Mr_Creepy
Well-Known Member
I saw this on mesahub and although it is about Mesa, I'm sure it applies to ALL regionals. I love this!
The "Unofficial" Company Manual...contributions are being solicited.
First of all, this is not an effort to pick on the newer line employees here, or the new captains. This is an effort to educate you on what your actual, contractual obligations are to the company, and what they "tell you" you have to do, but don't. I realize that many of you new folks are already pretty savy...RR tends to educate quickly. I am hoping that further contributions to this thread expound on helping you help yourself, as this company puts us through this self inflicted crisis. Feel free to print this out and pass it around to the new folks...and tell them to come visit this website...www.mesahub.com. By the way, as far as I know, this manual is non-airline specific.
NOTE: This manual has no basis, in the event the company implements a newfound respect for its employees and their families
and negotiates a contract that reflects such, or, in the event of a global nuclear event...whichever comes first.
New Line Crewmembers:
1. Unless you are on reserve, you are NOT required to answer your phone. You are NOT required to answer your hotel phone
either. If you are reserve but are flying a trip, you are NOT required to answer your phone. That cellphone of yours is NOT being
paid for by the company. You are under no obligation to own a cellphone, and if you have one, you are under no obligation to tell
them your contact number is a cellphone.
2. If you are sitting reserve, you are obligated to have a contact phone number. That number should be at your "house." If you
are sitting Ready Reserve, how can you answer your house phone? Exactly. It is their responsibility to find you at the airport.
3. If your original schedule, showed that you finished a trip at 1700, plus the 15 minutes of duty at the end to bring it
to 1715...at 1716 you have DUTIED OFF. You are done. If you accidentally take a CT phone call (see item 1), and they want
you to fly, tell them "NO, I have dutied off. They cannot put you back on duty until you have had the required minimum
rest (most likely 8 hours). It is your option, and your option only, to go back on duty, not theirs.
4. If you are on a trip, and you accidentally answer a CT call while at the hotel (see item 1 again) and CT wants you to "find"
your captain, your FO, your FA....your answer should eventually be, "I looked everywhere, I can't find them." There is a reason
CT can't find them...they don't want to be found. If they ask you to knock on a crewmember's door, do not do it.
5. If you are required to answer your phone after a trip because you have to sit reserve afterwards, or you have accidentally
answered a CT call again (see item 1 yet again), and CT asks if your captain, FO, or FA are with you...the answer is always, "I
don't know where they are." Do not, under any circumstances, say "sure, hang on a second", and then pass your phone to
the other crewmember. You will lose a limb.
6. If you are assigned regular reserve, not Ready Reserve....it always takes you an hour and a half to get to the airport....EVEN IF
you are already at the airport.
7. Always give the other crewmembers a heads up if CT is trying to contact you during that trip.
8. If you are in doubt as to what your contractual requirements are, the captain will likely be your best source of information
outside of a union rep. It will not be that crew tracker looking for a warm body. Ask your captain...most of them don't bite.
9. If you cannot find a union rep or senior crew member to clarify a question you have about the contract, come to this forum
and pose your question. There are a lot of good folks here that are interested in looking out for you.
10. Golden days can protect your QOL in times of short staffing. You don't have to put golden days on all of the lines that
you bid, just the ones you think you are likely to get. A good rule is to put your golden on the first day of a string of days off.
That way, the company cannot JA you on your last day on a trip. If you are due for a training event, and don't want the company
to put it right in the middle of the only four days off you have seen in a year, drop a golden day in the middle of that string of days
off. Oh....and apparently, there is some value in keeping a copy of what your golden days are, just in case CT wants to delete it, in
deference to the contract.
11. If you believe that CT will do a future favor for you, if you will just do this one thing for them, I have a bridge to sell you. They
have memories like elephants...dead elephants.
