to go fly right away.

Next month I work most weekends. I did play the switch-a-roo game with my schedule to get 6 days off in a row starting the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. I am still working on getting the Saturday and Friday off as well. The trouble is I can't work MORE than 6 days in a row. Most months crew scheduling is VERY slow in answering my request. I submitted a request yesterday and it was approved within 2 hours. Crazy.

A buddy of mine who commutes through Fargo to another base is having a bad end of the month trip.

This is his last 4 day trip. Next month he will be commuting to reserve. So far his commuting experience has been pretty good. This week is the exception.

His trip started at 7PM Saturday night and will end Tuesday afternoon at 3:30PM. Nice trip that is commutable on both ends.

He went up Saturday afternoon to start his trip. About an hour from the start of his trip his flight was cancelled. He was now supposed to report back at 12:20PM Sunday for a deadhead. Being so late at night and having to be back early the next day, he stayed in a hotel (about $38 out the door...not a great hotel...but decent).

Sunday he was supposed to deadhead to "Salina" at 12:20PM, fly the plane back and then fly to an overnight. The deadhead flight didn't leave until 3:30PM. This would put his return flight back to base arriving 2 1/2 hours after his flight to the overnight. The airline removed his crew from the overnight and gave it to a reserve crew. Upon returning from "Salina" last night he paid for another hotel room.

Today he reports at 3:20PM in base (checkout time is 11AM so he will mull around the airport for a while). He does one turn and then out to the overnight. Once he gets back tomorrow he will commute home. Hopefully all goes well for him today and he makes it to the overnight.

Wouldn't mind flying today. I only ask that I get a turn that goes smoothly. If I get stuck in an outstation I will be stuck for a couple of days due to this being my day 6. Hasn't happened to me yet, but it's happened to many co-workers.

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