Now that's funny right there. I don't care who you are.

Now you are describing the 737N. The Boeing engineers finished the flight deck and thought this thing will rock. Then some punk intern said. "Hey don't we need to put seats up here for the Pilots?"

To which the Boeing engineers were heard to mutter something like "I knew we forgetting something. Well if we basically eliminate the ability to move the seat back and recline at the same time, and if its OK with the yoke in their stomach I guess we might be able to fit a couple of seats up here. Of course they will have to climb over the seats to get in them, but thats Ok most guys under 5'7" will rarely smash their heads into the overhead."

To which young punk intern was heard to say "But what about their bags."

Once again the Boeing guys sighed and said something to the effect of "Boy do we have a good deal there. We designed this space below the non jumpseat to fit exactly 1 1/2 standard flight bags. And here is the beautiful part we designed this little support down below to stick out and and catch and mangle any bag that the Pilot was foolish enough to actually use the the side pockets. Which is really good for me since my nephew has a bag repair business."

High Fives all around.

Scoop

It looks like a handful of an aircraft. Buddy of mine on it compares it to monitoring a student pilot; everything can be going well, but then...

So a new CA, with low time on the 88, in NYC paired with new FOs, everyone learning the system together while minding an aircraft that may or may not try to screw you at any given moment...just seems like a lot to bite off.

No different than the mid '80s at AA. They were hiring 120 pilots/month and getting 20 new MD80s/month (and the 80 was a new airframe). New CAs and new F/Os paired together. Consolidation time wasn't in effect yet as I recall. Wasn't the best situation but they got through it just fine.

The 4 month guy has probably done that more often and more recently than the flower pots.

Am I wrong?

Just can't wrap my head around "new" and MD80 in the same sentence. But I suppose it had to have happened at one time.

I guess. I just hope that we allow flight ops to run the show here and not marketing/accounting. It may be time to automatically budget for longer training/less frantically compressed footprints, more OE standard and *gasp* ground school instead of a thumb drive while you learn your next plane while on your current plane. That is simply asinine. At the very least you should get a paid 2 weeks off for "self study" free and clear of the previous equipment.

I would have to agree there. At least back then you actually went to ground school. But much of the line oriented stuff still got taught on the line as AA was one one the first to use non SL instructors in ground school and the sim. They also has a mandatory upgrade at the time too.

You leave my momma out of this, but you're right. If God wanted anyone to fly the 88, he would have put wings on it. And God would never have bothered with the 88 to begin with.

The 88 is all Darwin-based.

And Darwin bet on penguins, not the 88.

I'm pretty sure there is an extra "you are about to bid the 88" screen in DBMS that you have to acknowledge.