Airline Pilot Central Forums - Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?

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- - Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta? (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/delta/36912-any-latest-greatest-about-delta.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnso29 (Post 1005016)

How did you go about doing so? Mentioning it on various threads won't get it done.

Well that sure seemed to "get it done" when the DPA thread got moved. A couple of the usual ALPA apologists raised the point that it should be in Union Talk... and voila... instantly moved! Then yesterday, a brand new thread about DPA was almost immediately moved to Union Talk... while the ALPA/JetBlue thread remained untouched.

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnso29 (Post 1005016)

Please use the reporting post function, or the little triangle with an exclamation point in it under your username.

Noted. Hopefully that process will also hold true for any threads with "union talk" advocating ALPA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1005049)

We could move the MD11 sim up there and still rent it out to FedEx, maybe?

The A320/330 airspeed anomaly issues are maintenance/engineering to figure out... with the help of the NTSB and every OEM who touched it.

But as far as pilots, seems to me in the QF and NWA case it was basic airmanship that dealt with the ASI issues that would be no different than the 777s issues or any of the other airplanes.

Basically, if someone said that all of the instructors have this gouge from the line pilots that says touch that button, then that one, turn that knob 4 times left and 3 times right and hit the master caution light three times in two seconds and that solves all problems, then that's one thing.

But honestly some of my best instructors and even checkrides have been done with IPs with 0 time in type, sometimes 0 time at Delta or Part 121 too. My last checkride was a former Eastern pilot who I'm not sure ever flew here, commutes too, I'd love to be as sharp as he was at his young age.

I value what you learn from an SLI and I think we should have more of them or at least even non-SLI but simple line pilots early on in training to sit in the FTDs to assist pilots is a good thing. A mentoring program really. But training is to be a controlled environment that once mastered then the real world life on the line can be introduced and its far less of a difference these days between the schoolhouses and real world then when I started.

In light of the Air France accident we did SPOT training on one of the last recurrents on the 320. They setup a similar scenario, and it is impressive how difficult it would be to recover from what they (probably) were dealing with.

The biggest problem is not with airmanship, but with quickly and accurately identifying the problem. With the airspeed instruments lying to you, one of your major clues is providing bad information.

After demonstrating what a Charlie Foxtrot it would be, the instructor beamed us back to the beginning of the failure and briefed two simple items - Pitch and Power. 2.5 degrees Nose Up and 85-90% N1. It works in any airplane and almost any altitude, but we're apparently (as an industry) not teaching this very well.

It sounds simple and like something every pilot should already know, but it's very difficult to block out the airspeed information when your pilot brain is programmed to "airspeed is life." I came out of the sim with a completely new respect for what the Air France crew was confronted with.

That was a long way of saying our instructors DO provide a wealth of information and experience. Sometimes it's not what they teach, but how they teach that's important. I know I'll carry the pitch/power thing with me for the rest of my career and will draw on it immediately if I'm ever confronted with an instrument failure/confusion. I think he was a DGS guy too :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalad (Post 1005007)

AE is coming out very soon. MSP 330 base closing, ATL 330 and 320 base opening. From a very reliable 4th floor source.

They have been saying that has been on for the last month. Lets see if they pull the trigger. If would lead to a ton of displacements in ATL as guys move in. I suspect they will want to get this done now and not later, as they will need to surge training so they can move the sims.

Good times.

Maybe I will bid the 330. I doubt I can hold it though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scambo1 (Post 1005047)

Ed Bastian, I am so glad you post here too.:eek:

Now that is Funny! Nice one scambo.....:cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by DAL 88 Driver (Post 1005058)

As I said, I was in the process of moving both threads, and you did not get me enough time to get em done.

Yes, union talk should be in the "Union Talk" forum, and like threads will not be moved there as fast as I can get them there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 1005020)

How many of the current NATCO instructors already commute? I have heard its more then half. Many come from Florida I am also told. I think they will find plenty who choose to switch to Atlanta.
As far as Bays many of the Bays in Atlanta have sims in place that are not used by Delta. There is also another sim facility Delta has used in the past for overflow at Greenbriar. We might even still have L1011 sims. I know we have two MD11 sims still installed. We use them for contract training. I think they are gone now but we kept several 727 sims for years after the aircraft were gone. They wont have a Bay problem and they will retain more instructors then you think.
Delta is a airline still mired in debt and other financial issues. They have to cut every cost if they intend to survive in the new world of airlines. When they get it sorted out CAL/UAL will be a powerhouse. SWA is going to adapt and do great in Atlanta. If there is money to be wasted I want it spent on the pilot contract not other items.

I would say that there are at best 10% of the current NATCO instructors that commute. I always had the thought that this was going to happen, just didn't think it would be this fast. What I think is really going to happen when all is said and done here is that it may flush out a fair number of senior pilots in category's such as A320 and 7ER where they just may go to the equipment they can hold. Just speeding up the natural evolution of change.

While this stinks for me personally, as I am a current SLI instructor that does not commute, this is completely understandable as a business decision. I will have some decisions to make as whether or not to stay on my aircraft, commute to ATL to instruct, or move on to a different a/c. Nice thing is that it will not happen overnight. Those are my problems and just part of a business that is trying to succeed. At least I have good choices to make and not like many of the techs, maintenance personnel or people in other industries that have to make the hard decision to uproot their families in order to keep their job, or try to find employment elsewhere in this difficult economy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gloopy (Post 1004956)

What do you mean? As in starting to fat staff/pad categories in advance? If so, wouldn't that require at least some hiring?

If I was in charge of staffing, I would be adding pad to the 744, and 330 immediately. The other jets are easier to fill with a quick AE, but those two jets are very susceptible to guys just leaving.

I also would be hiring at least two to three years ahead of the retirement wave. We can train maybe 700 new hire pilots a year. The bottleneck is the FTD's and the IOE process, not really the sims. With the retirement numbers we have starting in four to five year, I would want to get the most qualified applicants first.

That is just me of course. :rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 1005020)

How many of the current NATCO instructors already commute? I have heard its more then half. Many come from Florida I am also told. I think they will find plenty who choose to switch to Atlanta.
As far as Bays many of the Bays in Atlanta have sims in place that are not used by Delta. There is also another sim facility Delta has used in the past for overflow at Greenbriar. We might even still have L1011 sims. I know we have two MD11 sims still installed. We use them for contract training. I think they are gone now but we kept several 727 sims for years after the aircraft were gone. They wont have a Bay problem and they will retain more instructors then you think.
Delta is a airline still mired in debt and other financial issues. They have to cut every cost if they intend to survive in the new world of airlines. When they get it sorted out CAL/UAL will be a powerhouse. SWA is going to adapt and do great in Atlanta. If there is money to be wasted(spent, not wasted) I want it spent on the pilot contract not other items.

Other than what is in red, I agree.

Quote:

Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 1005070)

As I said, I was in the process of moving both threads, and you did not get me enough time to get em done.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...ovXfHLKp8JbikQ

The issue was first raised at 7:03pm CDT on June 1 in the DPA thread. The thread was almost immediately moved after that. The ALPA/JetBlue thread was only moved within the past 12 hours. Today's date is June 8. Why did the "process of moving both threads" take almost a full week longer for ALPA/JetBlue?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DAL 88 Driver (Post 1005076)

I am referring to moving the other threads. I do fly you know. Look at my sked and you will see that I have had little time for anything but flying and sleeping.

As for the move of the DPA thread, I agree with it, but moving a thread I was part of in the past is not a decision I would make unilaterally. Now that the precedent has been set, I will move them freely.