TheNewGazmo
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Posts posted by TheNewGazmo
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On 7/18/2022 at 7:06 PM, skybert said:
At least it wasn't an airliner....
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When I got hired with the airlines, it took everything in me to not let my "military-TypeA-try to fix everything" mentality get the best of me. Just let it ride... you get paid by the minute.Update 2: Anti-skid went out so delayed to fix that but then a storm hit and we’re stuck on the ramp until we can actually fix something.
Mods, feel free to start a new thread of Danger41’s slow descent into psychosis.-
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Summer weather, higher PAX loads, more flights, ATC saturation, manning shortfalls, etc... stuff that happens every summer, but I suppose the manning shortfalls are compounding the issues.WTF is going on with the airlines now with delays/cancellation? In the last 30 calendar days, I’m at 70% delays or cancellations including 100% on current trip. -
18 minutes ago, Blue said:
I'm not savvy to the inner workings of labor negotiations at the airlines.
If airline management is offering substandard contract terms, is that just a sign that they're anticipating a slowdown in the industry? And they're just trying to "run out the clock" until the economy cools, airline traffic decreases, and union members have less bargaining power?
Is there any penalty for the airlines if they keep "kicking the can down the road" when it comes to signing a pilot contract?
Yes; this is exactly what they are doing. Trust me; management is smarter than we are.
No. Other than flying our contract, there's not much the pilot group can do. I keep hearing that we need to stop picking up open time/premium. LOL!!! Yeah, like that's going to happen when people are making tens of, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars per year picking up premium. The "stick it to the company" is just not happening across the pilot group because this industry drives a "feast or famine/get it while you can" attitude. Tomorrow may not be as lucrative.
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I remember them firing them off at Kandyland as well. Always made me wonder what we were actually shooting at.Man, nothing like having a relaxing cigar on the balcony on Bastion when those ers would light off. -
Everyone can picket all they want, but with the impending recession predicted to begin Q2 of 2023, all these companies have to do is drag their feet 6-8 more months before the ball is back in their court and our bargaining power will be next to ZERO just like it was during COVID. Business travel will drop, layoffs will ensue, vacations will drop, etc. People will run out of their COVID-Cash soon.
The only thing in our favor is that retirements will still be in full swing. -
I got ROPMA promoted to O-5 without PME. It is fairly common if you've got OPR's on the stronger side. IP/EP-types who are assigned to some sort of SQ job (ADO, Flt/CC, etc) and/or filled a deployed leadership position once or twice shouldn't have an issue. My unit was notorious for years for taking everyone to ROPMA; even O-3's with SOS done, which is why I took my chances without PME. I was presented with a position vacancy when I was a full-timer, but I was so burnt out there was no way I was doing ACSC to entertain leadership. Now depending on your ROPMA date, the unit can accelerate your promotion to 1 Oct. You already appear to be aligned with fiscal year so it won't matter.
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Each company has different guidelines on what "probation" is and when you are removed from it. It is normally a year, but I believe you can be removed from probation if you fly more than X-amount of hours as well. Most prefer you get through OE and consolidation before you drop mil leave. Of course if you are going to be one of these guys that drops mil leave for two years shortly after being hired so you can chase an AD retirement, they can't do much about that, but I can't imagine they think highly of it. When most of our reserve pilots are crediting 80+ hours a month, we are hiring pilots for a reason; because we need them NOW.When someone drops mil leave say 6 months into their airline career then joins the airline 2 years later…are they still on first year pay or do they move up the scale with seniority?
I know guys who drop mil leave after 1 week and I’m curious how that goes. -
That is superb!Looks like RPGs under toy store drones.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-cheap-grenades-expensive-tanks/31835434.html -
What kind of drones are these that they're dropping these bowling pin type bombs from?Ukrainians are droning the crap out of the Russians with small UAVs.
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2 hours ago, Lord Ratner said:
No. I rarely interact with them. Unlike the flight attendants, we don't need to be on the plane before they board / after they deplane. I was most surprised by how easy the entire airport process is. You almost never wait in line for security, passengers dive out of the way when they see you coming, and the cockpit door filters out most of the nonsense. Definitely something I didn't appreciate until working at a passenger carrier.
But boxes are obviously much, much, much less hassle.
The advantage of the pax carriers is volume of flying. More planes and more pilots and more flights means more permutations for schedule construction and manipulation. We also have dramatically less night flying.
My first choice was UPS and my second choice was FedEx. I was already in training at American Airlines when UPS called, and by that time it had been clear that both my job and my wife's job we're going to take us to Dallas. That was enough for me to turn down the interviews and stick with American, because as I believed then (and know for sure now), my strategy only works well when you live in base.
You really have to figure out what type of person you are, and that's going to determine what type of flying your best suited for. There are mission hackers, crew dogs, sightseers, people pleasers, authoritarians, loopholers, managers, unionists, teachers, etc. Each airline offers different opportunities for those types of people.
I spend a lot of time at my airline teaching people my method (maximum ratio of pay:hours flown). It's a process and it takes time, and in many cases by the time I'm done explaining it, they are so put off from the idea that they seem pathologically compelled to explain to me why my system isn't actually that good. It's a curious response, but a lot of these guys unknowingly weight any work that isn't sitting in the cockpit as many, many times more onerous than actually flying. So while I usually only fly between 30 to 50% of what a regular line pilot flies in a month, because I spend 10 to 15 hours per month (in 1-5 minute blocks) working the various trading platforms, they view that 15 hours as much worse than the additional 50 hours they spend flying. And usually I'm making somewhere between 15-40% more pay.
