“We might have a trip, are you available?”

That’s the big question, the one we all get. Do you know how to answer it? Always say “Yes!” right?, otherwise you might lose the trip. Well, not so fast. Let’s look how your answer affects the outcome.

But first, what is your value as a contractor? How do you determine it?

It has always been and always will be Q-C-A. QCA is the three-legged stool that enables you to earn your rate. Without one leg, the stool falls over. It’s not the playoffs here; 2 out of 3 does not win. You must have all three, namely:

Ok so you’re anxious to get the job , so you tell the flight coordinator excitedly, “Yes I’m available!” and they say “OK, I’ll get back to you soon!”, and then, “click”.

Great, you just bagged a nice one! Or did you? Do you have a trip sheet with your name on it? No. Do you have a pay sheet to sign with your daily rate on it? No. No worries, you’ll get an email with those details tomorrow for sure, right?

Slowly days start to go by and you don’t hear anything. You start checking your email daily, even hourly; surely there’s a trip sheet coming soon? Ummm…nope, there’s not. What’s going on?

What you did is “covered” the trip with no guarantees, not a one. Because you “covered the trip” with your mouth and not actual paperwork you took the pressure off the flight coordinator and allowed them to SHOP YOUR RATE DOWN. Wait no, that couldn’t be it, could it? You call that nice flight coordinator back and suddenly they are a bit distant and cold, and they tell you one of the following: “the trip is changing, we’ll get back to you (again)”, or my personal favorite “the trip cancelled”. Sure it did. Maybe.

You see, your mouth allowed them the time to shop because the worst possible scenario, the one they NEVER want to face, is having to tell the boss they can’t find crew so the jet has to stay parked. Imagine that, for no pay, you saved them from a fate worse than death, facing an irate owner. Ah you say, “but if they had someone else or in-house staff available, why’d they call me?” Because at the time they called you they couldn’t find anyone, but they are always shopping for low, low, rates. Availability is a fluid and always changing commodity. So that nice in-house pilot who will do it for half your rate finally became available, but they couldn’t tell you that, at least not the half-rate part. Don’t you get it? Plenty of folks are qualified and current, but not available. Availability is everything! It’s what earns you your daily rate.

Now are all flight coordinators like this? Certainly not. It’s in your best interest to always be polite and to develop solid relationships with them, as long as they shoot straight with you at all times; no exceptions. Do not let anyone tap dance on your schedule. Do bookings occur on the first call? Certainly. The point is: DO NOT GIVE AWAY YOUR AVAILABILITY WITHOUT A TRIP SHEET WITH YOUR NAME ON IT AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, A PAY SHEET WITH YOUR DESIRED RATE. “Free” availability is the realm of full-time pilots/employees, NOT per-diem contractors. The real risk with this is not only not getting this job, but turning down yet more business because you “committed” to the first one. First person to commit to paying you gets your availability. Always. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes. Especially maybes.

If you continue to give away the store for free your annual income will most definitely suffer. There are only a limited number of billable days in a year, 365 last time I checked, so don’t waste them on “we might have a trip, are you available?”

Well, you might be.