GoodJet

A reserve day is a day off if:

- you never drink alcohol
- you never get out of cell phone range
- you never get in the water where you can’t bring a cell phone
- you never make plans
- you are constantly prepared to change into your uniform and head to the airport
- you never do things like camping or go off the grid
- you don’t have facial hair

rickair7777

Two words: Long & Call

But even so, I don't consider unused reserve as days off, more like a perk of the job. Beats going to work, I can get stuff done at home. If you sit reserve in a crash pad, that's a lot more like work than not. If you live 30 minutes from the parking lot, you have a lot more flexibility.

I don't shave, but I guess if you sit short call 200 miles from the field then yeah.

You can go on the water, there're work-arounds such as apple watches. I used to ski on reserve, back when cell coverage wasn't great so I had to bomb down the mountain and quickly catch the lift back to the top to check for messages. Best on weekdays.

I've even done family/wife getaways, just bring all my stuff and do something local to the domicile. About 70% success rate not getting called, but obviously you have to consider available coverage and your position on the list. Jan, Feb and Oct work best. You can load up your credit early in the month to improve your odds at the end.

Probably the best part is that I call all the scheduling shots, not the wife lol. She learned that the hard way once, had to bail on an important work event to pick up the kid, after she *assumed* I wouldn't get called.

Again, not days off, just leveraging the perk of getting paid while potentially not getting called.

C340

Sounds like the first 30 days of every month in the part 91 corporate world. “You only flew 8 days this month, life must be nice for you,” said my former boss, irritated that I was asking for a hard day off. Yeah, it’s great, I’ve got so much time that I can’t even reliably schedule a teeth cleaning at the dentist, dinner with my neighbors, or any plans on any given day.

It’s great that people are able to put things in perspective and see the positive in being at home while on reserve, but it is in no way shape or form a day off.

PNWFlyer

even in short call you have a 2 hour window to drink all you want. Lost of people drink between 5-7am.
Get a Garmin InReach! Never out of cell phone range.
I have a water proof case for my phone. Use it to take pictures underwater.
I make plans all the time, I change plans, I modify plans, I plan plans.
I only consider changing when I get called. Even if I am in the water during my planned time to be in the water.
Lots of places to camp that are closer to the airport than most people live.
all of this done with facial hair.

and that’s short call. Long call is even better.

FreqFlyer

Wait huh…I assume you meant Lots of people drink between 5-7am?? Really!?!

Carebear

If 12/13 days a month of drinking, adding on drinking on overnights isn’t enough, then maybe there is a problem to discuss with HIMS. Also Alaska has 10 hour RAP windows. So if you need to drink everyday, that gives you a window of 4 hours a day to crack open a 6 pack after your RAP window is over, with enough time to yell at your family.

I’m not sure if some of you sit on a couch all day waiting for your phone to ring while on call, but myself and many others live a normal life. I’ve been called out before while at the park with the family, out grocery shopping or halfway through a run, where they called me at the 3 mile point on a 6 mile run. Took me 25 minutes to get back home each time. Every time I had time to shower, shave and still made it with enough time for showtime. I don’t think any job allows you to drive 2 hours to the mountains and setup a campsite with no cellphone service while being on call, but maybe that’s why Alaska pilots are mad at their NC.

ShyGuy

I don't drink.
Out of cell phone range, really? Are we pretending we do this on a regular every day basis? I live in a city and there's plenty of cell phone coverage.
Get in the water? I don't hit the beach every day. Just on occasion and on real days off.
Plans on M-F are pretty simple. Drop kids off at school, pick kids up from school. Homework. Activities like swimming for kids, soccer, playing outside. Dinner. And gym at some point. Most school days are fairly routine stuff.
Camping or go off the grid? Literally no one does that with work associated with it. Save that for the real days off.
Uniform and bags? Already mostly packed. Would take maybe 5-10 minutes to final touch and leave.
Facial hair? Funny, I don't shave when I'm not called on reserve. Wife ends up joking, when will they call you?
Again, M-F with kids in school is pretty basic routine stuff. It's nice not being called on reserve those days because we can have a regular day at home with the wife and kids. I call them bonus days (not regular off days).

ReluctantEskimo

And that's the point. Any day that you don't feel that you could do anything you want is not a day off.

This has been a fun little detour talking about what we do in our spare time. But the point of all of this is that you come here and brag about your amazing schedule, when to someone else with more diverse interests, it might not be so great.

You've also been known to call a day with a release before noon as a day off, as well. And it's these little changes in definitions is what makes your claims so implausible. It is a contributing factor to why the QOL is so bad here. As long as people are content with 14 real days off per month, then nothing will change.

Jet J

Our on call periods are 12 hours every day we’re on short call plus we can move those days around. We also have 12/13 off a month. It’s not all rainbows and sunshine here but it’s not even close to how bad corporate is.

Jetlikespeed

short call RAPs are 12 hours