777 In-seat power availability
 

I am flying the 777-200/300 to Germany and was wondering what laptop power options are available in the seats in coach? Do I need a special power adaptor or plug? Or can I use my laptops standard US three prong plug?

Thanks ...

We agree. The foot soldiers are more motivated, but the tower is still (literally) blind. They also don't have much to work with in terms of a layout.

I've heard they're 48-60 people short on the ramp, so there is always the potential they'll finally get more people through the hiring process. The new facility doesn't look to me like Delta will gain many gates, but at least we should have good access in and out, a ramp tower that actually has the potential to affect the outcome intelligently, and maybe a decent mixture of enthusiasm and experience on the ground. There is hope...

One would think the "world's largest airline" would have a little weight to throw around here... If I were king, I would dictate the price to Jepp.. (much like Walmart does to it's suppliers) or tell them to pack sand and go to the (LIDO?) Lufthansa plates. It would be a LOT of coin that would walk out the door....

First, I don't think Delta will ever go to satellite basing due to the dynamic nature of their scheduling and huge variety of aircraft they have right now. That said, how do satellite bases impact staffing?

There are two drivers of pilot staffing, total pilot credit hours (block, deadhead, credit time, etc.) and the staffing model. Unless satellite bases impact one or other of those variables then the impact on staffing is nil.

Depends....

If you use the "standard" base model, where for a certain number of lines, you have a certain number of blockholders with a certain number of reserves following the requirements of the PWA, then there is no impact on staffing. If anything, it would notch up staffing a tad because multiple small crew bases are, to a degree, slightly less efficient with reserves than a single, larger base.

IF you follow the current PWA.

BUT, If you cut a deal, similar to what the FAs do, and accept a lower number of reserves in base (if any at all) or other "staffling flexibility", just for the convenience of a couple of old timers living in base, and the onus is on the pilot to find someone to cover for him if he calls in sick, then yea, all bets are off.

If it made economic sense to put a base where you want it, the company would do it. But giving up concessions to make it "easier" for the company to do it, just so someone's home base is staffed with 20-40 pilots hurts everyone else. Like publishing the results of your polling, telling the company that'd you'd give up stuff just to get a base in East Butthole, you are telegraphing your position, and it's stupid from a negotiating point of view.

I'd love a base in FLL. Heck, if you used the precedent of NYC and LAX, you could legitimately cover PBI and MIA also. BUT I'm not willing to give up one red cent or one work rule to get it done.

Nu

Hey some much needed good news for the world:

This weekend at the movies, two films opened and thankfully it was Sylvester Stalone's movie about old men blowing up stuff and killing people that beat out Julia Roberts film about a woman trying to find herself.

Everything is not going wrong, yet.

Back to the discussion of satelite bases. I'm for anything that gets people moving up. If it does that, great, if not, not great. Also, sad to report, I'm learning the PF2, PF3, PF4 keys on icrew now. Sad. :D

Funny and slightly off subject, I always think back to my E120 days when someone said "I think we'll single engine taxi out today" and the words "---- you" might have come out of my mouth. :D

I mean when you've got to practically shut down the airplane on the fly and run taxi checklists that resemble the preflight checklists we have here, you get a little perturbed.

My understanding is Jepp has told everyone and anyone that if you want to go paperless you pay the same price. If I was playing devils advocate I'd say its because the paper doesn't really in the cost as much as it is to have the entire apparatus necessary to publish charts. But I really don't want to play devils advocate, screw em'. They're a Boeing owned company are they not? Figure something else out, its still might be a quasi free country. What did you MIL guys use for terminal charts internationally? Does the government make international charts? I'll cross my fingers and hope it wasn't Jepps.

Ever since Boeing bought Jepp, it's been "our way or the highway", and it's seen as a very lucrative enterprise. Jepp charges not by the physical cost of the medium (paper vs digital), but rather on "how many sets of eyes" view the product. In their view, a paper plate costs exactly the same as a digital plate.

We could always go to NOS/FAA charts.. That'd show'em....

Nu

NOS charts, um nope. :eek:

We used paper Jepps but then switched to an electronic version of Jepps that was stored in a laptop. We could print individual pages in flight as needed - which was done by the crew-chief (think FE). This system worked pretty good - but as I am sure the Navy was paying top dollar for at as they seem to do with everything.

This was about 5 years ago in the Navy VR (transport) community - I am not sure what they or the other services are currently using.

Scoop