Well by all means, please enlighten us all as to how foreign supported airlines flying within our borders will be beneficial to us all. And I couldn't care less if I insult them. They can KMA, and so can those that support them..

 

Exactly.......

 

 

The shiner on my left eye says it all.

 

I think human nature causes those who appreciate the information from the cockpit to be overtly complimentary and for those that don't care for it to remain silent. Something along the lines of "if you have nothing nice to say..." So, my take is that most people in the back have flow plenty and just want to get where they are going on time. They only want to know if something is going to delay them or affect them. The push for us to be more communicative is based on incomplete information. If you believe in the idea of treat other people how you want to be treated, ask yourself how much you care about what the pilots have to say when you deadhead. For me, it is an unwelcome distraction.

That being said, the bottom line is this: say whatever you want to say. You are a pilot and have earn the right to 'do the pilot thing'.

 

When something subjective causes disagreement among pilots, I think the simplest and most objective default position to is to respect seniority.

 

I absolutely get what you are saying. I don't like it either when I'm in the middle of Mad Money and the PA starts and he drones on about altitude and ride and route of flight and all that. ESPECIALLY if we have TVs back there. (Although I still like looking out the window now and again). What I am primarily referring to is right before takeoff, and we have that "sterile" PA:"flight Attendants prepare for departure". I just think it is important to engage those that pay our salaries just a tiny little bit and let them know we are human too. I absolutely DESPISE that robo PA that NWA bought on the 757s that automatically, and within a nanosecond of turning on the seatbelt light, makes a PA to return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts. I think it is cheap sounding.

Bottom line is that guys are gonna do what they are gonna do. As a passenger, I prefer a little personality and engagement from the guys flying the airplane. The guys that don't want to do that, are not gonna do it no matter the pro/con argument and vice versa. But all this fear mongering about sterile cockpit comes across as paranoia, imho.

 

tsquare. We are on the same page. One of the reasons I wanted to be a pilot is because I thought pilots were cool. Additionally, I love the people that fill the seats on Delta aircraft, because they make aviation possible for me. It warms my heart when I exit an airplane and I watch the reunion of love ones that we made possible, in part, because we are aviators.

Delta Airlines hired you because you have a clue. So, I say, forgot the advice of people that want to generalize situations and do what you think is right based on the conditions as you see them. That will be more appropriate and appreciated than canned anything.

 

Buzz,

My father spent 9 out his first 16 years in our profession on furlough. He had two airlines go bust out from under him, or rather I should say, flew for two airlines that had their assets transferred. He worked as a mechanic when he could not find work flying. Sometimes he worked three jobs, not only to support us, but also as the sole provider for his mother and help with a couple of nearly destitute relatives. Can not recall that he ever complained, but he was tired and never really happy unless he was flying.


The second asset transfer happened when I was 16. I took my first full time job two weeks after my 16th birthday and have worked at least one job every day of my life since then. My schedule for the six years it took me to get my undergrad done was 07:40 am at work ... a few of my classes let out at 00:20. My parents never asked for money, but I did save up some cash so we could take a family vacation. Dad found work flying in Saudi. I do not recall seeing him much until I was 24. I will leave the details of our family life out of this, but yeah, I get it. He is a great guy. He really appreciated his later career with FedEx.


This thorough understanding of what furlough and career instability is the exact reason why I've worked to try to improve our profession's perspective on unity.

Rather than focus on the emotive question of how anyone feels about furlough it would better if folks like CGHerk would refocus on the structures their association has created which caused our pilots to be furloughed. It frustrates me that his posts criticize pilots for their feelings when these emotions impede the objective changes that we need to get done to unify our profession, thus avoiding asset transfers, furloughs and job losses out of seniority.

In other words; you probably took a furlough that should have been mine. Why did you (and the Delta pilots) allow that to happen? Was disunity with ASA and Comair worth it? (not picking on you, it is a rhetorical question and I think we agree on the answer)

I've heard a couple of pilots who are in the know state considerations for what would amount to a one way flow up to Delta. Management wants to avoid flow down because it makes it more cumbersome to administer furloughs and a lot of men with ALPA lapel pins seem to have no problem with that idea.

How can it be that we are so against Norweigen, Emirates, Etihad et. al. taking "our" flying when we still happily outsource 40% of our domestic flying to alter ego versions of our own airlines? We have no moral authority to ask for restrictions when we build half of our Section 1 on permitted arrangements to outsource flying within our own brand.

We can change these structures. I do not ever want a pilot on this list to be furloughed.

 

Just because it's too good not to share ....



Dad's airline was the first to do quite a few long distance routes across the Pacific. They had worked up a doppler radar drift sensor, which apparently did not work (at all) as well as hoped since calm seas gave the thing nothing to obtain a return from. They were intercepted, fired on and forced down.