Originally Posted by MikeF16

Thanks, and sorry you had to suffer a stupid attack from the playground bully. He's on my ignore list with the likes of Snarge, good company he keeps. Of course I had to see him quoted 5 times so I usually see his shenanigans anyway.

I've called ALPA a few times and have found them to be an excellent resource. I haven't been around long enough to have experienced contract negotiations (which obviously is the most important part of the union) so I just stay out of the way of all those discussions and the ALPA love/hate that entails, but as far as helping out new guys with contract, scheduling, and PBS questions I have been mostly impressed with their act.

Somebody else mentioned my mentor. Some are good, some try really hard but don't quite get the job done. I've found this forum to be far more effective than my mentor, to the point where I just don't use him anymore. Nice guy and doing a lot of extra work on his own time, but hasn't been able to answer most of my questions in a correct or timely manner. In addition, I have received a LOT of feedback from some of the lurkers in the forum that they had similar questions but didn't ask or didn't even realize they had a question but learned from the answers to my questions. While I'm not some crusader out trying to selflessly do good for others, I do believe there is value in shared knowledge in an open forum vice a closed message between a mentor and new hire.