Originally Posted by captain_drew
Tony,
Who IS the Chief Pilot now?
Some people call him Jack, some people call him JL, I try not to call him at all.
I avoided Norfolk trips so I wouldn't have to bump him off the jumpseat ...
Some of you may recall, some of you may have forgotten, and many of you may have never heard about the e-mail he sent to one of our Captains for bumping a jumpseater. The jumpseater happened to be one of the guys that works for him (I don't recall if he was a "dispatcher" or a scheduler, but I think he was a scheduler). In his brief e-mail, he sarcastically "thanked" the Captain for bumping the guy, and hoped that the guy (scheduler) would have a chance to "pay him back."
Mind you, the Captain received the e-mail out of the blue, without any opportunity to defend his actions. The union heard about it, and contacted JL, and JL sent a follow-up e-mail. While the first may have been explained away as a spur of the moment, heat of the battle, hot-headed mistake, the followup e-mail was sent only after considered thought and time to reflect on the repercussions.
To paraphrase: "Dear Captain, The union has asked me to apologize for my previous e-mail. Rather than pass such an apology through union channels, I'm sending you this e-mail directly to tell you that I do NOT apologize. I meant what I said. I stick up for MY people."
Mind you, pilots are "his" people in the sense of employee/supervisor status. Apparently the schedulers are more important, and more trustworthy in his eyes.
If you think he's the pilots' friend, you're only fooling yourself.
Originally Posted by captain_drew
. .. and . .. BTW. . was that great photo of the Freight Fuhrer taken at the felony assault trial of his son in Virginia? . . or does he look constantly PO-ed these days? . . . in anticipation of having to pay you guys what you are really worth?
You every consider putting him more in character? It might look like this:
http://www.farm-boy-navy-pilot-airli...ightFurher.jpg
Ironically, this photo was taken on a day when he should have been gloriously happy. My speculation runs along the same line of thought as your suggestion - - he's thinking about paying us. More specifically, he's thinking about how much he's going to have to pay us to fly the A380.
The picture was taken the day of the A380 Reveal, the huge ceremony where they rolled out the new bird for all the heads of state and CEOs of the companies that had ordered some. I found this particular pose on the Airbus website. Fairly representative of his demeanor, I'd say.
Of course, you've seen the movie Castaway, where Fred does the cameo appearance where he talks about the missing pilots, "Our lost sons," and welcoming back this employee that was lost, and is now found. You know why they had to do so many "takes" of that scene?!?!?
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