Deleted......

 

A South African 747 combi had a nasty cargo fire that led to a crash in the Indian Ocean back in the 1987. Some of the rules were changed to add more fire-fighting equipment which added weight which, in turn made combis less economical.

Interesting story...google SAA 295.

 

It does seem like I remember some FAR that said the cargo had to be forward of the PAX but I guess those foreign airlines don't have to comply with U.S. rules to fly into the U.S.?

 

When cargo is put between the pilots and the passengers, cargo nets become hammocks.

 

Ha ha...

I knew studying for the FE written would pay off at some point. (at least I think I remember -cargo forward of pax- being subject matter on the FE written)

 

You're right it was ALV.



And yes ALV-2 but min of 72 and capped at 80 is the reserve guarantee. You can still fly to ALV+15 and in a month with a 84 ALV that means a reserve can fly to 99 hours. Right?

99 hours. That's a lot.

Now as to how many jobs this cut, if we were gaining jobs through the TA why in these investors calls are they saying the higher pilot pay through greater proficiency? Proficiency doesn't seem to be more pilots doing the same amount of flying.

 

Really, the only day that gives you the true staffing level is the very first day that pcs is run. This is the day you will see how many "extra" reserves there are over the required number. After that, pilots will have dropped and swapped down to the "required" number.

Based on the 88b, it looks like most of your weekends were above the "required" number to start the month which also is why you see so many extras during the week... The "required" number could be artificially increased (preventing drops etc) and then the odds of green slips going out would be less, but in the mean time somebody did miss out on a GS and several people may have been denied x day moves, drops etc...

More pilots in your category does not by default fix what you desire because even if you had 20 more pilots on the weekends to start, odds are pilots are going to pcs away, or move x days to weekends till the "required" number is reached.

I am curious what you are specifically saying you would like to see wrt weekend coverage? The only thing that I can see that would more or less fix it for you is artificlly raising the "required" number.

 

Ron,

+ 1000!

Some on here continually lament every aspect about the reserve system including the following:

Too many short-calls - we used to have two short-call windows every day.
Too many Pilots required on the weekend - so they cant drop these days.
Not enough Pilots required on the weekend - some poor soul gets a GS.
Pay on reserve sucks - It was 70 hours.
Guys on Reserve never break guarantee.
Guys on Reserve will be forced to fly ALV+15 every month.
ALV + 15 is why we are not hiring, even though Reserve only constitutes a small minority of DAL Pilots and we have not actually seen this yet. The fact that the vast majority of DAL Pilots are line-holders some who routinely fly up to 90 hours a month seems not to matter, even though it negatively affects hiring much more than the reserve rules.


Guys - Reserve at DAL is probably better than it has ever been. Can and should we still try to improve it - absolutely. We will be in section 6 in two years and will then have actual numbers and facts which we can analyze to see what changes we should prioritize.


Stand by for current political paraphrase:

"Reserve at DAL it is not the Apocalypse that some around here have been saying it is."

Who said it and about what?

Scoop

 

We did not gain any jobs in this TA. WE lost a very small number of jobs. It's difficult to decrease productivity and increase jobs when you are already one of the less productive airlines. It's a tough sell through the NMB where we would have ended up.
There is one other aspect not mentioned and not costed for jobs in this contract. I am flying less with the raises. My total income is not going up but I am working less. That's my choice but several friends are doing the same. That will add jobs over time.

 

All I know is i've been working my butt off on reserve compared to a year or two ago. Getting 6 short calls most months instead of 2 or 3 in the past. As I've stated before about the ALV+15-it doesn't matter whether or not we actually fly to that number-it's the fact that we CAN, and that's why we need less bodies. Theres lots of "leeway" now in how many hours we can work. I just don't see how some of you guys don't understand this.