Thread: Exclusive Jets
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Old 10-23-2018, 12:26 AM
  #117  
B727DRVR
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Joined APC: Mar 2008
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Thumbs up Integrity....

Originally Posted by idontworkhere View Post
I've worked here for a long while.... We do NOT have an ASAP program. I doubt we ever will. The DO is fantastic, but the CP, and CEO are egomaniacs, who think that if the idea isn't theirs, it isn't good. The dispatchers are improving, with about 1/2 being licenced now, but the leaders of flight control are still strictly revenue driven. They routinely push to fly aircraft in marginally airworthy condition, and most MELs are signed off could not duplicate. They are getting rid of a type of aircraft, and then are going to require a new 1 year training agreement for a C500 type. When I started her many moons ago, it was a much better place to call home. Now in the last year to year and a half, it's gone down incredibly. I've been pressured on multiple occasions to operate an aircraft with non MEL able equipment broken, because "we need this revenue".
Wow,

That’s a heck of a first post. First off, I will totally agree that our DO is awesome and, I will add, is pro-pilot (and no, I’m not sitting under his desk typing this while shining his shoes, LOL). Next, I have never met our CEO, so I can’t attest to that, but I am totally dumbfounded that you would say that or CP is an egomaniac. He is one of the most supportive and professional CP’s that I have ever served under, and no, I’m not shining his shoes either. He seems super professional, yet laid back and humble in my opinion. Yeah, I totally don’t get the egomaniac assertion.

But the safety assertions that you are making are quite serious, and deserve to be heard (although I’m not sure if this forum is the best place..). In this era of #metoo, I guess that can apply to pilots as well.

So I have not been here nearly as long as you have, but I have seen absolutely nothing like you have described happening here on my fleet. And I will give you an example as recent as this Friday..., but with names, dates, and places removed to protect the innocent.. We were in TX with bad WX and low ceilings with a plane MEL’d for VMC departures only. The WX was too low to go, but the indicator light had extinguished, so we thought that the problem was gone. But since we had MEL’d it the day before, we were concerned about the gray area of the problem having fixed itself but still having that restriction. A quick call to the DO gave us our answer, no go, despite the fact that it would be an amazing trip out West with great revenue for the Company. We taxied over to the Cessna Service Center where the problem was quickly fixed with no questions from the Company. With great integrity, the DO told us to err on the side of caution and that he expected us to “abide by that VMC limitation”. So, instead of a great trip out West, we as a Company did the right thing and got sucked into the black hole of TEB. I will echo your assertion that he is a fantastic DO and is not your typical DO of the 1990’s world of do-it-or-you’re-fired Part 135 operators. That kind of integrity never would have flown in much of Part 135 back then, so that is one of the things that confounds me about the crazy duality that you say that our DO is “fantastic”, but that you have been “pressured” and “pushed” to fly airplanes with non-MEL-able items multiple times. I’m sorry to doubt you, but how can both assertions be true as they contradict each other completely? Granted, I am not on your fleet so I can’t and won’t speak for you, but again, I have seen no such thing since I have been here. Yes, I do understand that just because it hasn’t happened to me doesn’t mean that it did not happen to you. But I do question why you are posting these serious assertions on a public forum about a company which you still work for and that your fellow friends and pilots work for: I am wondering how you think this post will help them, and yourself...

Having come up in the dark, depressing 1990’s with thousands of pilots on the street and 134 1/2 operators taking advantage of these desperate times, I totally understand having to have integrity as a pilot and to make a stand for safety and legality. With tens of thousands in student and flight loan debt from ERAU, Parks College, Perdue, UND, etc., my group of pilots had a lot to lose and weren’t going to compromise our integrity and risk ruing our careers that we have invested in by crossing picket lines or by getting violated. Conversely, the die-hard freight dogs who preceded us knew no minimums, no max TOW’s, no duty or flight times that couldn’t be exceeded, or planes that were too broken to fly. They were the “Team Players” that my old Company said that they wanted, not the new breed like us; We referred to the lawbreakers as the pejorative “Tango Pops”.. Needless to say, I worked at one of those companies where I was challenged, maybe not every day, but more often than not to fly broken or to take off way too heavy. And our DO there was not “fantastic”....: He liked to keep a giant stack of resumes on his desk and loved to remind us that pilots were “a dime a dozen”. So yes, I know what it is like to be pushed and threatened as a pilot and yes I have had to make multiple stands. But never has that happened to me here at flyExclusive.

If what you assert is true, that’s serious and requires immediate attention. I would immediately contact, your Fleet Lead, then our CP, and then our fantastic DO (no, I’m not mocking you just quoting..) in that order, and review with them the times that you have been pressured or pushed to fly (I’m assuming that none of them were the ones pressuring you). Also, if you are broken and doubtful about whether something is MEL-able, you or a friend can always ask your POI a what-if question..... My point is that posting this stuff on the forum is not helpful to you, your fellow pilots, or to the Company as a whole. If you have had these problems, I recommend going straight to the top... our DO. From my experience, he will do the right thing. Also, he can go after whomever you assert has been pushing and pressuring you to go.

As far as things being better in the past, that is exactly the opposite of what I have heard from one of the pilots that has been here for 3 years. He was a top CJ2 Captain who came over to our fleet, and he says that things are night and day better since he started, with schedule improvements, pay increases, etc., although he feels that we are flying much more and working harder. As I have said before, I am pretty happy here and all promises made to me have been met or exceeded thus far. I do agree with you, though that after being here for a year you have proved your loyalty with regard to having to sign another training agreement. I think that is what industry standard is, especially if you are being displaced into another fleet through no fault of your own. So yeah, that’s not perfect and is maybe something that you CJ folks should approach the Company about. Bottom Line: I don’t want to doubt you, but I just don’t understand why your loss of revenue through grounding was so important to the Company but our losses of revenue by grounding were not. It just doesn’t make sense.

Most importantly, though, you need to address these concerns and assertions immediately with the Flight Department... that is something that you owe to yourself and all of your fellow pilots. Make a difference, not by posting on here but by bringing truth to power. Then, if you still and not satisfied, you can resign and shout it from the rooftops here, in good conscience, that you did everything that you could do. And your fellow pilots will respect that.

Last edited by B727DRVR; 10-23-2018 at 12:40 AM.
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