Then I lost my hair and got too fat for the flight suit

 

You are missing the point, we have certain protections in place and they do not need to be bypassed. How would you feel if you were doing a rug dance in the CP office because some fo wrote down some notes that someone somewhere did not like????

 

THAT'S all fine and dandy until the guy taking notes does not agree that you are doing things as they should be. Why be possibly put at risk when it should not have a chance of happening. We have protections in place don't be so quick to give them up.

 

Too lazy to read back through all the posts, so my input may be totally useless.

Did a Frankfurt 6 day a couple of months back. NYC to FRA = normal. FRA to DTW: South LCA captain, North FO and me. North F/O very defensive to anything the LCA had to say... Normally, whatever...but on the specific points....he (the north guy) was flat wrong, and was ****ed that anybody was questioning him. Annoying and un-fun.

Next leg, me and a north CA and north FO, back from DTW to AMS. Little nervous, to be sure, but at the end of the day..it was just 3 guys doing the job. There was supposed to be a south LCA on the trip. He either no-showed or they felt that since I (a south guy) was on the trip, it would be all good. (The north guys had never flown a 76 with folks on board).

It was fine. They voiced their concerns about the changes, I voiced mine. At the end of the leg, there was nothing we felt was so huge that we couldn't overcome it.

Point is, we south guys know that there are things that can be improved. We know that there are other and better ways to do things. Give it a little time. This is, by far, the biggest airline merger to date. The big-wigs on both sides have done and are doing a bang-up job given the enormity of the deal.

If "your" IT is better:

I want it

If "your" IROPS is better:

I want it.

etc...etc..

This back and forth is good, as long as we can keep from being ,...I dunno....."territorial"?

I don't give a damn where it came from, I just want it to be better than the competition...

That's it....


You North guys....I really do think that "they" are listening. It may not seem so at times, or seems really slow at times. I'll say this. During my nearly 5 years on furlough, I did many things. One of which was to run a small flight ops department. 40 pilots, 5 planes, 135 scheduled; trying to go 121. The hoops you have to jump through are n..e..v..e..r... ending. It's mind-boggling when dealing with OKC.

Anyway, I've gone on long enough. As far as the "layover demeanor" of the 2 north guys I hung out with:....

Yep....same...same...

They hate beer...just as I do....pity

 

Good points Jay5150. I agree. Some people just like to **** and moan. I think that this merger has gone very smooth thus far. I've had an opportunity to chat with a lot of PMDAL guys on the Jumpseat, & they're just normal dudes doing the job IMO. Many are curious about how NWA did things, & we tend to discuss what we feel could be changed on our next contract. Things like sliding vacation, or different work rules. PMNWA have endured a lot of change, but I feel a lot of it is a good change. It's hard for a lot of PMDAL to know how much change we've gone through, & sometimes ya just got to let us vent(I mean in flight) Overall though, I know this could have gone A LOT worse. JMHO.

 

While we're on procedures, an FYI: for those of you wondering about the elusive red-bordered checklist:

It was the choice of the procedures integration to go with the red-bordered checklist. The FAA for some retarded reason required us to keep the memory items despite the hard card being a long accepted and approved item.

 

What's the difference between having that guy in the jump and having some commuter in the jumpseat? Either guy has the ability to go in and report you to your chief pilot. If you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about. I'm not giving up any protections. The protections are still there in case I mess up. The ASAP program and ALPA being two of these. I'm glad they're having guys ride in the jumpseat. Hopefully, we can find some ways to make our procedures more safe and efficient than they already are. I do think this new practice should have been run by the union first if it wasn't. I totally agree on that point!

 

Hey Guys I have a simple question -

How come both Pilot groups, when referring in general about the other group, North or South, can be distrustful and suspicious? Yet when discussing actual people (Had a southie or Northie on the jumpseat etc) we are always very impressed - "great guys!" Seriously - go back and read some of these posts. The hypothetical "Them" are often not to be trusted, yet the actual people are usually "great guys."

Could it possibly be that both Pilot groups are basically the same??? And perhaps, any differences have been overblown?

Scoop - Just wondering?

PS - There is nothing wrong with guys taking notes...... As long as they are forthcoming and upfront about it. Clandestine note-taking - not a great idea, we need to 100% trust our fellow crew members and not worry about being "observed."

 

^^^^this^^^^^

 

Yes, indeed.