propjock13

Can someone shed some light on how the Red Label program works for pilots?

Is it seniority or merit based?

How long does one have to wait to have the opportunity for it?

If you fly the Red Label program, do you have to live in domicile or can you commute?

Anything else that's good to know is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

followingdreams

Red Label is for Captains of either the Challenger or Praetor. Its a program where 3 CAs together are responsible for "manning" (sorry ALPA) the left seat every day. They can make their own schedules amongst themselves and as long as the plane is covered in the left seat, the company doesnt care. FOs in those fleets are still assigned at Indoc, but their schedules are defined by the company. DRL (Domestic Red Label) CAs are seniority based, an FO in the Phenom who is senior to an FO in a Challenger, will be upgraded to CA in the Challenger before the FO in the Challenger. FOs in the Challenger (or any other fleet) can upgrade to CA in the Phenom within about 8 months currently. It would take them about 18 months to upgrade to CA in the DRL fleets (expected to increase with the new pay structure). If you upgrade to CA in the Phenom, you have a 2 year seat lock that "can be waived based on company needs"

All pilots are home based.

Hope that helps!

Sapsucker

The VP of RL recently clarified the scheduling deal. Although the assumption is that the 3-CA team would staff "their" airplance, that would only require about 32 man-days per bid period. 32/3 = <11 days/month average per CA, but really each pilot needs to work at least 14 days per month, so the teams will submit schedules in excess of the need for their specific tail (typically 45-48 man-days). I imagine these extra days would allow for training (and associated travel), meetings, floater duty on other teams' aircraft, etc.

IMaFracGOD

Each pilot does not need to work 14 days
He said most submit a schedule of 15 or 16 days.
This is by the choice of the pilots, wanting to work and get paid for 15/16 days
If the 3 pilots submit the minimum schedule, with only a 1 day overlap, the minimum days needed for the team is 32 to 34 days
Most submit a schedule with 2 day overlaps
We do have to cover training events
There are no meetings that we are required to attend, except IP/CA, but that is 1 day a year
A 3 captain team is not responsible for floater duty. They have specific floater pilots. If there ends up being excessive coverage on your airplane, you could fill in on either seat in another airplane