I mention all that to highlight the concept. Their personality is to do the job they're told to do, not spend years learning the nuances of their contract so that they can exploit it. So what type of military pilot were you? You can probably use that information as the third criteria in selecting an airline
1. Who offered you a job
2. Where can you live without commuting
3. What flying job fits your personality?
These days, there is quite a bit of premium being handed out. A lot of them are trips that pop up last minute they don't have the short-call coverage for (because they're ripping through their reserve list like crazy). The closer you live, the more opportunities you have to pick this stuff up in open time, if you so choose. Some of them are day turns; one leg out and one back for almost 8 hours of pay on premium. That's almost $1,300 for me for a pretty easy, enjoyable day at work. The pilots who commute by air or even commute 1.5-2 hrs by car don't always get to take advantage of some of these trips because of their inability to pick these up with minimum notification time.
On the flipside, if you don't want to work on your days off, but live close, you can bid those 1-day/2-day trips that commuters don't want and most likely get them even if you are on the junior side. They'd rather get the 3-day/4-day trips to maximize their time at work and minimize their commuting. 4-day trips can be exhausting if you get one with a lot of legs and early sign-in's. 2-day trips for me are great especially if I can grab them with long layovers (in nice places). A transcon to LAX with 20+ hours in Redondo Beach doesn't suck (followed by 3-4 days off). By the time I'm ready to divorce my wife and/or beat my children, I'm packing for another trip.... I keed... I keed...
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But unless you bid domestic equipment (A300, 757/767, etc), can you have a similar schedule living in-base with FedEx or UPS?That's the real reason you can have the awesome life you have. Living in base for ANY airline, regardless of what's in the back, trumps all if you want a good home life. That's coming from a box-hauler currently sitting in my Domicile that is WAY far away from my home.
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Just under 4 years. Live in base out of Philadelphia on the AB. Movement has been pretty insane on the FO side the past 6 months. I've moved about 25%.How long have you been there? Doesn't sound bad at all -
Reason #1 for not going to FedEx/UPS: Commuting
Reason #2: I fly mainly 2-day trips. Mostly trancons. 1 night gone, at least 3 nights home. 16-18 days off a month and usually end up crediting 85-90 hrs. I am away from home about 6 nights per month at AAL. I don't think you could do that at a box hauler.
I don't mind PAX and walking through airports. It's all part of the "exitement". FA's are whatever. Some are cool, some aren't. If you can manage to fight the urge to get unprofessional, there should be nothing to worry about. It is very rare we hang out with FA's and if we do it is usually with the old-school ones that aren't looking for trouble anyway. -
Pilot error.... who'd a thunk? I guess teaching the phrase, "My aircraft" doesn't exist in AF's training program.Juan Brown posted the latest update on his Blancolireo YouTube channel of the AirFrance 777. Apparently the two pilots were inadvertently fighting each other on the controls and decoupled the yokes. -
4 hours ago, BashiChuni said:
im glad you recognize this as a first world problem. you could have separated in 2020 during a pandemic...when no one was hiring...
Or.... Summer of 2001.
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AAL's 2022 Hiring Stats so far.
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The military took backseat when the commercial airline industry boomed in the 1970's and it hasn't been the same since. Now we get whatever obsolete, cookie-cutter platform Boeing can put on the table. They know where the money is.
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Nickname.... The Wedgie.
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Not sure why we're always stroking Boeing off.
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Side note: for any of you non-douches reading, do I have a job opportunity for you!
I am sure all self-proclaimed non-douches are eagerly waiting.
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6 hours ago, disgruntledemployee said:
If every single one of you is getting an offer or more from the big guys like AA, UAL, DAL, SWA, FedEx, or UPS, as soon as you post your app, then I would agree that there is probably a pilot shortage.
Remember, United's Kirby (quoted in the link) said this at an investor meeting... to investors. So when he does something, like buy another flight school, create another regional flow, start bus service (motor coach, not FiFi) on short routes, the investors say, eh, makes sense, pilot shortage.
The real shortage is probably at the regionals. Between wages, archaic flows, etc., and the higher potential to jump up to the major off the bat, yeah, I can see them struggling to fill seats.
Funny anecdotally, recently met some new hires and some came from just about every other major out there.
It's a very good time to fill out that app and say no to the bonus.
There may not be a "shortage" of applicants, but I did hear through the grape vine from someone who knows someone in pilot recruiting of one of the "big guys" that they are seeing less and less "qualified" applicants.
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It is like that in EVERY jet I have flown from Boeing, to Airbus to Embraer. Must be a standard.The issue isn't the TOGA switch location. Instead, I ask "why do I have to reach all the way over to the left side of the center panel to get to the speed brake?" Why can't there be one on the FO's side?
Boeing simply won't move it to a better place. It's like that on all four Boeings I've flown. -
737's had a rash of bad PCU's in the 90's I believe.
COVID-19 (Aka China Virus)
in General Discussion
Posted
Had the 'Rona for what I believe was the first time about two months ago. First signs were ear infection type symptoms with a low-grade fever (99ish) by late night. Tested and was negative. Had a hard time sleeping between sweats and chills. The next day I felt weak, exhausted with chills every once in a while. Took Nyquil that night to sleep. Day 2.25, felt noticably better without fever, but then felt tired again by night time. Day 3, felt exhausted again with a mild fever again. All symptoms were controlled alternating Tylenol and Advil. Decided to test again; positive. Day 4, felt like a million bucks with no symptoms. Never really got a cough. Symptoms never came back. My wife's parents both got it on Day 3 and Day 6, assuming from me, and were over it in about 3-4 days as well. My FiL is 86. Overall, I have felt worse with some colds and the flu.