.............

Actually Sailing, I was referring to the Flight Ops Bulletin, which has been out for a week now.

And you might want to take a few minutes to actually read the FOB, which far from stating you must make a PA 'every now and then', but REQUIRES you to be in the gate area for an indeterminate amount of time making customer service PA's.

I'm hopeful that we'll hear something soon from our Union, you know, the one we pay dues to in exchange for representation?


If you can't recognize the implications of requiring pilots to perform a non flying duty outside the boundaries of our PWA, then I guess its hopeless to convince you that yes, this is a very important issue and yes, I expect a response from my union, if only in the form of a quick email blast saying "we noticed". Takes 5 minutes... if I were the MEC chair, this would be the #1 fire to put out Monday morning.

Oh good so they are going to do something.

I have gone as far as helping put the bags in the airplane in JFK during a meltdown (was my last leg but I'm sure that didn't sway my decision) however I agree with the mob. We shouldn't be told we must make these PA's. I have flown with some really great Captains and they seem to know when they should say something.

The old PA policy (FOM 7.8) stated that "repeated apologies should be avoided." The new policy requires you to introduce yourself and "apologize for the inconvenience" and then to "take ownership and apologize as necessary."

So we're now supposed to "take ownership" for the fueling truck that was called for 45 minutes ago, catering who hasn't showed after 3 radio calls, the delay into OUR gate because Alaska hasn't pushed yet out of OUR gate, the WDR that hasn't arrived because the 386 computer crashed again, the lav service truck that hasn't dumped the lavs, and on and on and on.

"I'm sorry folks. Sorry I have to stop what I'm doing and come out here to make these stupid P/A's every 15 mintues..."

From the recent Flt Ops letter:

"In a recent JD Power double-blind study in a Wal Mart parking lot, 9 out of 15 people preferred Pilots In Hats Doing Things over Kittens Playing With Yarn and Monster Trucks Breaking Stuff... Of the 6 remaining subjects, 3 were unintelligible, 2 attempted to eat the survey and one may or may not have been human."

Sailing,

The above would be a little excessive..... we probably should hold the Rat in reserve. Not fire all our guns at once, keep our powder dry etc, etc and so forth.

Seriously though, I do agree with you the guys are making a little too much of this (except for Timbo's recommended Pa - Funny stuff right there) must be a slow day on APC.

Scoop :)

Once again,"It's the pilots fault." If they were truly concerned,there would be a hot line to mgmt.......when the piggy rotates..

True PA that nearly got a pilot fired ... (from a DCI carrier, none the less)

"Ladies and Gentlemen we are sorry that we have been delayed while waiting for a gate to be available for our arrival. While you wait, let me invite you to read the complimentary Sky magazine that you will find in the seat back pocket in front of you. On page three, you will read a message from Leo Mullin, the President of our airline. On page 74 you will find a phone number and e-mail addresses for customer comments. While waiting, let me encourage you to use your electronic devices and let Delta know your thoughts on our delay."

Not too sure Delta really wants anyone familiar with the outsourcing of ground handling to make the PA. ... BTW ... "best PA Name" Captain Heywood Jablohme.

I'd like to see a quick memo from DALPA reminding us that this is desired technique, not mandatory duty.

If they did that, we might see participation in the 10-20% range as opposed to the 3-5% range we will see with the perception of forced gate agent duty at all times.

I get that people like it. One of the main reasons they like it is because they rarely see it. If you were even somehow able to put a pilot at every gate for every 15 minute PA (will NEVER happen) it would quickly become old hat background chatter.

We definately need to hear from DALPA on this, and soon. While I agree that sometimes this can be a good idea, as strictly interpreted this is a huge unilateral powergrab and far outside the scope of our duties.

I think that's what they said on the 4th floor when they made pilots responsible for explaining the functioning of the outsourced to a subsidiary below wing crew over a cold holiday weekend.

Given how we are operating 11% fewer flights this year (week on week), there should be plenty of gate space, FWIW. ... and in reality, we've just a couple of minutes early everywhere.