Commuting on Reserve

Three words that strike fear into the hearts of airline pilots around the world. But what exactly does that mean? There is probably a Wikipedia entry on it, and certainly a Google search will return something. But a recent post by the author at fl250.blogspot.com about the industry/economy, together with the questions I receive about my schedule, prompted me to write about that very thing.

The airline industry is based on seniority. The longer you've been around, the more "opportunity" you have with respect to everything from schedule to pay to what type of aircraft you fly, for those that operate multiple types. My airline only operates one type so that leaves us with schedule and pay, of which I'll touch on the former. When you first start out at an airline you are on "reserve" status. The way I explain this to people when asked is that I am "on call". This usually resonates with people because they know that when a doctor is on call they get paged when needed, which is exactly what happens to me. During the recent hiring boom that is now gone, a new pilot could expect to "sit" on reserve for a very short period of time, if at all. I've been on reserve for seven months, which was unheard of as recently as late 2007 at most regional airlines. Unfortunately there is no end in sight in the current climate, but I try not to be negative.

So what does it actually look like? Well, if a reserve pilot is being called then that means a pilot that was previously assigned to a trip could not fly it for some reason - sickness, family, duty limits, etc. As you would expect, things like this can happen at the last minute, in which case you need to be at the airport in relatively short order. Which of course means that you need to be close by. Close enough, at my airline, that you can be signed in within 75 minutes (120 minutes in Gotham) of receiving the phone call. Which brings us to those three words. Since I am based in Gotham, I cannot possibly get there from my homeland in 2 hours, so I need to already be there. And since on call times typically start at 5:00 am, you guessed it again, I need to be there the night before. And since you are on call for five consecutive days....well, I'm sure you can see where this is going and it is not making the wife very happy. I have only been called on the same day once, and that time I had 3 hours notice so it gave me plenty of time. Every other time I received a call the day before, and it was always for a trip that was unassigned, or had not been given to a first officer during our monthly bidding process.

As I've mentioned before, my airline has a nice provision in the pilot contract that lets us perform our reserve duties at a base of our choosing, if allowed to do so by Mother (crew scheduling). Up until recently, Mother has been nice to me and allowed me to work out of the base closest to home, but times are tough. This base is small and does not see much flying, and Gotham is a big city, and sees much flying. The result is that I have been spending much time in my sister-in-law's basement just across the border from downtown Gotham, about an hour's drive from the airport (it's only 33.6 miles, I still don't get it).

The winter months are usually slow, and the current economy is making things slower. There is some concern on the grapevine of the small close-to-home base closing its doors. And without much attrition or growth in the company, the possibility of only being used in a reserve capacity for a long, long time is becoming a reality. Because things are so slow, I haven't been flying very much at all. In fact, sometimes I can't differentiate days off from days supposedly working. This is marginally acceptable when I am home, but when in the sister-in-law's basement, is not nearly as much fun. Of course the goal, regardless of base, is to be in the air looking down, not the other way around.

Oh well, I just requested an unassigned trip on my day off Thursday (is it a day off?). I look forward to the relaxing drive through the mountains to the small close-to-home base...for now.

Living the dream.