TMC jets

flyinghedgehog

flyinghedgehog

Well-Known Member
Guys,

Since I refuse to work for operators who bend/break rest or duty rules... or do stuffs that are unsafe.

Does anyone know if TMC jets still does rolling rest period during rotation? That is expecting you to answer the phone anytime they call but if they don't call they would say it is considered rest period. This is illegal since the FAA determines that rest must be 1. free from obligations from any duty should that arise 2. be continuous 3. be determined prospectively

I don't mind not having any alcoholic beverage. I just start out and understand some sacrifices have to be made.

I heard about them having hotel staff knock on your hotel room door so you can go reposition airplane part 91 or something? While I understand that part 91 stuff does not prescribe rest or duty period I would refuse to fly if I am not well rested.

Interviewing and applying for jobs is exhausting and take up a lot of energy so I would not put my time into any company if I am going to back out in the end. If anyone has any info I would appreciate it. Thanks
 
flyinghedgehog said:
Guys,

Since I refuse to work for operators who bend/break rest or duty rules... or do stuffs that are unsafe.

Does anyone know if TMC jets still does rolling rest period during rotation? That is expecting you to answer the phone anytime they call but if they don't call they would say it is considered rest period. This is illegal since the FAA determines that rest must be 1. free from obligations from any duty should that arise 2. be continuous 3. be determined prospectively

I don't mind not having any alcoholic beverage. I just start out and understand some sacrifices have to be made.

I heard about them having hotel staff knock on your hotel room door so you can go reposition airplane part 91 or something? While I understand that part 91 stuff does not prescribe rest or duty period I would refuse to fly if I am not well rested.

Interviewing and applying for jobs is exhausting and take up a lot of energy so I would not put my time into any company if I am going to back out in the end. If anyone has any info I would appreciate it. Thanks
Click to expand...

Good luck with that, at least when you are starting out that is.
 
ppragman said:
Good luck with that, at least when you are starting out that is.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know but that is my choice. Worst come to worst I foot the bill for the last 100 hour and go regional. Sadly, I started out with the intention not to hurry up to regional but I just can't stand this whole casually breaking regs culture. I know some 135 can be great and do not operate that way but I have yet to find one. 121 is not completely legal either I know but so far they don't do this ' obvious in your face' kind of regs skirting.

Sure there are some regs out there that don't make much sense, some completely mangled by lobbyists, yet a lot of them regs make sense.

I am not saying that everyone could be 100 percent by the book. I am happy as long as everyone does their best every day. Will I skirt the reg if somebody is dying and I am flying medevac and it is not by the book but can still be done safely? Yes I will. Will I work for an outfit that requires me to break regs from the get go? Don't think so. To each his own I guess.

I should have said I would actually consider not being 100 percent by the book if it is safe and if there is a good reason for it. Otherwise no.
 
Last edited:
flyinghedgehog said:
Yeah I know but that is my choice. Worst come to worst I foot the bill for the last 100 hour and go regional. Sadly, I started out with the intention not to hurry up to regional but I just can't stand this whole casually breaking regs culture. I know some 135 can be great and do not operate that way but I have yet to find one. 121 is not completely legal either I know but so far they don't do this ' obvious in your face' kind of regs skirting.

Sure there are some regs out there that don't make much sense, some completely mangled by lobbyists, yet a lot of them regs make sense.

I am not saying that everyone could be 100 percent by the book. I am happy as long as everyone does their best every day. Will I skirt the reg if somebody is dying and I am flying medevac and it is not by the book but can still be done safely? Yes I will. Will I work for an outfit that requires me to break regs from the get go? Don't think so. To each his own I guess.

I should have said I would actually consider not being 100 percent by the book if it is safe and if there is a good reason for it. Otherwise no.
Click to expand...
Oh cool, so your willing to kill your whole crew to attempt to save a life, killing them in the process.
Please don't fly medivac.
 
No z987k read it again. I said " if it is not by the book BUT CAN BE DONE SAFELY"

I understand there is crew on board and would not get the all killed just to save a life. All I am saying is that at the end of the day what is safe is more important to me than the regs, and that I do not stubbornly follow,regs to the letter. The real world is not cut and dry...
 
z987k said:
Oh cool, so your willing to kill your whole crew to attempt to save a life, killing them in the process.
Please don't fly medivac.
Click to expand...

I know decisions like that are not easy either, to let someone die because you have no other choice. My commercial CFI retired from UPS and flies medevac part time and told me about how much pressure you are under in this type of situation. Anyhow it is pretty clear that If all on board dies taking the flight does not serve anybody.

I hope I make myself clear --- I would focus on safety, not necessarily on following regs to the letter. Say I need oxygen below the altitude where it is mandatory what would I do? Start breathing oxygen. Screws and small parts on pilot seat snag skydivers's gear and could become a hazard? Cover it up with a board or a piece of canvas or duct tape. ( of course I would consult the dropzone owner and the mechanic first) Feds came by to ramp check and told me they are not Cessna parts...yeah right what is worse, getting your gear snagged and having the parachute deploy on your way out the door or making sure everything in the plane is certified cessna part.?? One nav light inop and got a patient bleeding to death and nobody around or no time to change that lightbulb? Of course I will go. Patient dying but the weather at destination and all around the area is below minimum and no improvement forecasted? Either I figure out where else I can fly them to safely or I stay on the ground. TMC knocks on my door to do part 91 reposition and I could wake up get a cup of coffee and feel alert and well rested? Yeah will do it. TMC knocks on my door and I feel dog tired and incoherent? Ain't going.
 