12. You "duty on" when your schedule says you duty on. It is not when CT leaves you 4 messages in the middle of the night
telling you not to duty on at 4 am for that reserve shift. For fun, I always like to call them about an hour into my 4am shift and
ask them what all the messages were about...that I have not listened to them yet. When they explain that they didn't want you
do duty on, tell them that, "Well, that's a problem isn't it...I already did at 4am. Now if you would like to duty me off for my
minimum rest of 8 hours, and then duty me back on, then we might have a solution." As I said, you duty on when your schedule
shows you dutied on...not when your airplane shows up 7 hours late.
13. Ok, this should have been said much earlier. READ YOUR CONTRACT. CARRY YOUR CONTRACT. Then read your contract 3
more times! If you can't tell CT what the terms of your contract are, then they will have a field day with you. They DO NOT have
a copy of your contract...and if they did, they would not read it. Why? Because your contract only makes their job more difficult.
There are some very nice people in CT...they probably all were before they took that job. They don't all stay nice.
14. There are times when you are contractually required to call CT. You are not contractually obligated to call them and wait
for 45 minutes to get through. Document your efforts in an email to a supervisor as to when you thought you were required
to call, what time you called, and how many times you made the attempt. You have fulfilled your part of the contract. The company
is being irresponsible by being understaffed in CT. You cannot fix this problem. I have seen too many FA's in tears because they
couldn't get through. You are wasting water that could be used to get a captain to buy you a free lunch.
For new Captains:
1. If you are a captain, and you have a grounding MX issue. Write it up. Wait for MX to show up. Why would you make more
than one call in regards to this problem. In theory, MX talks to dispatch, dispatch talks to CT if there is a problem that will keep
the plane on the ground. You are not being paid to be proactive, nor to use up your cellphone minutes as your entire crew
sits on the airplane for two hours wondering what will happen to you. This company is made up of big boys and girls that all
know their responsibilities right? Why make 3 phone calls, when one will do? This company always has considered you "meat in
the seat" and not a manager captain. When they finally decide that they value your opinion or your time with your family, then
consider making follow up phone calls. Yes, I understand you might lose some money. Pick your battles carefully.
2. Those MX that seem to pop up and then disappear during flight. They all need to be written up. Sometimes that might require
that the airplane be flight tested before being put back on the line....and that is exactly what the FAA requires. These type
of problems can be very difficult to isolate and take valuable amounts of resources and time.
3. When faced with the decision as to whether you should hold or divert, and given the absolute minimum fuel to remain in
the pattern before diverting, consider everyone else that has already diverted, creating a 25 mile final into your alternate, and
eating up every available ground and gate resource at that alternate. How much were you getting paid to hold vs. diverting and
how will that help you explain to the FAA why you had to declare a fuel emergency?
4. Past precedence at the CP level, and possibly new appointments at the RCP level, indicate that it may be prudent to record
phone calls in regard to company business. First, a quick lesson in law regarding recording phone calls. Federal law says that only one party is required to know the call is being recorded. Some states require that both parties know the call is being recorded. So, if the company is recording the call, and you are recording the call, both parties are infomed that the call is being recorded, since both of you already knew the company was recording it. Nothing I know of requires disclosure that the call is being recorded, times 2. Now that old pesky problem of the company being "unable" to find the tapes of a conversation, is alleviated. Now, how to do it. Radio shack offers a black microphone with a suction cup on it, specifically designed to be place on the back of a phones earpiece (cellphone, home phone, payphone). That item costs approx. $5. Get a small digital recorder from Best Buy or Frys for $25-30. No tell tale beeps. Good for conversations with Foghorns too.
5. There are a lot of pressures to get flights out on time, to fly past the fatigue threshold, to fly with smaller fuel loads. Safety is primary. If there is a question in your mind, then do something about it. If a CP or RCP is telling you to do something you consider unsafe, the word "SAFE" or its derivative, should be used by you, multiple times on that recorded phone call....as you decline their request. There is an old saying that goes, "If the pilot makes a mistake, the pilot dies. If the ATC controller makes a mistake, the pilot still dies." It applies to Chief Pilots and Dispatchers as well.
