Let's see if I can give you some help from the other side of the fence.
Get to grips with CAP 371. It is very important to know it backwards. I think that you will find that CAP 371 is a baseline which sets out a minimum. No company's Ops Manual may go below that minimum and were it to do so, should not have been approved by the CA in the first place. Such deviation should be brought to the attention of the airline's CAA Ops Inspector.
However, CAP 371 is cleverly open to a degree of interpretation and Ops will always interpolate the interpretation to the detriment of the Flight Crew.
Your job in Crewing, (not Rostering) will be to think rapidly on your feet, to juggle many balls in the air at any one time and above all, to argue with and convince Captains on the telephone, that they should heed your interpretation of duty time limitations and not theirs. Basically you are out to screw the crew for the company.
Forethought and planning would be a useful attribute to develop. On a day like today when snow is forecast. obtain the long range forecasts for the destinations and alternates serviced by your company before you turn up for work. That way you'll see weather trouble coming before you get there.
Get to grips with the MEL and befriend the poor engineers so that you have some grasp of a go/no go item and the parameters which affect it.
Be kind to Flight Crews. Mollycoddle them. Suggest to the Captain of a crew that is going in to discretion that they take a twenty minute loo or coffee break. They will love you for it. Try and stay ahead of some of the crews' personal problems. The hostesses especially can have very complex family and social lives and beware of getting in the way of a mother who has to retrieve her child from play school or take it to the doctor. Learn who is apt to pull a sicky so that you can plan ahead. Be warned that your shift may not end when it's meant to if the proverbial hits the old whirly thingy.
Many Captains have certain catch phrases that really annoy them. I used to know 371 inside out and had contacts at the CAA/LGW who backed me up.
Avoid unnecessarily upsetting Captain down the line by using phrases that might be inflammatory to that individual but not to another. By the same token, find out who amongst the crews are the flying lawyers and beware of them.
You have to be a foresighted, kind and considerate, diplomatic, knowledgable
subtle bastard to do well in crewing and you also have to gain some degree of respect from the crews. This means a little give and take in reality but your prospective company may not wish to hear that you might give as well as take?
You need to keep a little black book in which you detail the foibles of as many crew members as you can. That way you'll best be able to deal with them successfully and earn their respect and gratitude and, of course, the adoration of the company for which you will have worked miracles.
I hope that this gives you something upon which to ponder as Monday approaches. In my experiences throughout the world, crewing and crews are usually at loggerheads. I suggest that you read Machiavelli (The Prince) rather than going out on the razzle. He He He!
