Well said, sir~
I cannot believe it, but in the course of my duties I've actually heard a Fedex pilot say "one bullet...all it would have taken is one stray bullet in Vietnam and we wouldn't have to put up with Fred his attitude toward us"
My blood boiled; somehow I kept myself under control. Silly stupid spoiled pilot!
I've worked at 6 airlines. I've been "told" to fly a 727 with oil pouring out of its engine, with the threat of termination if I didn't. I worked at one place where I was pulling out the QRH every other week....while I flew planes 18 months old [NO maintenance on these DHC-8's], and one time I called fatigued after being awake for 24 hours; I hung up my cellphone and went to the hotel. 9 hours later, I called the company to see if I was still employed. I was, but that was only because they needed a 727 captain for reserve at the hub. Then one day when I was flying 747's...I flew to Liege, went to the hotel, ate dinner...and when I was back, I had a call from the company:
"We need you to ferry the airplane back to Newark. The outbound crew had smoke in the cockpit on takeoff, and the mechanics couldn't find anything wrong. When can you be there?"
hello.
I see...your airplane wants to catch on fire, and one crew rejects it. Your response is to try to give it to another captain?
[Here's my long-winded point: HOW often does this sort of thing occur at Fedex?]
I refused. I told them that I was going to bed, and that I would take the airplane at 0800 the next day, do a full-power run-up [which is really not a good idea on the 747...but I did it anyway!], and then attempt to ferry the airplane back to New Jersey if no smoke or smell came into the cockpit.
-Listen folks; we have it WAY GOOD HERE! Fedex treats us very well. We never are forced into a situation where we have to choose between our job or our life. That may sound simple, but that is the world outside of big purple and big brown.
Fred Smith? He knows how to build a business, but if we didn't have ALPA right here to protect us, you can bet that eventually every one of you would be put into one of the "interesting" situations that I've posted above. We can't let them get one single micrometer on us during contract talks, since if we do that micrometer will turn into 496 miles....but DO realize how good you have it, and how BAD the industry actually is.
N!