The "Unofficial" Company Manual...contributions are being solicited.
First of all, this is not an effort to pick on the newer line employees here, or the new captains. This is an effort to educate you on what your actual, contractual obligations are to the company, and what they "tell you" you have to do, but don't. I realize that many of you new folks are already pretty savy...RR tends to educate quickly. I am hoping that further contributions to this thread expound on helping you help yourself, as this company puts us through this self inflicted crisis. Feel free to print this out and pass it around to the new folks...and tell them to come visit this website...www.mesahub.com. By the way, as far as I know, this manual is non-airline specific.
NOTE: This manual has no basis, in the event the company implements a newfound respect for its employees and their families
and negotiates a contract that reflects such, or, in the event of a global nuclear event...whichever comes first.
New Line Crewmembers:
1. Unless you are on reserve, you are NOT required to answer your phone. You are NOT required to answer your hotel phone
either. If you are reserve but are flying a trip, you are NOT required to answer your phone. That cellphone of yours is NOT being
paid for by the company. You are under no obligation to own a cellphone, and if you have one, you are under no obligation to tell
them your contact number is a cellphone.
2. If you are sitting reserve, you are obligated to have a contact phone number. That number should be at your "house." If you
are sitting Ready Reserve, how can you answer your house phone? Exactly. It is their responsibility to find you at the airport.
3. If your original schedule, showed that you finished a trip at 1700, plus the 15 minutes of duty at the end to bring it
to 1715...at 1716 you have DUTIED OFF. You are done. If you accidentally take a CT phone call (see item 1), and they want
you to fly, tell them "NO, I have dutied off. They cannot put you back on duty until you have had the required minimum
rest (most likely 8 hours). It is your option, and your option only, to go back on duty, not theirs.
4. If you are on a trip, and you accidentally answer a CT call while at the hotel (see item 1 again) and CT wants you to "find"
your captain, your FO, your FA....your answer should eventually be, "I looked everywhere, I can't find them." There is a reason
CT can't find them...they don't want to be found. If they ask you to knock on a crewmember's door, do not do it.
5. If you are required to answer your phone after a trip because you have to sit reserve afterwards, or you have accidentally
answered a CT call again (see item 1 yet again), and CT asks if your captain, FO, or FA are with you...the answer is always, "I
don't know where they are." Do not, under any circumstances, say "sure, hang on a second", and then pass your phone to
the other crewmember. You will lose a limb.
6. If you are assigned regular reserve, not Ready Reserve....it always takes you an hour and a half to get to the airport....EVEN IF
you are already at the airport.
7. Always give the other crewmembers a heads up if CT is trying to contact you during that trip.
8. If you are in doubt as to what your contractual requirements are, the captain will likely be your best source of information
outside of a union rep. It will not be that crew tracker looking for a warm body. Ask your captain...most of them don't bite.
9. If you cannot find a union rep or senior crew member to clarify a question you have about the contract, come to this forum
and pose your question. There are a lot of good folks here that are interested in looking out for you.
10. Golden days can protect your QOL in times of short staffing. You don't have to put golden days on all of the lines that
you bid, just the ones you think you are likely to get. A good rule is to put your golden on the first day of a string of days off.
That way, the company cannot JA you on your last day on a trip. If you are due for a training event, and don't want the company
to put it right in the middle of the only four days off you have seen in a year, drop a golden day in the middle of that string of days
off. Oh....and apparently, there is some value in keeping a copy of what your golden days are, just in case CT wants to delete it, in
deference to the contract.
11. If you believe that CT will do a future favor for you, if you will just do this one thing for them, I have a bridge to sell you. They
have memories like elephants...dead elephants.
