Originally Posted by HandFlyorDie

I was awarded an upgrade at ~10 months on property, but I am also not a moron. 99% of the people at Mommy D that knew about it were really supportive and excited…only a few self proclaimed “deadzoners” (with 5-10 years left) gave me a hard time. EVERYONE in the training department was thrilled for me, and I never once had anything negative said about me or any other junior upgrades. The only time it was mentioned was when the OE planner told me I had to get 47 hours of OE. So if it makes you feel better, I think people are exaggerating the situation. Some people need to have some extra instruction and that’s fine too. I never felt like anyone that matters was lumping us together.

Originally Posted by Nick Bradshaw

This is sometimes true, but it's not universal. There's also a lot of "U3" pilots who have years and thousands of hours of 121 PIC time at other airlines, in everything from RJs to 747s.

And "tribal knowledge of Delta procedures"? Delta Procedures are what's written in the manuals and what's taught. We don't need more harping on technedures. And let's be honest. We do a lot of dumb stuff here that no other airline does just because "that's the way we've always done it". A great example is running multiple checklists and verifications to perform a parallel runway change in VFR conditions, and making it so onerous that Delta flights refuse runway changes that other airlines just deal with. DFW, IAH, ORD, DEN, SFO are great examples of this.

I really don't care for the U3 moniker, and I actually think it's borderline discriminatory how we've been branding these guys and giving them one size fits all scrutiny because of it. Yeah, some of them fit that mold, and should be given more attention, but certainly not all. It needs to be based on their actual experience, preparation, and performance, not simply "Years At Delta".

We really need to get away from this attitude that whatever you did before Delta doesn't count.

Originally Posted by Whoopsmybad

You refuse runway changes???

Originally Posted by Nick Bradshaw

Uh... what? Do you even fly the line here?

IAH approach on the base vector for 8L: "Hey Delta xxx can you accept a change to 8R"?

Me: "unable".

United always seems to be able to handle it. I wonder why.

Originally Posted by Whoopsmybad

Yes I fly here, and for a while. And based on your post I made the assumption you were on the ground, nothing hard about it.

But yes I’ve been on base into LAX just recently and taken the change from 25R to 24L and had plenty of time to do it. Not that cosmic.

I like the deflection of do I work here.

Originally Posted by Nick Bradshaw

Not an insult. I meant do you fly the line or spend most of your time on the 4th floor or the sims.

Originally Posted by tennisguru

When did you go through training? A U3 pilot from 2018-2021 in most cases probably had a decent amount more total time than U3 guys in 2022 and 2023.

I don’t think it’s any secret that on average the total time of our new hires has been trending lower. And I don’t begrudge any pilot exercising their seniority rights to upgrade whenever they want. I need fodder behind me so I can hold weekends off when I make the upgrade move 😀

Originally Posted by Gspeed

Am I the only one that doesn’t have clue what U3 means?