Are you saying they don't know how to look this up??

 

I bet you're a real joy to fly with

 

Aww come on. I’m not that guy. I’m not a captain and won’t be for quite a while yet. I had the question asked of me recently and when I answered right I got the additional backstory/joke about how a lot of guys actually can’t answer a question like that off-hand. I don’t know how true that actually even is. I just shared it because I found it funny and a joke is all it’s really meant to be.

The air just feels pretty tense on a lot of these threads so trying to lighten it up here and there.

Also, I know I’m a real joy to fly with for several reasons... I ensure that my briefings are incredibly thorough and never less than two minutes long. If we receive an edct, I re-brief every thirty minutes. I show up with home-made turnip brownies. I maintain it as my life’s mission to learn everything I possibly can about the life of the person next to me by asking a constant stream of questions (I really miss the ABQ and SAT turns at the end of day 4). I tap the heading bug every 12 seconds to make sure it remains centered. I also make sure that the captain knows I have just as much authority as he/she does and that I am prepared to assume full authority over the ship should they feel they are in any way incapable of executing their duties. I remove my shoes in cruise and pass gas regularly for bowel health. I hope to someday ascend to the office of system chief pilot and believe that my severe likability will lead me on that path. I hope we can fly together soon.

 

I LOL'd...nice work

 

I hear tuna is very high in protein and makes a great in-flight snack. Don’t forget about using one of those personal portable ovens to heat up some leftover salmon from the layover hotel restaurant two nights ago too 👌🏻

 

Well done! I bet you ARE a real joy to fly with!

 

So just out of curiosity, if you were sitting at the ALPA office full time over in Euless, how would you magically get the company to fix these items?

 

That last party though, haha. 😂😂😂

 

Well, first of all you wouldn’t be “sitting at the ALPA office full time over in Euless.” Fixing problems with the company involves actually engaging the senior and executive managers in regular and productive ways. I don’t think the company managers actually have any respect for the top ALPA folks. Clearly there has been no good relationship formed there. Sitting around the office is likely the first problem.

 

I know everyone says “no one likes the Union until you need them”, and I’m not a particularly pro-union guy, but I do understand their necessity in our line of work. My big issue is the fact that these things need to be addressed, there are full-time people in that office over in Euless, and the general response seems to be that there’s nothing the union can do about these things. I won’t pretend to understand the inner workings of the union, or all the nuances of airline union negotiation, but I’m concerned that the people in place to negotiate on our behalf are ill-equipped to do so. It’s through no fault of their own, and I commend them for volunteering, but when you look at the amount of money the pilot group contributes to the union, isn’t it fair to expect that the people going to bat for us are professional negotiators and not pilots who do it in their spare time? I refuse to believe that absolutely nothing can be done until the company comes to the union hat in hand. I’m tired of getting the token “email your reps” response, emailing my rep, and hearing nothing substantive in return. When was the last time we heard anything of value from the MEC?