Airline Woes of a Regional Airline Pilot
Posted by Jeffrey on April 14th, 2008
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The FAA Rules All
It’s Monday and I’m sitting Reserve for SkyWest Airlines…AGAIN! If you don’t remember, sitting “reserve” for an airline, my airline in particular, means that I am on duty between 9am and 9pm. Between those hours I can be called to go fly. I’ve had a lot of time home this month, to say the least. It wouldn’t be that bad if I could focus on other things like starting another business to make some extra cash and have a fall-back if something were to happen to my airline or to me. For those of you who aren’t familiar with how airlines work, here is a little Airline 101 for you.
Pilots fly TOTALLY at the mercy of the FAA, my body, and my airline…in that order…with regards to whether I have a career or not. The FAA, like any self-righteous, bureaucratic, government organization says their purpose is to enforce the regulations and laws regarding all things aviation. Fair enough. But, the problem is they have a tendency to enforce through an iron fist instead of through cooperation. If you break a FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation), like going too fast below 10′000′ MSL (mean sea level) or not stopping at an assigned altitude, you are subject to a violation and having your certificate revoked. Now before you think that I am totally against the FAA, let me interject that the FAA does A LOT of good things and has A LOT of good regulations. But my point is this…at any time…through administrative action imposed on me for breaking a FAA regulation…I could be suspended or lose my flying privileges.
Now! Do I have any recourse? Sure…I have what we call an ASAP program. It’s a safety program that allows me, when I break a regulation, to voluntarily report it. The incident is submitted to a review board and they either dismiss it and no action is taken against me, or it is reported to my chief pilot and administrative action is taken whether it is a note in my records or worse. So, there is protection…but again I fly but by the grace of the FAA!
Later…still sitting reserve…
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