This isn't anything new, upgrade at Airways, I mean AA has been 1 year last time I looked (190 CA). Yes I would but my grandma on a DAL MD88 flight with a new CA who just got off ioe, it's a proven system.

 

It has been my observation that any Captain, no matter how many thousands of hours in type, is unsafe when sitting in an MD88!

(An old lady stuck her head into my MD88 cockpit during boarding and asked, "Is this thing safe?" to which I replied, "In about 10 minutes we're going to find out!")

 

With dispatchers who appear to be asleep at the wheel dispatching aircraft to closed airports without enough fuel to divert!

 

Truth!

For years I have been trying to point this out, about PBS.

It was, and continues to be, a HUGE manning concession, over our old capped 75 hour line of time bidding system.

I estimate it has cost us about 20% jobs lost, especially in the wide body categories, which, due to how few 777/747's we have, has a big snowball effect of stagnation all the way down the list.

Most guys I fly with on the 777 are picking up to 90-100 hours if they can. Just going from 75 hours to 90 is a 20% increase in flying, per person.

Now multiply that by 2000 senior wide body pilots.

Now shrink the wide body fleet by 16 747's.

Now park some 757's.

Yeah, that's why you're stuck on the MD88 flying 90 hours a month, and that's why commuting to NYC to cover 3 airports is the junior position.

PBS had the added effect of allowing all the crap to settle to the bottom. Under Line of Time bidding, crew scheds built the lines, they would spread the crap around to make 75 hour lines. You might only have one or two POS trips on a line, but then some other good trips to balance out your month. Even the number 1 bidder might not be able to find a line completely free of that one POS trip, or a line that has every weekend off.

But under PBS, ALL the CRAP ends up on the bottom guy's line, because the top 50% of the bidders will pick all the good trips, on all the good days, leaving all the crap to the junior guys, flying every weekend and holiday. That's also why many junior line holders would rather bid reserve than fly a whole month of garbage.

30 years ago you had to be about 50% of the way up the seniority list to hold the most junior captain job, which at that time was the DC9 in ORD. Back then we had a lot more choices for bases and places to live, (DFW, IAH, MSY, BOS, ORD, MIA) so you didn't have to commute to ATL or NYC, you could live where you wanted to, and not worry about commuting. You sat junior reserve at home, not at a crash pad, which made every Captain bid go much more senior, especially in the smaller bases like BOS and MIA.

When I got my first Capt. bid (plug MD88 CVG) with 'only' 6 years at Delta, many people were shocked that there were now 6yr Captains, much like today's 14 month Captain awards 'shock'.

But, NOBODY I met in the training dept., LCA's or anywhere else said we 'unsafe', even though few of us had any time on the Mad Dog as F/O's. We figured it out...and then we got displaced off it a year later, as Delta sold off all their DC9's and those guys came over and pushed off of the MD88, back to F/O.

Fun while it lasted, but I didn't miss commuting to CVG to be the plug 88 Captain anymore!

 

With a ex NWA Chief Pilot, their VP of Flight Ops, and their Safety Officer in the cockpit.

 

In the Air Force we called a crew like that, "Critical Mass" and there was usually an accident report that followed...

 

Timbo,

I agree 100% on the efficiency of PBS but as far as hosing the junior guys I think you are simplifying quite a bit. It probably varies by fleet but on the 737 in LAX I see many senior guys bidding red-eyes and flying over the weekends.

Yes most of the great non-redeye Tuesday- Thursday 3-days go senior (as they should) but after that it is all spread around. When we first started with PBS I was in the bottom half of the LAX 767 B category and instantly started getting better schedules.

Like I said it probably depends on your base and fleet but other than the obvious great trips everything gets spread around quite a bit.

I think you have said it before - One mans trash is another mans great trip.



Scoop

 

More than anything else, complacency kills. Know who's rarely complacent? Very new, very junior captains.

 

Yeah, I've seen some guys bidding some pretty 'crazy' stuff, but when I ask them why, they've got a vacation coming or their wife is on the trip, or some such, but go look at the top 767ER or 777 or A330 awards, you'll see all the good stuff is gone after about the first 20% of bidders, weekends off, etc. A good friend of mine just bid down from NYC767A to NYC737A because he was tired of flying all the crap, all the time, and he was at 50% on the 767 Capt list.

A few guys I know bid exclusively to have a huge block of time off over holidays, not to be home, but to be available for a big fat greenie. One 27 year F/O I know was really po'd about FAR117 because now he can 'only' fly 100 hours in 28 days, no more 120 hours in 30 days, and a lot of that extra 20 hours was his greenslip trips, costing him 40 hours pay.

LAX is a different deal altogether when it comes to bidding, because of it's fleet mix, trip builds, and physical location,(one of the corners) like BOS was back in the day. There should be some good movement out there finally with all the new 777 positions. Notice that none of the 777 guys who left DTW were backfilled? What does that tell you about the 777 category in DTW? Yeah, get ready, it's coming (or I should say, going).

 

Holy Mother of God, a thousand times yes!!!

It may be cool enough outside for the ramp to not put on the air, and it may be ok in the cabin before you start boarding- but if there is even a little humidity, those 150 or so self-loading heaters coming on make it quickly unbearable!! Please, please, please have mercy of those of us in polyester!!