Thanks.. and thanks for the deletion

No prob t.

Atlas' annual profit was less than our quarterly profit by a large margin.

Dont kid yourself, they are relevant. You are a pilot. You are not management. You fly airplanes just like other pilots.

I agree they are acmi and outsized cargo.

Stagnation beats furlough no doubt.

Good point. It's the exact same job regardless of company structure. We fly, and they manage.

Johnson, First off ATL was not senior until NW began to flood into the base, it was second most Jr behind New York, so any original DAL guy that lived in ATL has definitely lost in base seniority and it was not his choice. So don't even play that silly game.

Second, as long as you are losing guys behind you without replacements. 12,434 to 12,100 you are losing relative seniority, do not confuse jr base bidding power with what is really happening to the Delta pilot list. As long as that number behind you shrinks the airline is in decline and your future is being decimated.

Sorry to be a downer, but after 10 years in this buisness, the future continues to look fairly dismal. But, remember I am looking at 21 years just to hit 50% on the seniority list, loss of retirement and the very real chance of minimal improvements in our next contract. (I know everybody is talking 20-60% raises but I think the company has an entirely different idea)

And before you say why don't you just leave. I will simply say that starting a new career from scratch in you mid 40's, when your main skill is flying and 2 kids in college would be very challenging for me and my family.

First of all, it's not a silly game because the person I was responding to was a PMNW pilot who bid from DTW to ATL so he did have a choice. Second, plenty of pain is being spread around. What do you think happened to PMNW DTW 757 guys when the CVG 7er category was closed? Most of them came to DTW pushing DTW guys down and out of the category. What do you think is happening to PMNW guys who are in the DTW 320 category now that we are opening a ATL 320 base? Yup, they're losing seniority in category or they're losing their seat altogether.

Second, I stated that it is silly to think that 2 Legacy airlines whom merged in order to LOWER costs would magically grow. The whole purpose of the merger is consolidation. So it really shouldn't be any shock that there are now LESS pilots on our list then when we merged.

Third, I was never going to tell you to just leave. You're entitled to your opinion, I just don't have to agree with you. Many people are disappointed with the way this career has steered lately, and I don't blame them. It is drastically different from what they expected. For others, it's everything they wanted and they accept the ups and downs. With 12,000 pilots we will have many, many different opinions.

The guy playing the Captain on the new Pan Am show is 32 years old. I guess only actual airline pilots will realize how completely ridiculous that is.

Actually, daldude, when the airline shrinks without replacements, assuming the pilots that are senior are also older, everyone except the last pilot gets an improvement in relative seniority.

If you're 9,000 out of 12,000, you're at 75%. If 3,000 retire, with no replacements, you get to be 6,000 out of 9,000, or 67%. When you retire, you're then 1 out of 3,000, or about .01% of... a big pile of sh$t.

Not much consolation, of course.

I haven't seen the show so I don't know if you mean a 707 A was 32 or a DC-7, seriously doubt you'd have a young 707 A.

But fwiw I met a FAA inspector once out of MCI that was a retired TWA pilot that was hired in his early 20s with 300ish hours. He was flying for fun but went out and got his commercial so he could apply, or someone said if you go get it we'll interview you. Can't remember.

Started out on the Connie as a FE and I believe made Connie Captain while the airplane was on the way out. I want to say that was in the mid to late 1960s.

Super nice guy and the way he told the story I really don't think he was pulling my leg. In fact I know he didn't touch my leg. It was more of a "different time different place." I just remember thinking he was the kind of FAA guy I'd like to deal with.


Is the show any good?

I know a TWA guy from the same time period.

Hired with extremely minimal hours.

Hired onto the panel of the 707 and went to the right seat after a year and made captain on it a couple years later, and then L-1011 captain, and the last decade on the 747.

In 1998 they offered him a deal he could not refuse and he retired at 58.

He only had gotten a job at TWA as a baggage handler in the beginning because he didn't know what to do with his economics degree but he knew he had to start paying for it now that college was done. He fell in love with the airplanes and got his ratings and who would have known he'd spend the last 20 years as a widebody captain making $200K+, in 1990s dollars.