As one of the top 10 RES on the 88B in ATL, I already have a 3 day and 1 short call in the bag. There are many junior to me that have = or less raw than I do.

The RES system is a huge improvement.

 

Has anyone else noticed the latest edition to the ATIS in KATL? Something along the lines of "inboard runways will not be used for landings except in Emergency situations".

I wonder why they added that recently? Guess you can't blame them for trying.

 

The only thing I can think of is obstacle clearance off construction from the new international terminal. I haven't been to ATL in about 2 weeks, so I don't know if there is a new crane or something up. There was a NOTAM I saw in Feb. when I was there for "No landings on 27R except for emergency" which made me think of the M incident.

If this was right after the taxiway M landing, I could see a correlation to that.

 

"Tower, this is Southwest 123... is the inboard available?"

 

My experience is that my first month on the system was a lot worse (read: more flying and short calls) than what I was experiencing. And as I scrolled through the reserves available (ATL M88B) I saw cases of senior pilots who didn't fly at all even with having had 3 SCs. Bottom line: juniors are getting more unwanted flying they weren't getting before, and seniors who weren't typically flying as much as juniors were are flying much less, or in some cases not at all.

I think the new system is a HUGE improvement. I appreciate the work done by the SOT in getting these changes implemented. Do I think they could have done something better? Yes. Instead of allowing one point to separate buckets (e.g. 80 in bucket 1; 81 in bucket 2) they could have given each pilot a built in RAW of 30 pts that was automatically put toward his RAW, but only applicable to pilots JUNIOR to him. Thus he would not possibly find himself (80) as finding he is only 1 pt lower than a junior pilot (81) and having to do a trip he didn't want, but that should have gone to the junior guy.

BTW, I am OK with senior pilots passing up flying that junior guys end up having to do. But within limits...the bucket system works fairly well (suggested fix above), but 80 should be somewhere like 53-57 IMO.

 

Yeah, I've heard that a lot "senior pilots want this." But I never got the survey to provide my input. And I didn't get the memo that said please send us your input or call us so we can take into consideration your thoughts on the matter.

When I did contact my reps I was told that all the feedback they have received was from junior pilots like myself with these concerns. In other words, 100% of the feedback was critical of what was taking place, namely the bucket values. 100% of it.

Now you could say that the seniors just hadn't commented and had they been asked they would have told you they support it. But this rep said they hadn't said anything; that all the feedback he got was negative. So apparently only when seniors complain does it matter. Do senior pilots (e.g. top 50%) get greater credit for their opinions and input? I mean we all admit that seniority should be respected so how about we commit to this and give them greater representation (from what I'm seeing they already are when it comes to the reserve system). So let's make it official: give their vote values and survey inputs a value of 1.5 and junior pilots a value of .75. They are paying more in dues, right?

 

However even if the pilots willingly terminate the PBGC still has to agree to the termination. They can refuse to takeover the plan.

 

Yes, It would have to be ratified by the pilot group.

 

That's what I was thinking as well.

 

Correct. They may agree to a lower payout after it is frozen.