Thought I would add an historical perspective Kraut!

Hi could someone clarify the standby situation at various bases? 5/4 5/3 sounds like a real slog but are there standbys in most of the 5 on's if so how often are you called outy on them and how often do they occur?

regards

It's so dependent on the time of the year, what base, 2/3/4 stripe....

Over the last two years, I'd say on average I've had two standbies a month. And I'd say I've been called out one out of five times. This is from LTN. I have FO colleagues in NCL who have not been called in one year (and they got LOTS of standbies).

If I wasn't so lazy I'd calculate a true average, but my gut feeling says I fly around 15 days a month.

How hard the 5/4/5/3 is depends a lot on what you get. I've had "lates" made out of a series of five two-sector days including places like HAM and CDG. Could not be easier. But then sometimes you get five four-sector days on earlies and it hurts!

Most people are very happy with the rostering systems. Endless rumours that it's going to change though...


P

Hi,

I will be STN based and would like to know if it is realistic to chose an accomodation near The City (Liverpool Street Station) to commute especially during your earlies?

Thanks for your answer.

Lots of people are commuting, but take a look at the traintables if it is your plan to go by public transport. As i can see you would have aproblem with the lates when comming back just around midnight, as the trains (as i know of) do not go from the airport after midnight. And the same with the early mornings when you have to be in the office 1 hour before the devil gets out of bed.

But if you go by own car the odd times maybe beneficial for you, as you will often avoid the peak hours on the M11 and M25 parkingroads :eek:

I'm STN based, and doing sod all at the moment. Jan & Feb has been really quiet. Quite looking forward to getting back into it!

The Fixed pattern is great especially for home life.

I can't complain :cool:

... and a nice thing would be for planning to optimize days off, e.g. start the 1st early with the latest, finish the 5th with the earliest and v.v. for the lates, but well :rolleyes:
All of course while waiting for the 5/4/5/4 which should be standard :ok:

live 2 fly 2 live

blimey folks! You get to plan your life months in advance, and the pattern plus leave gives you 171 days a year free of duty! We get nearly half the year off!!

You don't hear people talking about fatigue like you did with 5/2/5/4. You just need to go to bed early. Suits me and most others.

Off to do my 5th early with a spring in my step

weirdo.......

If you book 5 days leave in the 'reserve' period, you get 2 days wraparound at either end thus 9 insread of 12.

mcdhu

And if it's allocated leave, it looks like it can be changed by rostering at the last minute! So don't book holidays around your allocated leave or you could be in for a surprise...

P

Ok, new roster out, new "reserve" month. 90+ hrs and 1 standby.

"Reserve month"? Right. Still nothing reserve about this that would make me agree that it really is a reserve month. Not really complaining, thats just the way it is....at some bases anyway.

/CP

73AB73, you say that 5/4-5/3 sounds like a slog! You should try flying for one of our EU carriers. 6/2-6/3 is the norm. Sometimes just 36 hours off in 14 days. A 24hour period, midnight local to midnight local, given as a day off and so on. Easy flying is easy flying.
If you had flown for easyjet some years ago you would have done much the same.
If you can find a better system, go find it, then tell us about it.

This looks like time to change the airline! Even Vueling is better!

It is astonishing how some people can delude themselves! EJ leave is 17 - SEVENTEEN days per year. I challenge anyone to find another salaried company in any industry in the UK that even approaches that miserable figure.

The remaining 8 are days off in lieu of national holidays. 25 bookable days. Not very generous, is it?

What use is knowing a schedule until 2009 when you can't book Easter leave at Christmas, never know if or whan the booking system is available, and have remaining days allocated for you without warning months before the end of the leave year?

5-3 5-4 is pretty good by industry standards, I reckon. I don't enjoy setting an alarm for 0400 but you end up with a useable chunk of the day at home later on. Working past midnight into a day off and not getting another in lieu is simply iniquitous, it astonishes me that it was a) ever agreed to, and b) there has not been a big outcry over it.
If anyone wants more time off we should leave the roster alone and campaign for the days to be added to the meagre leave allocation. That is, after all, quality recovery time which we need far, far more than longer "weekends" imho.

Random month. Due to undercrewing it is fully allocated bar 2 or 3 SBY days at my base, which always turn into duties. Prior to this winter I have had 3 SBYs not called out or changed to duty in the previous 2 years.

There is clearly a great deal of difference in work levels between bases, some work far more than others. On my roster line I've not seen 70 hrs in a full month ever, and expect 90. I suspect that a lot of the 20 - 30 hr/mth or 3 day/mth people are 2 stripers being starved of hours to avoid paying them 3 stripe wages, which is a cheap way to treat keen new people.

As ever quality of life is dependent on Location, Location, Location.

Speaking of which... how does BRS rate as a base in terms of QOL?

BRS? the tops from what I hear.

3-striper here. Have been working 40hrs/mth average over the last 4 months.
Have got 36 bookable holidays with the 5-4-5-3 roster (MAD contract).

Not complaining at all.

Any suggestions on hobbies, apart from Ppruning?

Agaricus,

Its funny how people look at things differently.

You say we get 17 days leave? The way I look at it is we can book 5 lots of 5 days, get wrap around days of 3 before and 4 after and so I can book 5 lots of 12 days leave!!!!!!

Working up until 01.30 into a day off is a pain in the a@$e but I've done it once in the past 18 months, besides which if we do it more than 3 times a year we get a day back in lieu.

As for hours, we will or should all end up doing 900, so whats the gripe when and where it happens? Yes, random month has its shortcomings, but by far, outweighed by the 5/3/5/4, IMHO.

There is always give and take in negotiations, sadly we cant cherry pick what we want.

Personally I think the deal at easy is a good one, and totally down to our tireless NC and the CC!

What is the QOL in BFS and NCL on the 73's ?

BR.