That's weird. I would think you'd have to fly the line in order to have any basis for comparison.

Pipe

Hint of Sarcasm

Civil investigation? Pretty bold charge, can you elaborate?

Exact quote I was thinking of. I'm not expecting any meaningful changes. I'm sure he'll toe the company line, to include being anti-pilot at the bargaining table.

My personal observation
 

I never thought he would be picked only because I didnt think he was uber management material. No cut towards him; more of a complement.

In SFS he did a lot of good to help the pilots in many circumstances that were contrary to what I think the folks in the Planet wanted. All my dealings with him were positive.

Then again, others may have had experiences different than mine. I do know that if you get on his wrong side, like him thinking that you are BSing him....not a good thing. I have seen it happen. But any time I have had to deal with him, he was fair and listened to what you had to say.

I have seen a few that get into upper management that end up changing for the worse over time. I really hope it doesnt happen to him.

Let's get right to the heart of the matter...what are his thoughts on leather jackets and parkas?

Well I hope he doesn't like the prototype parka in the uniform shop in the Guicci building. It looks about as stupid as can be with the epaulets with rank on the shoulders.

There is no doubt this is a very contentious time and anyone who takes on the position of FDX chief pilot is going to have an uphill battle in terms of gaining the trust of the crew force.

Someone has to do the job, and from my perspective, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. In my personal dealings with RF he was both forthright and fair. Let's give the guy a chance.

He is a definite improvement over the old boss and hopefully we are better off.

Anything would be better than the old boss.

Over the years, there have been so so many new people come and go in management positions. Each one initially stated that they were the new guy in town - they know the other guy before them was bad - please give the new guy time to prove himself. Yea . You bet. With each new management pilot we are typically going to allow a honeymoon and hope for something better. It's our nature. Hence, management position changes are often designed to take advantage of our nature.

I've been here 20yrs and its the same progression. Nice guy from the line gets into a management job, he's protected and he changes. Everyone is going to think RF is a great guy and he is going to make things different. RF may think that himself but he will find his position is a position of no power. He'll sell his soul and see that if he is a,"Yes" guy, he'll move up. The position of SCP is powerless. I think guys go into this position thinking they can make a change and soon find out they can't. Then, they see the money offered to them if the move up and they can't resist to convert to the management side.

I trust no one who has left the line to go to the management side. I've seen it time and time again. He will not be pro pilot. So I'll just predict this, RF will do a year or more as SCP and then he'll be in another management position, just like JP.

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