Considering leaving the profession for good, could use advice

That’s been my mantra with diversifying the fleet all along. Choices create movement. Same thing goes for base diversity but still holding my breath on that one. Unfortunately I think PDX will be affected the least if the merger goes through.

PDX won't likely change. Your seniority could improve if people chase a type. I don't see many commuting from PDX just to fly a different airplane. Stranger things have happened.
 
I love the guys who are sniffling the whole trip, huffing and puffing, and then say, "I hAvE aLlErGies"

To be fair, that s*** is real this time of year. I just about blew out my eardrums trying to fly in my mil job last week. From 3000 ft to landing felt like a jackhammer, and it was borderline dangerous because I could almost not hear the radios it was so bad. Wasn't plugged up at all before I flew, thus I had no problem clearing my ears and no normal sense of "I shouldn't fly today".....but I should have known given how bad my allergies had gotten the day or two prior. I suppose an hour of really aggressive, high G maneuvering didn't help leading up to this, but I digress. Grass pollen is my arch nemesis. Only in the PNW. My left ear finally cleared 48 hours later, if anyone cares :)
 
I don't think it helps that our van time for the MCO layover is 0600. But yeah. Possibly my least favorite layover as well.

I have some of this sweet sweet sauce dribbling down on me at the end of a 4 day next month. Cant wait......at least the other 2 overnights are cool, longer, and less early vans (I think?)
 
So to help put this in context:

The previous three days I've been working 12+ hour days with min rest in base. (10 hours from report to release)
I'm in a hotel here in Chicago. I was released last night at 18:30, and I was excited to finally get some rest. I'm scheduled to fly today from 15:00 until almost midnight, finish in OKC. Not on reserve, not on duty, not notifiable. I got to sleep right around 03:45 (01:45 base time) or so.

CS called me at 0430 (that's 0230 base time) to try to get me to work a trip. They called my cellphone twice, and I silenced it, and tried to get back to sleep. Then the phone in my hotel room started ringing.

When I finally answered the phone, they tried to give me a two hour callout to report to the airport. I spent the next thirty minutes being told that because I'd had ten hours of rest since release, they were legal to call me. I asked for the supervisor, she agreed. I talked to the flight ops MOD, and they made me call out fatigued since I answered the SUPER LOUD NON-UNPLUGGABLE PHONE IN MY HOTEL ROOM.

Like, this is so far from ok. What's next, they send someone to bang on the door of my hotel room to get me to show up? It's ok, as long as I don't answer the door, right?

I'm telling you, I was this close to just telling her that I was going to call out QUIT.

If this sounds great, normal, ok, good to go and is part of what "grinding" looks like, then I'm out. I put everything I have into doing this job with heart, integrity, honesty and artistry, only to have them try to f—k me all the time. I'm so worked up now I don't know if I'll be able to sleep at all.
 
I have yet to get an important hotel phone call.


No one but the hotel or the company would be calling me on that. No thanks!



Lesssons learned the hard way.



Ring ring, ring ring


(Sleepy voice), hello?

Yes Sir, are you checking out?


Ma’am, it’s 11am. I just landed at 6am and slept at 730. Thanks for waking me up.









Never again. Unplug all hotel phones.

If there’s a fire, I’ll hear the alarms. I don’t need them calling me.
 
I've had this suggestion from numerous people that I trust. I'm definitely intrigued!
I don’t want to extrapolate for you based on one singular data point, but my medevac jet captain job was hands down the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had. I miss it every time I go to work, and every time I’m home it’s made even better when I can hang out with the friends I made there.
 
Different line of work, once upon a time.

Call from the office on a day-off? Nope. My time is my time. You're the supervisor, suck it up and cover the shift. Not me🤷‍♂️

Next shift, I'd be honest: "Yeah, I heard your message. I'm here as scheduled."

I get you all probably can't do that with impunity, but as a member of the traveling public, I'd much prefer a well-rested crew up front rather than someone barely "legal."
 
Slight correction: After waking up just now, I did discover a way to unplug the hotel phone.

Also, I wanted to add: I'm not an angry person. I am prone to a modest level of bitching, like most pilots. And I can get a bit tilted, though I do self-correct. But angry? Vanishingly rare.

But last night made me angry.

The supervisor's "of course we call hotel phones, front desks, wherever we want," the MOD's sarcasm, the repeated "Well, you're in a hotel room that we pay for, of course we can contact you."

I don't answer the phone from CS, but at some point the ringing has to stop.

I use the hotel wakeup call as a backup alarm, but no more, I guess. I wish I was a liar, and could have said "eh, nope, just had a beer" or something,
 
That’s sad.


VX and AS policy is once you’re in rest at the hotel, they won’t call you. They can modify your schedule, but it won’t be something showing up before your next day show time.


The idea is, any schedule chnage should be seen as you would have gone to the airport the next day planning on your original trip flight.


Works well, lasts long time.
 
So to help put this in context:

The previous three days I've been working 12+ hour days with min rest in base. (10 hours from report to release)
I'm in a hotel here in Chicago. I was released last night at 18:30, and I was excited to finally get some rest. I'm scheduled to fly today from 15:00 until almost midnight, finish in OKC. Not on reserve, not on duty, not notifiable. I got to sleep right around 03:45 (01:45 base time) or so.

CS called me at 0430 (that's 0230 base time) to try to get me to work a trip. They called my cellphone twice, and I silenced it, and tried to get back to sleep. Then the phone in my hotel room started ringing.

