A Message to USAirways Pilots- A Chance to Save Our Jobs

Paying pilots to sit at home? Yes, it does occur and people need to understand why. When an airline goes down that road of furloughing pilots in large numbers, it creates lots of movement in the pilot ranks in terms of bump downs from Cap to F/O and from larger aircraft to smaller aircraft. This drives an incredible amount of training in the sims, etc. If your flight center is unable to keep up with the volume of training events, some pilots end up sitting at home waiting to be re-trained while collecting their monthly guarantee. But you cannot blame pilots for this. They have no control over this happening.

Just to give you an idea, up until several weeks ago, UA still had pilots at home being paid their guarantee since the layoffs post-9/11!! That is how backed up our DEN Training Center is.
 
Cavalier,
If Saddam launches a nuke on Israel, you'll find out why the President is desperate to stop him now. Talk about Hell on Earth! This country will not give up Israel, no matter what the cost.

A320 Driver
 
What are the chances that the Jets for Jobs program could be altered in such a way as to allow the contract carriers to deploy another 30-50 SJs in a rapid time frame, propping up the revenue picture to a degree, and bridging the length of time it appears it will take to get additional SJs via MDA and the WOs? I use the term allow, as it appears that there is very little support among the pilots at the contract carriers for the program in it's current form. Couple this with the worsening economic picture and I can't help but wonder if US will last until it is able to get the SJs on it's own.

I do NOT bring this up to rehash all of the arguments for or against the J4J program. I, as do other pilots at the contract carriers look forward to a healthy US Airways. We feel as if we are all in the same boat. -a boat taking on some water, but in it never the less.
Could US reach a point where the pilots would consider agreeing to allow a certain number of SJs to be deployed sooner rather than later; an agreement that the pilots at the contract carriers could also agree to?
It is my belief that the main sticking point is the super-seniority that the current proposal stipulates. I am sure that the pilots would welcome the preferential, if not mandatory, hiring of furloughed US pilots for all openings, at their respective airlines, that the additional planes brought- only without the super-seniority.
With the training programs already in place and the ability to take new jets and deploy them quickly, it seems to be an option worth exploring. Good luck to those furloughed...and to the rest of us hoping that US makes a strong turn-around.
 
Most pilots are gone from home about 20 days a month. (24 hours a day)

I hear from crew scheaduling that our pilots fly 72 hours per month max. So that means 72 hours divided by 20 days equals 3.6 hours per day our pilots fly. That does not make any sense.

3.6 hours a day????

What about the end of the month club which is our reserve pilots. They are just flying the last few days of the month.

I may be missing something here. I could see a few pilots flying 20 days a month, but not very many.
 
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I hear from crew scheaduling that our pilots fly 72 hours per month max. So that means 72 hours divided by 20 days equals 3.6 hours per day our pilots fly. That does not make any sense.
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Pitguy,

I am a crew scheduler. Specifically, a pilot scheduler. 72 hours is the reserve guarantee for long call reserves. Pilots that hold a line of flying (80-85% of pilots) do not get this guarantee. They are paid for what they fly. Typically, they will fly up to 85 hours plus. If they fly less, they are paid for less.

Under this contract, it is VERY difficult for Reserve pilots to get a full 85 hour month. They are restricted from doing things like flying into their days off, volunteering to go to the top of the list for open trips, working more than 30 hours per week, etc. Some of these restrictions are contractual, some are FAR's. I have always viewed the reserve guarantee as the price the company pays to have these reserves availible to fly at a moments notice. 90% of the reserve pilots I talk to would rather fly a trip than sit on call reserve anyway.

Also, when throwing these 72 and 85 hour numbers out there keep in mind that these are block hours, not duty hours. Block hours are flight hours only, from the time the engine starts at pushback till it shuts down when a flight pulls in. To get a 5-6 block hour day, a pilot will typically have a 10-12 hour duty day. So these numbers can be somewhat misleading.

