Ok first some splainin’. Hawaiian Interisland Reserve typically goes VERY senior. For those of you who believe Reserve is strictly for newbies that’s not always the case. You see ALL 717 pilots live on Oahu (you really can’t commute and fly Interisland), We’re usually properly staffed, have spare airplanes and the weather… well this is Hawaii. What that means is pilots rarely call in sick, if planes break there’s a spare standing by, crews don’t get stuck due to weather and there are ZERO overnights. Factor in the fact that we have a 2hr “call out” and there’s nowhere you can go on this rock that’s more than 2hrs and 717 Reserve is a pretty sweet deal. Now due to upgrades, transitions and the airline getting a new fleet we fell slightly behind in staffing for a few months until the newhires/upgrades got trained and on the line. As a result what happened was many of the SUPER senior 717Reserve pilots actually ended up flying! (Yes OMG!). They didn’t like that one bit and so they bid lines. Now since I’m a junior 717 Capt that means I got pushed into Reserve. May wasn’t too bad BUT by June staffing was on it’s way back so I actually ended up with one of those nifty SUPER senior properly staffed Reserve lines where you only get called to cover last minute stuff! Oh and I also had some vacation. It went like this:
6/1: RESV No Call
6/2: HNL-ITO-KOA-HNL-OGG-HNL
6/3: OFF
6/4: HNL-KOA-HNL
6/5: RESV No Call
6/6: HNL-ITO-HNL
6/7: RESV No Call
6/8: HNL-KOA-HNL-LIH-OGG-HNL
6/9: HNL-ITO-KOA-HNL-OGG-HNL
6/10: 30/7 Mandatory Day Off
6/11-6/17: Vacation
6/18-6/22: OFF
6/23: HNL-ITO-HNL
6/24-6/25: OFF
6/26: RESV No Call
6/27: OFF
6/28-6/30: RESV No Call
16hrs Flight Time / 75hrs Pay… Hope I remember how to fly?