B727DRVR

Wow "Truth",

That's the first time in the 14 years that I have been an APC Forums member that anyone has ever called me a liar, much less from one of my own fellow crewmembers! Congratulations on that and welcome to APC Forums.. Rather than call you names like some of our more recent leaders would do, I will use the words of a gentleman, President Ronald Reagan, and say that you are "mistaken" or "misguided".. Anything else would be unseemly to him.

First off, you quoted me on something that I posted on here on October 11, 2021! When I posted this, what I said was absolutely accurate and truthful coming directly from our Manager of Crew Scheduling PB (I called him before I posted that..). This was BEFORE the real bid system came out in December 2021. So yes everyone one here, as of December 2021, you may be assigned a 15/13 rotation until an opportunity for an 8/6 schedule came up for you to bid on.. lest I be called a liar again. But to put this into perspective, the son of my former CFI and college roommate who I helped get on here last July 2021, with only 1500 hours and an ATP Written, is already in the top 15% of the XL FO list and is on an 8/6 schedule getting Thanksgiving and Christmas off, hired only in JULY 2021! 8 months... 8!!!

"Truth", I am using quotations around your nom de guerre because while some of what you wrote was definitely passionate and true, also much was not true.. So let's chat.... Much our your expose' was an attack on WW and JM.. To be clear, I am neither their, or this Company's Chief Defender nor have I been asked to be their Defender. In fact, it was recommended that we simply ignore trolls or disgruntled pilots on here, but I was never one smart enough to keep my mouth shut when I saw something wrong or blatantly false. As I have said on here before, WW and I were new hires together and I got to know him well. And you said something yourself in you post that he "implemented" some of these unpopular policies. But what you have wrong is that you make it seem like he made all these decisions on his own and that's just not how it works at a Company. Many of these things came down from above and like a Manager at his level does.. He IMPLEMENTED them. He didn't take the job to win any popularity contests, and was hired for that very reason.

Also, your memory about the Company's actions during the initial Covid-19 lockdown are fuzzy at best.. DO you not remember that there was blood in the water all around us while we sat in our "flyExclusive lifeboat" at home with FULL PAY for month during April 2020, when our other larger competitors were either demanding their pilots take a 4 month unpaid leave with a 100% paycut, an 8/13 schedule with a 33% paycut, or 8/20 schedule with a 50% paycut and others were either furloughing or shutting down all together. How can you not remember that? We were one of the few aviation companies on this ENTIRE PLANET that actually GREW and HIRED during the pandemic shutdown where so many lost their jobs. We were able to help and hire UAL pilots, SWA pilots, XJET pilots, TSA, GoJet, Compass, ASA, Republic, EJM pilots etc., as well as many ISR, and Military pilots while other Companies were furloughing or shutting down all together. Our Management made a crucial decision to NOT furlough or shutdown and that decision was PIVOTAL to our success now, because when the gates opened up in May and June 2020, here we were ready to go with pilots and jets while many of our partners/competitors were trying to call back their pilots early.. The Company made the TEMPORARY decision to put everyone on the 15/13 schedule to limit airline travel and some of our larger competitors did the same thing. They also returned the 8/6 schedule 3 months earlier than they said they would. You are griping about the TEMPORARY 15/13 schedule which was a decision made during a national emergency as a way to survive and keep pilots paid. You blame all this WW, but this was a decision made at the very top and you are giving him more power in your post than he ever had. As far as the terminations that occurred during that time, there were few if any tears shed on several of those pilots that had received numerous warnings for running abusive and profane cockpits and used profanity towards Line personnel and CSR's at the two worst places to be profane publicly in uniform Signature PBI and TEB. As Notorious B.I.G. said, "If ya don't know, now ya know........."