Last edited:
TMC doesn't do rolling rest anymore.
When you are in rest, you have NO obligation to answer phone. You can answer if you want, but are not obligated to. And no one has EVER knocked on my door with a message from TMC. Ever.

Hope this answers your questions

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk
 
flyinghedgehog said:
I know decisions like that are not easy either, to let someone die because you have no other choice. My commercial CFI retired from UPS and flies medevac part time and told me about how much pressure you are under in this type of situation. Anyhow it is pretty clear that If all on board dies taking the flight does not serve anybody.
Click to expand...
I've never heard medevac flying be called stressful. I don't think you have any idea what medevac flying is.
Actually I can see a long time 121 guy getting flustered. Having to do all of the flying job instead of just the literal flying.
 
Of course I would not say I know better than someone who has done it because I have never done it. Stuff I knew is heresay. Everybody has different experience depending on their background and personality.

I believe, however, that one can get some idea about what the job is like through talking to a bunch of people. Common sense would also make it clear that killing all on board by taking unsafe flight would not serve anybody. I personally can't imagine the decision to not transport a patient due to adverse condition to be easy or stress-free. I heard dispatch generally does not disclose the patient's condition when they call you to discuss the flight and make a decision to go or not to go, still you do get to see them when they board, right? While repositioning or flying the patient to destination, the mission pressure can make it more difficult to be totally unaffected when making decisions regarding the flight. Maybe after doing this enough you get used to it and it does not affect you any more. I am not saying that it would affect people to the point where they can't make good, safe decisions but it is probably not the same as flying boxes or healthy people.

Maybe there are folks who are just not affected by these things and can keep a clear head with no difficulty...good for them.

His background was flying boxes so I suppose it makes sense why he finds it more stressful than you do. It was not the flying or flight planning that got him, but properly assessing the risks and maintain good ADM under that kind of pressure. People can die, boxes can't.

If that is Ok I would like to PM you and ask what your experience is like. Or maybe even set up a new thread to ask around. I would like to find out more anyways.
 
Last edited:
Medevac is literally the easiest and best job in the world - and does not require any form of "reg skirting."

If you ever do fly medevac, and you have the option to skirt the regs - do not. If you can't do the job without feeling the necessity to break the rules, then you're probably in the wrong job.

The only thing I could remotely condone is >250 below 10 if your patient was coding and you had already let ATC know you needed everyone out of your way - and even then it's stupid because what does it save you? 1 minute? Tops? Not to mention that you're not used to it so you'll probably screw something up. And if you get caught - well, you probably won't be doing any more medevacs. Nah, abide by the rules, fly stable approaches, etc. from a utilitarian standpoint it maximizes your ability to continue to do medevacs which in turn maximizes the amount of people you can help.

That doesn't mean on a VFR day you can't do barber pole to the outer marker in a king air, or 250 to the marker in the jet - but give yourself time to do the right thing. If you have to go around because you didn't do the right thing you add a lot more time (and most importantly to the patients family mileage) to the patient transport.

Similarly with respect to the rules - weirdly enough I was a lot more conservative flying medevac than I was flying boxes or flying in the sticks. A divert with a patient on board is a damn disaster. If you're going to launch a flight, you should have a reasonable assurance that you will find the airport. When I was flying freight I'd gladly go "take a look" when the weather was VV001 and 1800RVR. With medevac, while I may be legal, the first thing I do is ask the crew "hey guys, I can legally accept this trip, and I can do it safely, but there's a relatively decent chance we won't see anything but clouds when we get there, if we have to go missed do we have a place to take this person?" 9/10 times the answer is, "why don't we wait on the weather."

When you get down to mins there could be a temptation to cheat if someone was real sick - but if you don't have the self discipline to restrain yourself this isn't the career for you. I'd be lying if I said it was easy all the time, especially with things like checklist discipline when the person in the back is really sick and you know the machine like the back of your hand, but as I flew medevac more I learned to better compartmentalize and manage my time so that I could be quick and still use the checklist. This is especially true on the ground where stupid errors can be fatal.

Anyone who has flown medevac has thought about this sort of thing - honestly, the patient's fate is sealed before they get to the plane, your job is to make sure your crew gets to and from the patient safely so that you can complete as many necessary patient transports as possible.
 
flyinghedgehog said:
Of course I would not say I know better than someone who has done it because I have never done it. Stuff I knew is heresay.
Click to expand...
That's the problem with "Hearsay"... when you hear someone say it, you are unable to substantiate its spelling. You could overhear something, say, over here by the hangar. Yet, over here or over there, the location of the saying is irrelevant. It's what you hear and are unable to verify that matters.
 
Lol wrong terminology, my bad. I know two pilots who flies medevac personally. The first guy I talked about, I believe is really not hearsay because he does have direct experience. So not some random hangar talk between non medevac crew. True that I have never done it myself so whatever I think would be the case may not be the case. I ain't no expert.

I just texted the other guy I know who used to fly for Reva. He said he is pretty much unaffected by blood and burns and stuff of that nature. He said flying patients is a lot easier than flying rich people in their bizjet. No ice coffee paper, just load them up and get them there.... Again that is his perspective, I do not claim it is mine, nor do I claim that medevac flying is just that. Some medevac crew on this forum weighted in this morning that there is more to it.



:cry: Oh well. We will see how it works out for me when I fly medevac myself if that ever happens...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top