As a Junior guy, I'll come out and say I disagree with Hockeypilot's position.
I don't think it is financially feasible to offer a higher pay raise to junior pilots in contrast to senior ones.

As a Junior guy, I won't patronize and preach about how much I've sacrificed and given up under the current contract. Truth is, I wouldn't have a job or DAL seniority number if it wasn't for the sacrifices senior pilots ahead of me made to keep this company in business. I try and keep myself grounded with that fact whenever I talk about our contract and representation.

My statement about pilots being our own worst enemies is an ongoing truth, and I agree with all of your number points. We pretend to take an unbiased approach when discussing contractual changes improvements, but our actions have been anything but this.

I'm not saying that I am willing to give away scope and take a pay cut to appease our senior pilots, but I do feel our senior pilots are entitled to a little more given the sacrifices they have made over the past ten years.

I do think we as a group need to move forward together as a whole, and not pit one side against the other regardless of the issue.

 

Bar,

I've got one correction I want to make to your excellent post. It's this part......




I can't count the number of times that we have pulled in next to an RJ that is going to a major city that used to be flown exclusively by mainline.. While we would be going to Jackson, MS, the 70 seater next to us would be headed off to Newark. Once, as we pulled in to the C gates in MSP, I looked down the row and saw where the aircraft were going:

The 73N was going to MKE
The M88 was going to BDL
The 70 seat RJ was going to PHL.

There used to be a time when RJ flying out of a hub didn't take them to big cities like PHL, BOS, EWR, LGA, BWI, DCA, etc. Now, they fly everywhere.

Apparently, it's the aircraft that ALPA somehow thinks is undesirable for major airline flying.

It seems that each contract they present us with contains a further erosion of our right to fly the smaller (not really that small) aircraft. It has got to stop.

 

Timbo,

Merger policy at that time stipulated that a decision was made whether to have a merger before getting into SLI openers. Since there was never a decision to have a merger, SLI openers were never presented.

The policy makes sense. If unity is most important, then you don't want the merger sidelined due to a SLI squabble. Hence the commitment to the process before seeing the results of the process.

By paycheck, or equipment, any status quo merger with a DCI carrier would have been a staple.

There are always web board and crew room blow hards. They don't sit at the table and do not make policy.

In my opinion you were manipulated to get your opinion in line with the direction your leadership wanted you to go.

... and since it will come up I'll preemptive state, "Lawson was a jerk."

 

You are exactly right.

The reasons for drawing the line had to do with pay and working conditions. The only way they could figure out how to discriminate was to base the line on aircraft, which was a very flawed decision since airplanes always grow in capacity and capability. It is also a easy limit to work around, as Republic has done with their "marketing certificates."

Inclusive scope would do away with the lines by simply stating "all Delta flying will be performed by Delta pilots." A compromise would be the joint venture language we have which covers the desirable flying. The most ineffective language is the exclusionary language which permits outsourcing of our undesirable flying.

I own one of those, and am able to quote you before you wrote that.

 

If this doesn't make you feel old (as a middle aged guy, at least... so not REALLY old, I guess, but at that point in your life where stuff starts to hurt and you can't recover from a holiday weekend BBQ the same way anymore...) I don't know what will.

A few years ago I was teaching some students about the differences in the T-38 C's electrical system when we were updating the A models and I said "and I think there's a flux capacitor in there somewhere".

Blank stares.

I ask "You guys know what a flux capacitor is, right?"

One kid raises his hand and says "Sir, its a term from physics when..."

I stopped him right there. Then I cried.

 

Somebody posted a funny list of stuff about the MD-88 the other day on this or one of the other threads. Anybody remember who posted/where it is at?

 

I did not post it to be funny. It was a list of the bat guano engineering that a careless and indifferent FAA signed off on as an airworthy design. I thought it too controversial and took it down.

 

A Flux Capacitor makes time travel possible.

Does the T38C really have 1.21 Jigawatts of power?

 

Uh.... What the H___ is a Jigawatt?

 

A T-38 or a flux capacitor?