Death of a close relative leave. How long?

MaRiO FDZ said:
Was your flying off?? Or why do you mean it was a but too quick?
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I was teaching in the sims that month, so thankfully no in that case!

It's interesting and fascinating in hindsight. I tend to grieve early and grieve hard since I know the world isn't going to come to a pause because I'm having a bad day.

I look back on it, and I remember sitting down in the briefing room the first day. A couple other instructors passed by, clearly surprised to see me there, they stuck their heads in with a knowing look. I fessed up to my students what had happened after a couple of those occurences. The funny thing is, I can't remember my students looks in return, and otherwise can't even remember teaching at all. I know it went well as my critiques were all tip top.... but I have absolutely no recollection of it otherwise. It's just a cloud, and I was on autopilot just trying to get by.

I had another reminder of that time last week when I took my car into the shop. I was expecting to have to pay for 100k mile items that I thought I had blown off. Turns out I had done that 3 days after the twins passed away. The service rep laughed when I was surprised that the stuff was done and made a comment about not remembering. I made some comment but mentally noted, yeah... there were some other things going on then.
 
My organization affords 3 days of bereavement...

To be claimed on the day of notification of the passing or other day shortly thereafter.

Used as necessary it can allow a member to have time off to attend to necessary end of life activities.
 
MaRiO FDZ said:
Was your flying off?? Or why do you mean it was a but too quick?


Nice. So it's usually a chief Pilot call? I would have expected it to be HR or Company Policy calling this. On my end, A) no funerals yet, thankfully, and B) If it does happen, since I'm on a Part 91 solo gig I'm trying to prepare as much as I can now for when that time comes.

Take care
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Lemme think. When my dad died, I got a SELCAL from Atlanta Radio and they told me to contact crew scheduling upon landing in ATL.

I called crew scheduling, they patched me through to my brother who gave me the news, we talked for a bit and I hung up the telephone.

A red coat (gate supervisor) handed me a positive space ticket to California, I had another call from the chief pilot and apart from the standard "I'm sorry" stuff was told my schedule had been cleared, pay would not be an issue, call him when I was ready to return whether it's a week or a month or two.

So I guess the short answer is that he was one of three people I spoke to after I landed.
 
MaRiO FDZ said:
Hi fellows

I have a question. Specially for those of you in Part 121. If a close relative of yours passed away, how much time off do you counsider reasonable (or prudent) one would need off for personal performance? And how much time does an airline would allow you off?

This given I saw this experience on AOPA Air Safety institute about this gentleman that lost his moher, went flying before he was ready and endedp up landing a sea plane with the gear down and his son payed the ultimate price.

Thanks for your inputs

Take Care
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It's always best to treat an airplane as if it knows you're not operating at 100% and plans to punish you for it.

One of my engine failures occurred on a flight where I told myself "You really have no business being here right now." It ended in a power off landing to a 2500 foot strip on the top of a hill with steep drops at both ends. It could easily have gone badly.

My grandmother passed away on day 2/4 of my last IOE trip. I reasoned that there wasn't any hurry to get there as it wouldn't change anything so I finished the trip, but my chief pilot was good about it. He gave me the 3 days and we arranged them in such a way that I was able to spend a week with my family. It was the first time my cousins and I had all been together in the same place at once.

I was fine and detached for 2 or 3 days and it really just hit me all at once. I realized that my grandma would have hated every minute of us all interrupting her routine but she would have absolutely loved all of us being there.

My grandma was... mean and miserable for some reason in her later life and she really didn't agree with me as a person, but she was still the lady that I lived with for 2 years when I was little and greeted me every morning:

"G'morning grandma!"
"g'morning sweet pea!"

I'm really glad I had that time to reflect, some of it was offered and some I had to ask for. If you're not fit, you're not fit.



Last week waiting for flow in Sacramento I heard a Cherokee call up for progressive taxi and he kept apologizing for his mistakes. Finally he said "im sorry, I didn't come prepared, this is a bereavement flight.". The controller was very accommodating.

Odd vocabulary to be sure... I really wanted to key up and say "hey, think about a hotel room maybe" but I never got the chance.

I hope he made it home OK.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Hot damn Peanuckle! :( I'm very sorry and saddened to hear that. :(
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I will forever be a Delta guy after it happened. My fleet captain (equivalent of a chief pilot) called me when I was sitting in firehouse subs just trying to put something in my stomach as my daughter was cooling down. "Denny, I've heard a tragedy has happened..." He immediately bought off my next week, though I didn't realize it. I just knew I was not fit to come into work.

I got my next paycheck and realized that i was made whole for the periods that I missed.

Significant losses and subsequent grief comes and goes in waves. That triggered a wave..... I didn't get paid for the birth of my son, and given the same coding of the birth and loss of my twins, I expected similar. When I saw that i was made whole, that was a significant break down realizing the goodness of humanity.

The waves will continue, and I will never be ok. Delta and in particular my department went above and beyond in a tragic situation.
 
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