Please tell me you walked into class with your flight kit handcuffed to your wrist!

 

Well they wouldn't have had that reaction if you'd stop wearing that Southwest Airlines lanyard.

It can be very confusing.

Carl

 

I recall walking in grabbing my crotch and moon-walking.....

 

It could have been the cat skin cap I was rakishly sporting, perhaps?

 

And this is what the company wants, the steady flow of massive retirements to be as far away as possible. By offering early outs they pull some of the guys now rather than later when they won't have the capacity to replace them.

However, for this to be good for us the next three years or so, they need to hire also or we just see higher paying jobs disappear and not be backfilled like we've seen on the 777 and 747 the last couple of years. So it's good, but not good at the same time.

 

That's funny, because one of my good buddies was a furlough returnee who was in my new-hire class. I was very humbled when getting back to LAX he checked his V-file and received his 1-year and 5-year pin...

I have been mostly fortunate in this career and respect that there are those who have endured hardships I hope to never know.

Its exactly because of those experiences, not despite them that seniority progression is something to actively pursue istead of just "hoping things work out ok"

Cheers
George

 

If those 500 positions are phased away and/or outsourced for "capacity discipline" or whatnot. If the company got rid of everything except one MD88 and they only needed 2 pilots total, you could be number two on the list and it wouldn't really matter much.

 

Hey George,

I'm all for seniority progression and I know that about 85% of us thought we'd be progressing much faster than we have. I certainly never anticipated leaving the career I had in the Air Force and 20 years of flying heavies internationally for being a narrow body FO for the rest of my life.

I think the only point I'm making is that career expectations are exactly that...expectations. Nobody could have anticipated the effects that 9/11 had on this industry prior to that day, nor the RJ explosion that helped many get the experience they needed to reach the majors only to now understand the detrimental affects that industry philosophy has had, nor the economic down turns of the last 4 years.

It's not the older guys fault that they lost their pensions and now have to work until they're 65 or 70. I can guarantee that almost all of those guys would be long gone if they could afford to.

No, what we're looking at is the reality that this career ain't the salad days of Pan Am or TWA. Thats gone.

I also returned to my v-file and had my 1-year and 5-year pins waiting for me. I wasn't humbled. I was ****ed. I really hadn't done anything to earn them. I'm making up for that now. And I want my company to reward me for my loyalty, hard work, and safe and skillful flying. That's all.

 

Complete opposite of what I witnessed in the same situation.

 

Uh oh. Somewhere on the fourth floor someone just said:

Barney - Challenge Accepted - YouTube