Skywest Questions
- Thread starter flyingbum
- Start date
Xcaliber
El Chupacabra
I didn't realize so many of us were in the same seniority range. I'm refreshing it too, but I'm on med leave, so I know I won't get it this time around. I just want to see if my buddies get the left seat and if it'll go junior to me finally (which it almost certainly will).
skatergeek
Beet Farmer
Nice. Yea I was a 4/12 hire, missed the last award by 11.. So close yet so far haha!
WaterRooster
Well-Known Member
I hit refresh to see how many FO's get out of ORD on the 175! Never quite enough it seems.....
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
Was gonna say, if there really are 50 CR* CA vacancies, I'm it.
Yup!
I love our implementation and contractual language. However, you just have to bite the bullet, learn how the system works, how it doesn't work and ask lots and lots of questions.
ClarkGriswold
Non Nutritive Cereal Varnish Engineer
Or be like someone else, ahem @ian , and be uber senior yet still get nothing asked for.
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
I was waylaid (@Derg has heard this story) in the terminal by a guy that turned out to be the Captain of the week.
"Oh you're PBS support.! (Inner monologue: Christ here it comes) Lemme tell you about PBS! ..."
I interject, "What was your employee number again?" -tap tap, let's look at the bid in question while paying some attention-
"Work work work work sick call work work work coverage needed work work waive default minimum credit work work"
"So if you don't tell it that in the first layer, it's not going to work the way you intend it to, as it obviously cannot build you a legal line as it moves down..."
"Oh well that's crap and I've worked here (___), and weekends off and waive default credit and work work work"
"You hosed your bid. Sir."
"Oh well I'm gonna write a letter and work work..."
"That's cute, sir."
Work work work
-please let the airplane come so we can get this done-
Sigh. You've got to at least try, guys and gals.
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
Although I will say I absolutely LOVE helping people with PBS - I've helped steer a lot of folks into getting if not what they exactly want, better schedules and more control at least. Seven chances for success, kids.
ian
Well-Known Member
What's wrong with only wanting to work Tuesdays 1-4 pm?
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
SpiceWeasel
Tre Kronor
Wow! Cooperate to graduate. So different than my Pinnacle days. You never, as a line pilot at least, wanted to help others bid. If they screw up it helps you potentially get a better schedule. Yes, we had many like that.
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
I see it as more of a "different strokes" type thing. I would, for instance, fly the hell out of a paint or FCF line, while most people don't want to touch that stuff, and I like my AM 4-days (surprisingly, "ditto"- getting done before noon is the best thing ever...).
And, well, it ALWAYS helps to get more senior, too...
skatergeek
Beet Farmer
...but but but the bar graph reached my seniority percentage by layer 7! What's with all these CNs and PNs?! Bahaha!
I am definitely not an expert on PBS but the first thing I did after bro IOE was figure out how our screwy system "thinks". In 4 years I've never had a PN, rarely get a CN, and most the time solve by layer 3-4....people just need to sit down and read manual and not be so damn picky!
B767
Well-Known Member
50 on the nose. Granted the DVR is a "best guess." Hello MSP CRJ CA! Unless you're "senior" enough to get one of the 3 SFO 175 vacancies. Hehe
B767
Well-Known Member
It's so funny. I'm not making this up. I have a buddy who came here a while after I did. He was bidding 92% in LAX. Would alternate between being the last line holder or the most senior reserve. He would call me up every month to help him with his bid. I kid you not, he had "max weekends off" AND "max days off" and would bid a few pairings in later 1. I would cry from laughing so hard looking at his bid.
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
50 on the nose. Granted the DVR is a "best guess." Hello MSP CRJ CA! Unless you're "senior" enough to get one of the 3 SFO 175 vacancies. Hehe
(Damn, Mean Girls is oddly quotable in this industry...)
It's interesting to compare what we have with our peer airlines (except Compass, because, well, it's the same system, without their line-improvement and schedule completion process - I happened to meet the CPZ PBS people at NGPA, which was a good way to kill time in the standby line(s)). ASA has no such thing as "coverage needed" because their L7 equivalent is "have ALL the pairings." I do like the idea of constraining PBS to CNs to the bottom (blank) percent of the list, but I doubt that AOS can be made to do that, to be really honest. I also like the idea of having a defined resolution process for PBS errors - which do happen, from time to time (and sometimes they're as blatant as 'Yep not assigning you that reserve line' — I mean how would a computer screw up a hard line bid?! apparently it can) other than "if you see one, you get made whole for it."
It did reinforce the notion that, for the most part, our counterparts have the same issues.
My programming side yells, "THESE ARE CONFLICTING LINE PROPERTIES! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU WON'T GET EITHER!" which is borne out by, um, experience. The best bids I had when I was junior were basically "Include all pairings/avoid reserve" — because at 92%, giving the system latitude to build you a schedule is a survival tactic. (I happened to get Christmas off this way at least once...those were the pairings that were left over to assign.)
Plus, if you're not bound by Earthly constraints, a day off is largely a day off; where they fall upon your schedule is nowhere near as important as how many of them you have consecutively, as far as this pilot is concerned. YMMV, especially those of you with spawn.