Do I think there are ways to improve efficiency and utilization? Most certainly. Unfortunately, my department seems to be like so many in this company, in that there seems to be a real sytemic resistance to the suggestions and ideas of front line employees. Regardless of that, throwing out a blanket statement about the work habits of the pilot group is unfair. Most of the pilots I deal with everyday are professional and hard working. They, like all of us, are trying to make the most of this bad situation and hoping for things to improve.
 
pitguy, Your right. We pilots never fly and the company pays us $200,000 per year. They just love us and want to pay us for nothing. Is there never anything new on these sites. It is the same old tired old pilot bashing and socialist mantras.
 
This month I will probably fly 83:50 hard time. That is as a block holder. Thats just flying time, not duty time. In other words, pilots can be on duty, during our days of flying, up to 13 hrs. In some cases, more. In other words, avg, 10 duty hrs. per day, 4 day trip,then, to the hotel, rest, no pay, thats, well do the math,hrs per month away from home. Granted, thats not flying time. A 21:00 pay trip works out to be about 77 hr. on duty. Almost 1 for 3 pay. And then I get to go home.
I have no idea what the reserves avg.
 
HogDriver,

Putting aside for the moment all the various viewpoints on this thread, I would like to pass along my thanks and my gratitude to you for the assignment on which you are about to embark. The issues on this board are important to a lot of people, but they will pale by comparison to the risks you will soon be taking on behalf of all of us. I pray you that will and your fellow pilots and airmen will all return safely and soon, and with the job done, so we may all try to get life back to some degree of normalcy.
I take it by your sign-in name that you fly the A-10? If there is any action you'll be in the middle of it. Hopefully events will work out that you won't have to put your skills and experience to the test. And hopefully when you return, there will be a job waiting so you can move on with your life.

God Bless and good hunting.
 
I do not have to justify to anyone how much I fly. I work what is contractuatlly justified. If you feel slighted....welll maybe you are!
 
ilg 30/7

Thank you very much for your post. I hope Pitguy takes notice. Someone is feeding him some bad info and we keep seeing it rear its ugly head over and over on these posts.

Thanks again

A320 Driver
 
Pitguy,

Yes 20 days a months away from home is correct. Some guys a little less. I did manage to be home for 15 days one month but it was a Feb and loads and vacations were at a minimum (I was on reserve) and I could not pick up a trip.

Remember that pilots do not get paid while on the ground!!! Like was said above, To get paid for 21 hours of flight you have been on duty for about 77 hours.

To put it in perspective, it would be like the Mechanics only getting paid while they physically turned a wrench or pushed an airplane. The rest of the time you would be required to be there and required to do all the paperwork while not getting paid.

I do not pretend to know how all the other employee groups are paid or their work rules, but how about we all try to ask someone who is actually in the group before we bash them on hearsay and rumor.
 
Wouldn't it have been nice to see some pilot type defend the mechanics when other pilots were having their fun bashing them.

I have heard from crew scheduling that allot of pilots don't fly allot but get paid the 72 minimum and they are bought out of trips all the time (which is being paid not to fly).


Excuse me sir. I am sorry I tripped over your ego. I did not know it was so large.
 
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Airbrush,

Your expressions of support are appreciated. You are also correct about the A-10. I am looking forward to handing out a little payback to the people that have attacked our country, our industry, and my job. We will be flying cover for the grunts on the ground, still hunting the vermin that hide in caves and behind innocent civilians. I just hope my airline is still here when I get back.

Take Care......
 
[P]ILG... thank you for the information on pilot scheduling. While I may have a crank to pull with the pilots on this board from time to time, I will never dispute the gawd-awful hours they spend away from home and how horrendous it is on family life. Afterall, I'm a pilot's daughter and know that life first hand on the receiving side. The money's great, but I'd never marry a pilot unless he were retired ;)[/P]
[P]Hogdriver -- good luck. I admire you for taking a positve, pro-active step instead of just standing and wringing your hands.[/P]
 
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