.. but you can send me on surprise tour!
So, another update is due, and it's been a while since my last update. The car-clamping thing was really a big farce and wound me up a most depressing amount. I reasoned, in the end, that I brought the blight of the evil clamp-peoples upon myself and any amount of consternation wasn't going to get my car back. In short, I paid. In long, I didn't pay because I simply couldn't afford to, I got Mum to pay. I feel wonderfully grown up about this. More shall follow when the stress of the whole situation has worn off somewhat.
So, lets move on shall we?
My week is governed by the Roster. Rosters are mystical and changing beasts, well, at least this particular species of Roster is changeable (Cityflierus Obfusticatious). Some airlines publish a roster and this is what you fly. Thanks (mostly) to being a pretty small airline, we don't have this luxury. Because of the endless trials and tribulations that come from working amidst the wonders of the world of aviation - technical issues, weather, sickness, fatigue, legalities - keeping a schedule going is pretty demanding. Operations and Crewing do a rather splendid job at this, often at incredibly short notice.
All this preamble is leading you all up to my week.
I started work on Thursday. The almighty Roster had decreed that I was to fly to Frankfurt, back and out once more to stay in the hotel there, before flying an (empty) aircraft back the next day. I packed my bag for this one-night trip. It's important that you remember that I packed my bag for a one-night trip. When I checked in, crewing informed me of one change - no big deal, I was flying out to Copenhagen and positioning back to Heathrow the next day. No sweat. But then, I was to get into a taxi, to go to Stansted and operate to Palma and back. This meant a -long- day. So long, in fact that my Sunday (which was standby, and had just become a leisurely position out to Amsterdam) was going to be illegal. This was rectified through a quick call to Crewing who arranged for me to stay the night at Stansted, to position out to Amsterdam on easyJet. Ouch. This means that my one-night wonder was now two nights.
But wait.
The Amsterdam was to position on sunday for a sector on Monday. Three nights.
Monday's sector got me back into City in time to operate my original rostered flight out to Copenhagen again. To nightstop. Four nights.
My one-night away had become 4. I've packed a bag with a toothbrush, and a spare shirt. Well, at least I have a spare shirt, eh?
So. I reasoned thusly:
Firstly, no way am I positioning on easyjet in Uniform. So I need civvies. I purchase these in Stansted on Saturday before heading out to Palma. Secondly, I'm going to need more than one spare shirt. So I get the hotel in Amsterdam to launder one of my shirts as soon as I arrive. Plus I've not eaten much, so room service was called. Excellent. Now this surprise 5-day tour has cost me nearly £90. But I don't worry. I chose to do this.
That's right, I carefully considered, and agreed that this way was the best way. I effectively volunteered for this consternation. Here's why:
Every time our roster gets changed we have the option to accept or reject the changes. Accepting the changes earns you something called a Disruption payment. This is complicated to calculate but effectively, for me, it comes in at about £80 a time. Now, I've just been handed 2 major changes and two unscheduled nightstops. It's not quite this simple, but this means that I'm staring 4 disruption payments in the face. That's £320 for working almost what I was going to work anyway, getting extra flying hours (which I need being a newbie pilot), and because it's a whopping great tour now I've been earning flight duty pay since about 4pm Thursday when I checked in.
I'm not complaining too loud. In fact, because of my cadet-scale salary this year, I'm not complaining at all. I'm begging them for more weeks like this one. I'll work days off, I'll come in early, leave late, I'll stay another night. If it's legal, I'll fly it. Just keep giving me the money. I really, really, need the money.
tl;dr: I whore myself to CityFlyer and I love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment