When I was a new hire in 1985, the North East guys I flew engineer for in BOS and MIA were still talking about how they got F'd in their 1972 merger, as if it happened last month!

That and most of them had quit ALPA over it, so most of them were non-members and telling me I should quit ALPA as well, because, "ALPA will Fk you! They are going to put you on a B Scale, just watch!" (we were in contract negotiations at the time, and sure enough, signed the B scale in Aug. 1986)

If they had told me that in 20 years, ALPA would sit by and do nothing while my pay was cut 42% and my retirement plan was flushed down the toilet, I would have said they were on crack. But when I look what's been happening to our contracts since 1985 and the B scale, I can only see 4 years, 2001-2004, that our pay/benefits were 'Good'.

Not great, but good. 4 years out of 31.

Not a very good batting average for ALPA.

 

watchu talkin' bout? How long have you been here? Didn't you just get hired? Not sure how you can assess "more common" with your small sample size.

I've had (anecdotally) half South and half North captains offer to do walkarounds. It's been consistent since the merger. No change in the pattern. I guess a few more offer in the summertime when it's not raining.

 

WGAS it's the FOs job. Just like its the CAs job to deal with MX when I find something. And no I don't think it can wait until we get to ATL. I'll be getting food during this delay, can I get you anything?

 

Off topic... where do you find hotel info for cq?

 

Bottom of your schedule for the month you have CQ.

 

It's called a 70/30 walk around. If the temp is above 70 degrees there is a 30% chance the CA will offer up a walk around.

 

great thanks

 

I had one guy tell me at the beginning of the trip that he will get half the walkarounds and I could get the other half. He then said, I did them for the first half of my career, you can get them for the second half. He never did one the whole trip.


Personally I don't care if the captain does it or not since I like to stretch my legs. Just thought that was interesting.

 

On my last trip I was in the FOM four times before we pushed back solving problems. My FO remarked that walk arounds were easy after watching me work. I do buy beers.

 

Just finding anything in the FOM is a workout