12. You "duty on" when your schedule says you duty on. It is not when CT leaves you 4 messages in the middle of the night
telling you not to duty on at 4 am for that reserve shift. For fun, I always like to call them about an hour into my 4am shift and
ask them what all the messages were about...that I have not listened to them yet. When they explain that they didn't want you
do duty on, tell them that, "Well, that's a problem isn't it...I already did at 4am. Now if you would like to duty me off for my
minimum rest of 8 hours, and then duty me back on, then we might have a solution." As I said, you duty on when your schedule
shows you dutied on...not when your airplane shows up 7 hours late.
13. Ok, this should have been said much earlier. READ YOUR CONTRACT. CARRY YOUR CONTRACT. Then read your contract 3
more times! If you can't tell CT what the terms of your contract are, then they will have a field day with you. They DO NOT have
a copy of your contract...and if they did, they would not read it. Why? Because your contract only makes their job more difficult.
There are some very nice people in CT...they probably all were before they took that job. They don't all stay nice.
14. There are times when you are contractually required to call CT. You are not contractually obligated to call them and wait
for 45 minutes to get through. Document your efforts in an email to a supervisor as to when you thought you were required
to call, what time you called, and how many times you made the attempt. You have fulfilled your part of the contract. The company
is being irresponsible by being understaffed in CT. You cannot fix this problem. I have seen too many FA's in tears because they
couldn't get through. You are wasting water that could be used to get a captain to buy you a free lunch.
For new Captains:
1. If you are a captain, and you have a grounding MX issue. Write it up. Wait for MX to show up. Why would you make more
than one call in regards to this problem. In theory, MX talks to dispatch, dispatch talks to CT if there is a problem that will keep
the plane on the ground. You are not being paid to be proactive, nor to use up your cellphone minutes as your entire crew
sits on the airplane for two hours wondering what will happen to you. This company is made up of big boys and girls that all
know their responsibilities right? Why make 3 phone calls, when one will do? This company always has considered you "meat in
the seat" and not a manager captain. When they finally decide that they value your opinion or your time with your family, then
consider making follow up phone calls. Yes, I understand you might lose some money. Pick your battles carefully.
2. Those MX that seem to pop up and then disappear during flight. They all need to be written up. Sometimes that might require
that the airplane be flight tested before being put back on the line....and that is exactly what the FAA requires. These type
of problems can be very difficult to isolate and take valuable amounts of resources and time.
3. When faced with the decision as to whether you should hold or divert, and given the absolute minimum fuel to remain in
the pattern before diverting, consider everyone else that has already diverted, creating a 25 mile final into your alternate, and
eating up every available ground and gate resource at that alternate. How much were you getting paid to hold vs. diverting and
how will that help you explain to the FAA why you had to declare a fuel emergency?
4. Past precedence at the CP level, and possibly new appointments at the RCP level, indicate that it may be prudent to record
phone calls in regard to company business. First, a quick lesson in law regarding recording phone calls. Federal law says that only one party is required to know the call is being recorded. Some states require that both parties know the call is being recorded. So, if the company is recording the call, and you are recording the call, both parties are infomed that the call is being recorded, since both of you already knew the company was recording it. Nothing I know of requires disclosure that the call is being recorded, times 2. Now that old pesky problem of the company being "unable" to find the tapes of a conversation, is alleviated. Now, how to do it. Radio shack offers a black microphone with a suction cup on it, specifically designed to be place on the back of a phones earpiece (cellphone, home phone, payphone). That item costs approx. $5. Get a small digital recorder from Best Buy or Frys for $25-30. No tell tale beeps. Good for conversations with Foghorns too.
5. There are a lot of pressures to get flights out on time, to fly past the fatigue threshold, to fly with smaller fuel loads. Safety is primary. If there is a question in your mind, then do something about it. If a CP or RCP is telling you to do something you consider unsafe, the word "SAFE" or its derivative, should be used by you, multiple times on that recorded phone call....as you decline their request. There is an old saying that goes, "If the pilot makes a mistake, the pilot dies. If the ATC controller makes a mistake, the pilot still dies." It applies to Chief Pilots and Dispatchers as well.