There were truthful parts of your post as well, so I must applaud you for that and agree that losing crew meals and control of picking our hotels was a great disappointment for me. However, that also came with a concurrently announced increase to the IRS maximum per diem at the time of $66 per day. So the Company was now saving about $50,000 per year on crew meals but was spending roughly $300,000 more due to the increased per diem, which was a $250,000 win for all pilots compared to a loss of the crew meals for the pilots that requested them often like me. Overall, the pilots were making more than before but this is a moot point that we are getting crew meals offered to us now. But to be 100% honest with you, I HATED losing the opportunity to decide on my own hotels.

As far as your assertions regarding our ACP's, I am saddened that you would call them "imbeciles" collectively, almost all esteemed Veterans and active duty Military or reserve, but each to his/her/its own opinion I guess. But it sounds like you have some inside information that I didn't have as this was the first I heard about the MX personnel or about JM's misfortune.

Finally, I was part of the terminated Recruiting Team, but you didn't mention the real reason.. The Company had huge amounts of applications that we as a Team were unable to get to in a timely manner because we were flying so heavily on our rotations. With a new 48 hour time clock on a candidate to reach out to and pass on up the chain, we were unable to do this as a Team in a timely manner with our level of flying. We tried our best, but the Company realized that this was not realistic to ask our line pilots to do all that work between flights or on our precious days off. Also, most of us were called almost immediately afterwards and asked if we wanted to help on a more limited basis. I said "yes" and 3 of us are here tonight in BNA representing the Company at the Women in Aviation Conference as I write this.

Truth, you are obviously passionate and absolutely correct about some of the topics that you wrote about, but absolutely wrong on a few others, especially about our comparably wonderful treatment during the Covid-19 lockdown compared to that of so many of our fellow pilots at other Companies on here endured. As far our opinions on WW, JM, and the ACP's, I will have to just agree to disagree with you as I appreciate their work and wouldn't want any of their thankless jobs, especially JM's, who is single-handedly doing our Recruiting now. I truly think that you are giving WW more credit than he deserves for your misery here, as someone in his position was hired to IMPLEMENT decisions from above, IMHO. And WW RESIGNED, so you were mistaken about that too..: His Resignation Letter is floating around out there if you care to see it.

Finally Truth, I really don't understand where you are going with these posts on here as one of our current pilots.. Are you trying to help yourself and your fellow crewmembers here by exposing the "truth", or YOUR perception of the truth. And while you say that "this is not a gut feeling or disgruntled person making "hay?" this is The Whole Truth..", it sure sounds like you are disgruntled. None of my business really, but I am wondering how you think that this helps you, me, or your 250+ fellow pilots or 600 employees? I have an idea.. If you want to make a change here, and it seems obvious that you are passionate and like to write, how about volunteering to help Maury G. on our ASAP or volunteering on our Safety Committee? How about volunteering to help out the PAG or do something else positive here other than anonymously venting mainly about WW?

As far as your post on Safety, I will close with this: I was recently in the right place, right time position to be able to personally fly my Wife and teenage son on one of our jets on a flight, albeit a short one. I would not hesitate to put them, my Mom, myself, our dogs, cockatoo, turtles, or fish on any of our jets. The minute that I could no longer say that, you could call me gone. Until then, I would put them on anything that we've got. If you can't say the same, then you should be here at WIA as everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is hiring...

I really don't want to battle with one of my fellow pilots here, Truth, but I have to tell you that it truly hurts to be called a liar on this esteemed Forum, especially by one of my fellow pilots ( or "Intellectually Dishonest" as you said and "outright lie" as you also said). If you look at the dates of my post regarding a "forced" 15/13 schedule and the announcement of the new bid system where you may be assigned a 15/13 schedule until you can hold a "better' 8/6 schedule, then you will see that you are mistaken. I eagerly await your apology, LOL. It's all good..

P.S. - I still have flashbacks of my 8/6 schedule days and I would never go back to 8/6.. Me on a Sunday.. "OMG, I haven't gotten my dry cleaning done yet.. Oh wait, I still have 8 more days off". The 15/13 schedule is awesome because it gives you 13 more days off and pays an extra $10,000.