Restoration is nothing without scope. A wise Captain I flew with talked about a 50 seat "Scope gap". There will always be a 50 seat difference between the largest plane flown at DCI and the smallest at mainline. Look at what we have now. Coincidence? What good does it do for the vast majority of us if we get big pay raises but lose the rest of the -9's and 319s. Just more stagnation.

We could get full restoration and the next downturn could wipe it all out.

Carl,

Have you picked up the phone and talked to your reps or O'Malley? They will often tell you things verbally they will not in print due to everything they write is essentially public record. I've spoken to numerous reps from the big bases and the predominant impression I get is not one more seat, pound, gallon, etc, and over by dead f&$#%g body, which given the seniority of many of the reps is pretty literal. I think your suspicion is groundless. Everyone realizes we gave to much in the past. It's completely off the table as far as I can tell.

PG;

I try to be reasonable on this board. I think most do. What you state is entirely possible. I realize there are many/most DAL pilots who are very (in a relative way) disengaged from "the profession" or "the/our issues".

To them, pay is really the only issue because they haven't thought it thru, experienced furlough first hand, backslid in seniority significntly (or whatever else gets a pilots attention). They hold a line, one trip is just like another, the job is mechanical, the thought process is mechanical.

The above described are the (true) rank and file because they are so maleable. The union says x is true, they spout "x is true". No further thought is required by them because they pay the union to think for them and it does.

The problem comes in (and I realise its a "democratic" organization) when the union has not thought something thru, or has analysed something incorrectly. This is where dissenting opinion is so important. etc.

My son has a basketball game now, gotta run.

PG is that a Honda in your avatar?

Yeah, I think Nu will be my buddy for a few years while the kids are in college :)

Yep - 2010 Fury.

That certainly could account for some of it. But I think you don't give most of us enough credit for how we handle CRM in our cockpits. My experience has been that we can discuss these kinds of things... and even agree to disagree... without any unpleasantries or hard feelings. I can only think of one time where I've had an F/O really get under my skin when discussing ALPA. From my perspective, he was rude and disrespectful. (And his opinions were very much in the minority, in my experience.) But I bit my tongue and made sure that things stayed cordial. In any case, I have found that most of the guys I've flown with over the years (especially recently) are not happy with ALPA and are not afraid to say it. The vast majority of the time, I don't even initiate the conversation about it.

Has ALPA done any analysis (that we can see) on the financial impact of the proposed Flight Time/Duty Time limits on regional carriers. My initial assessment is that the changes to flight time and duty time regulations will erode the cost advantage of outsourcing. We will have a smaller financial hurdle to overcome with respect to regaining scope. In fact, we should be approaching this from the standpoint of providing a higher quality product (mainline operated flights) to our customers for no additional cost.

Under the new rules, we could actually save the company money by performing flying that was previously outsourced.

I would say that is not the case on the fNWA side where Carl lives. Most of the senior guys there are very in tune with scope. They realize how it can affect them through JVs and alliances. We have seen alot of it happen.:eek:

If there are no airplanes and routes to fly, what good is a contract????????????:eek:

Actually, I have been quite satisfied with DALPA.. my beef is with national.. but you knew that.

How come Lee hasn't taken me up on the offer to drive his personal car to DC so that he has transportation again? Oh yeah... perks of the office... Same old same old...

And I see no middle ground with you either...