Standby sucks!

So you look on your roster and you see about 100 sby's. SBY=stand by. Standing by to be called in to operate a flight. For many reasons you could be called, there are hundreds in fact. It's not so bad, you could end up not being called at all and have the day off to do whatever you want. Standbys are awkward. In the summer, they are almost definitely going to change before the day even arrives. That's the summer time rush for you. Standbys in the winter are different. With the season generally being a quiet one, it is pretty unpredictable whether you'll get called or not.

I remember one occasion I was on standby from 0600am until 1400 and was up and ready to go. This was when I first started flying so I wanted to be well prepared as I didn't really know how it all worked. It got to 1345 and I knew that with 15 minutes to go, I was safe! So, I got redressed into my jeans and casual clothes and thought I'd go for lunch with a friend. Well, my luck soon changed......By 1355 I was back in my uniform and packing up my crew bag setting off to the airport to operate a flight that seemed to be 24 hours long!!!! Yes, that's right, they called me. They called me with 5 minutes of my standby left. I remember the raaaggee!! So stupid I was to think that I had got away with it! Unpredictability=standby.