Mach X

And in the event of an incident, it probably would not look too good during the investigation if one of the pilots flew 30 hours (random number) in addition to his 80-100 hours at the airline. Just a thought.

goaround2000

I agree 100%. In my humble opinion there are simply too many liabilities associated with "extracurricular" flying.

mooney

Maybe they have FO's on furlough and dont want to pick up open time, or have downgraded Captains and they don't want to pick up CA open time.

mmaviator

You can try to become a dpe like some of the major airline pilots do on the side. Not sure on the requirements.

Lowlevel

Any regional? Really? I know some guys on reserve at regionals that only fly a few days a month, the rest is spent on reserve and sitting ready reserve.

Why not pick up time? Maybe because there are furloughed pilots on the street at your regional. If you pick up time, with fellow pilots on the street, you're a word I can't type on APC.

newarkblows

When you go to ask permission the nice guys will let you do it but the responsibility to make it work is on you. as an on call guy for a privately owned/managed aircraft I rarely fly 20 hrs or more a month doing charter and some of that time doesnt count towards time and duty. If you bid for low value lines, trade down to low time trips, and give yourself a buffer it wont be an issue. If you are constantly running to scheduling or the CP because you timed out or are going to time out then it wont work.

It opens up a lot of doors and networking inside and out of this business is always a good idea for a backup plan. Also most charter outfits type the FO's on the aircraft which is just another resume builder. I have been lucky with getting time off for recurrent and unmovable stuff so i will knock on wood. good luck.

smackahoCEO

Get real, my regional has had guys on furlough for 1.5+ years, and if nobody picks a trip up they junior man someone. I picked up 70 hours in 2009 (at time and a half thats $4,250!). And guess what, they just recalled the last of the furloughs! Who would have thought? Picking up open time has ZERO impact on furloughs. Nobody picks it up=Jr. Man. Someone picks it up=someone doesn't get Jr Manned and can go home and be with their family on their day off. When we got the flying back and attrition caught up, then we hire guys. Which believe it or not is happening now.

Here is how it works at my airline:
Airline gets a schedule 3 months out, looks at staffing levels, puts the block hours in a computer, and it tells them how many pilots they need/hor many lines it will generate. If it is 400, and we have 380 then they run the airline thin. If it is 400 and we have 320, then we hire. If it is 400 and we have 460==>FURLOUGH!

Obviously month by month they obviously do not hire/furlough. So they look at the forecast for months to come and come paired with historical data and come up with a number. And if I pick up a turn and make 6 extra hours of pay, that has ZERO impact on them bringing a furlough back.

Blueskies21

Except you can bet in their calulation they're using some figure for how much open time guys will pick up. Lower that figure and now maybe the number is 350 to hire instead of 320. I'm sure it's much preferable to them to have you pick it up as open time than have to junior man someone, it just comes with way less complications.
Junior Mans pay the same as open time and generally return the day off..... hard to junior man a large amount of flying. Depending on the contract there also may be a limit to the number of times you can be JM'd in a month or year.

JJOSH122

Because I would be logging ME Turbine PIC at my "second" job. and would be a newhire FO at a regional.

Cycle Pilot

Bingo! Exactly why you shouldn't be picking up open time with fellow pilots on furlough. Of course, they're taking this into account. Good post.