I must be some kind of mutant, raised by aliens.

I have never wanted to work for a living, that's why I took flying lessons. When I was a kid, I had to dig ditches, mow lawns, shovel driveways, and frame houses to pay for my flying lessons, so I could then, maybe, someday...Not Work all summer!

My dad was a general aviation CFI, and freight pilot. All his friends were airline pilots...usually on furlough. They never bragged about how much money they made, they bragged about taking the summer off to enjoy their boats! (grew up in NH, "summer" is about 8 weeks, from end of June to beginning of Aug. which is why I live in FL now :D)

W. T. F. good is working for money, if you cannot enjoy your time off? I work just enough to make my mortgage, on a house I bought as a F/O 17 years ago. I have never, in nearly 28 years, flown a green slip.

I'd much rather spend that time out on a sailboat, or just sitting on the beach, drinking a beer, watching the sunset. I have never understood the Wh0re mentality when it comes to flying more.

My favorite "Green Slip" is when they call me to buy a trip (only twice in the past 7 years) and I get to stay home and get paid. Or when I was an F/O, and they pulled me off the trip for an IOE.

Or as one guy said, "The problem with green slips is, you have to FLY them!":eek:

How many guys has ALK hired over the past 10 years?

I would think that the last 5 years would probably go date of hire integration wise in an ISL, but I have no idea how it would work out. I've heard people mention fences, but even then I'm not sure how well that would work. What would be fenced aircraft? Bases?

That is not even remotely close to how Vacation Any works. You are still limited to the LCW just like everyone else. In reality, using VA may make your post-award ability to pick up time using PCS very difficult depending on where and in how many pieces the VAC days end up on your schedule.

Nice rant though!

That sounds like a wonderful idea from the brain trust in flight ops. "No AP/no FD on the mad dog! Let's put a in a five minute segment at recurrent to get them back up to speed. Then they're good to go!"

It's ludicrous for the company to think we're going to put our tickets on the line doing raw-data hand flying after years of beating us senseless for doing so.

Problem is, since ALPA won't release the survey results, they can tell us the survey said pretty much anything they want.

A cynical guy might wonder if they're refusing to release the results because they're lying about what the results are.

Really?? I personally do it from time to time on nice days. Call me an idiot or maybe just confident of my abilities but I don't see a no AP/FD visual approach as putting my "ticket" on the line. I guess with that mentality I'd NEVER push back from the gate....... :rolleyes:

I doubt your ticket is on the line, when you are practicing in the sim. That's why God invented Sims, so you can practice, in a safe environment.

When I checked out on the MD88, my first Capt. gig in 1992, I was always complaining about the IP telling me to use..."All the Automation, all the time!" (that's what they were preaching then).

I said, "Why? It doubles my workload! Just let me fly it with raw data, like DC9!"

They said, "We have to see that you know how to use it!"

I said, "How about you just know that I know how to fly?"

My biggest fear was that using all the automation all the time was going to ruin my scan and raw data, and hand flying abilities.

Well, I guess the pendulum has finally swung the other way.

Stand by, in 5 years or less, we'll be hearing "Use All the Automation, All the Time" again. So don't forget your VNAV typing and button pushing skills...:rolleyes:

OK, so how about you explain to us exactly how VA is going to work? I hope it doesn't cost us more jobs, but I doubt it.

Don't worry about it, you and I will have no say in what gets fenced, etc. if and when that merger ever happens.

All we can do is...buy some good beer, sit back and watch the show.;)

Since when did the company get on to you for no AP/no FD?

On every fleet I've flown at DL (88, 767, 73N, and 320), flying with no AP and no FD is perfectly ok unless you're flying an approach down to minimums. No autothrust has been encouraged when the AP is turned off on all fleets I've flown as well.