When I finally answered the phone, they tried to give me a two hour callout to report to the airport. I spent the next thirty minutes being told that because I'd had ten hours of rest since release, they were legal to call me. I asked for the supervisor, she agreed. I talked to the flight ops MOD, and they made me call out fatigued since I answered the SUPER LOUD NON-UNPLUGGABLE PHONE IN MY HOTEL ROOM.

Like, this is so far from ok. What's next, they send someone to bang on the door of my hotel room to get me to show up? It's ok, as long as I don't answer the door, right?

I'm telling you, I was this close to just telling her that I was going to call out QUIT.

If this sounds great, normal, ok, good to go and is part of what "grinding" looks like, then I'm out. I put everything I have into doing this job with heart, integrity, honesty and artistry, only to have them try to f—k me all the time. I'm so worked up now I don't know if I'll be able to sleep at all.
They did the same thing to me at 9e once. Easiest fatigue call of my life. Turned into a 36 hour layover with a DH home with pay.
 
Slight correction: After waking up just now, I did discover a way to unplug the hotel phone.

Also, I wanted to add: I'm not an angry person. I am prone to a modest level of bitching, like most pilots. And I can get a bit tilted, though I do self-correct. But angry? Vanishingly rare.

But last night made me angry.

The supervisor's "of course we call hotel phones, front desks, wherever we want," the MOD's sarcasm, the repeated "Well, you're in a hotel room that we pay for, of course we can contact you."

I don't answer the phone from CS, but at some point the ringing has to stop.

I use the hotel wakeup call as a backup alarm, but no more, I guess. I wish I was a liar, and could have said "eh, nope, just had a beer" or something,

Starting at 10:01 after release I once received four calls to my cell phone, at least three calls to the room phone, and a visit from housekeeping telling me to call scheduling (well, I heard the front desk telling someone on the phone they checked my room, I had fled by then). Oh and I’d been removed from my trip, placed on another flight, had a release generated for said flight with my name on it, and the other crew and gate agents had been told I was on my way to work the flight while I was still half asleep fighting with the hotel waffle maker and giving the person working the self serve breakfast bar $5 to make fresh coffee.

And that was honestly one of the tamer instances with scheduling there.
 
They did the same thing to me at 9e once. Easiest fatigue call of my life. Turned into a 36 hour layover with a DH home with pay.
In the instant case, I honestly don’t think OP should be required to call in fatigued, though the nuances of this are almost certainly lost on whatever hack is MOD this week.

Without a copy of their rotation in front of me (not that interested, either), I would be willing to bet a violation of 117.25(e) occurred; a certificate holder can try to bother you during rest, but they run the risk of, in the pilot’s sole judgment, interrupting the 8 hour uninterrupted sleep opportunity requirement. In other words, really, they shouldn’t try it as they’re going to blow their own dicks off more often than they will succeed in covering open flying.
 
That’s sad.


VX and AS policy is once you’re in rest at the hotel, they won’t call you. They can modify your schedule, but it won’t be something showing up before your next day show time.


The idea is, any schedule chnage should be seen as you would have gone to the airport the next day planning on your original trip flight.


Works well, lasts long time.
Reroutes or reflows are not expressly addressed in written policy at SkyWest, believe it or not.

Not like they’d follow their own rules, but IMS, there aren’t even any rules.
 
In the instant case, I honestly don’t think OP should be required to call in fatigued, though the nuances of this are almost certainly lost on whatever hack is MOD this week.

Without a copy of their rotation in front of me (not that interested, either), I would be willing to bet a violation of 117.25(e) occurred; a certificate holder can try to bother you during rest, but they run the risk of, in the pilot’s sole judgment, interrupting the 8 hour uninterrupted sleep opportunity requirement. In other words, really, they shouldn’t try it as they’re going to blow their own dicks off more often than they will succeed in covering open flying.
I 100% fully agree.
 
Starting at 10:01 after release I once received four calls to my cell phone, at least three calls to the room phone, and a visit from housekeeping telling me to call scheduling (well, I heard the front desk telling someone on the phone they checked my room, I had fled by then). Oh and I’d been removed from my trip, placed on another flight, had a release generated for said flight with my name on it, and the other crew and gate agents had been told I was on my way to work the flight while I was still half asleep fighting with the hotel waffle maker and giving the person working the self serve breakfast bar $5 to make fresh coffee.

And that was honestly one of the tamer instances with scheduling there.
this sort of thing is 0% OK.

These rules should never be pushed.
 
A lot of people who come back “because it was better here” actually just had training issues.
LOL. A lot of folks here on this board have given me a lot of grief over my fears regarding the quality of, er, "workers" in this industry. Then, they post stuff like you just did.

How is it possible that someone has a "training issue" when the training is basically what buttons to push in what order.

Sorry. That seems kinda personally-focused and divergent to the thrust of the thread. But the "personal" part iss really is not my issue in posting this.

My issue, again: How does anyone who is even moderately capable of being a real pilot have "training issues"? Not "just" at the "majors", but anywhere? It's. Just. Not. That. Hard. Eh?
 
My issue, again: How does anyone who is even moderately capable of being a real pilot have "training issues"? Not "just" at the "majors", but anywhere? It's. Just. Not. That. Hard. Eh?

From what I've heard? Mostly relying on bad gouge instead of following along during training.

Runner up: Carrying over issues from previous operators or types.

Second runner up: Not studying.

Third runner up: The attitude that It's. Just. Not. That. Hard.
 
Back
Top