Albief15

Lots of rotation through most management positions here. Everyone wants to make a difference, but sometimes there is a price when you try to budge the supertanker a few inches in another direction.

Some of the most disgruntled and bitter captains I flew with along the way were guys who "returned to the line" or didn't get moved up when they tried to advance. The lesson I took (sadly) was moving into management is often a way to make a great job miserable. Shelf life for most managers is 18-24 months. The guys who I think screw it up are the ones who decide to go hard-ass on the pilots, and decide they are going to "be the man" for the company. We all know a few of these guys, and amazingly enough every single one of them didn't up CP, but instead are now out of managment and back on the line. They are the guys that people walk around in the AOC, or trade off trips with to avoid being around them.

A great exception--but not the only one--was John Lux. A great union volunteer, a fantastic ACP, and a genuine gentleman. I've seen more than a few like him, however, come back to the line after being convinced they couldn't do things the way they thought they needed to get done.

These jobs cannot be easy. Anytime you have to make decisions, somebody is going to disagree...whether you are in training, standards, or working at ALPA. Critics come at you from all sides. For the guys who have tried to make it better--thanks.

OKLATEX

Couldn't agree more about John Lux. A true Gentleman for sure.

OKLATEX

Both SB and JF are nice guys and I'm glad they were in the school house.

But, if JF was a proponent of combining the 75/76 bid packs, and/or in favor of the current situation of a partial combination, well then good riddance. That mindset has destroyed QOL on the 757. It isn't always about the WB Money. Having a split bid back is a huge QOL item, allowing for a junior airplane and allowing a place for guys/girls to gain some seniority and or be Junior Captains. Huge, huge QOL item. There are 4 WBs if guys want o chase the money. What they are doing with the 757/767 currently is diluting, not honoring seniority. It isn't right that guys who are nearly 50% on the 757 can barely hold a line!

I'm not opposed to flying the 757, I like flying 75 and been on a NB for 7 of my 12 years at FDX. I took advantage of the 727/757 just for the QOL reason. It doesn't get much easier than "B" Reserve on a Narrow Body.

The company isn't going to get rid of NB pay, and frankly if we were to combine the 757/767, you would need a Bid, including an excess bid with a -1 to realign the 757/767 Fleet to honor seniority. No, thanks. Play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

Fdxlag2

It is almost cute the way you guys think that anyone who works in Flt Ops has any say on the bid packs, or for that matter the training program. Lawyers and accountants run flight ops. I am sure turn over is initiated by: Do it this way. I can't do it that way. Next.

MEMA300

This system is killing the bidpacks for both planes. Can't believe guys leave the 11 for the 767.

Hedley Lamarr

As mentioned above and in the past. The 757 lines have turned to crap or have been sent to 767 in IND and MEM and even to EUR 757 flying stateside.

I hate to see JF leaving the program because he was an advocate for the crewmembers and you could go in to his office anytime you had a question.

I know JF wanted to combine bidpack and I disagreed when discussing it with him. However , I do not think he has control of that. After talking to the SIG,my ACP, my Reps and even RF, I am more confused on who runs the show and makes those decisions.

When you send 757EUR based guys over to fly in the US then send MEM 75 guys over to Europe to cover their trips(5-6+)last month makes you ponder the brilliance of the person making the decisions.
It is probably some 22 year old in the companies basement that is also in charge of our IT department that is always down/hacked.

Either way, some honesty about the future of the 757 bidpack would be appreciated by 500+ crewmembers so they could actually bid accordingly. Either go about splitting it or go about combining the two but for petes sake someone make a decision already.

flextodaline

The system is broken. It is not about core leadership values, or what is right for the crews, it's about the almighty dollar. If splitting the bidpacks will fatten the bottom line, it will be done. Until that can be hashed out by the cubicle commandos, attorneys and accountants, you'll get nothing and like it.

JF had his opinions, but had no say in whether the bidpacks would be split. Again, this is decided by "top men"..

SB tried to make things work by increasing throughput to almost unreasonable numbers in the schoolhouse, I believe. Apparently, senior management didn't like his coloring outside the box. The inability of our senior management to realize a paradigm shift in the way we should train was unacceptable. That paired with their unwillingness to listen to the front line instructors and rely totally on "data points" extracted from an antiquated grading system will make this system fail. It's not a question of IF we'll have another accident, its when. JF and SB tried their best to stave off the inevitable, IMO.

Nightflyer

Looks like the revolving door between union leadership and company management is still open.

Albief15

In this case, I have a tremendous amount of respect for both the outgoing guy (IMHO a role model captain) and the incoming guy. MG was my ACP for a while, and the few times I needed help or input he was extremely valuable. Being a SIG guy means he probably has a better understanding than most of some of the challenges on the pairings, etc and the challenges of fatigue in our job. Being an APD probably indicates his $hit is tight at his primary job too. You would expect that of anyone in standards, but we all know there are pilots who spend a lot more time in the office than on the line. MG has worn a lot of hats here, but I don't think that makes him a bad choice but rather a well rounded one. Again--I've never worked in training or for the company as anything but a line pilot, so I am not in the gossip circles or watercooler talk about who is next in line, etc nor do I want to be. What I will say is that if I had to a line check tomorrow I think MG would be a welcome face to see on my jumpseat, and I think he has demonstrated that to a lot more pilots here than just me. I wish him luck in what has to be a soul-crushing job at times.

My concern is not with these guys, but with the decision makers upstream. If safety gives way to fiscal targets, or if solid training is less important than efficiency, then it doesn't matter who is in the job. Getting a 10% margin for Express is a worthwhile goal, and we all want the company to be successful. I'd like my daughter to join me here one day, for for her 30+ years in this industry to be as successful as mine have been so far. We are on the same team...

However, the 75/76 sim debacle was painful. 0200 briefs were not conducive to effective training. Flying the 767 for 18 months before getting to do a V1 cut in a sim is far from optimal. Our manuals are still a mess, and maintaining currency on two airframes is still creating headaches and NOQs on some schedules. There is a lot of work to be done, and these guys get to go in and eat $hit from all sides (pilots and company) day after day. I hope they keep their knots up and get improve some things. I know the previous guys were trying, and I don't' think any of the shortfalls were their fault.

And...as frustrating as ALPA work was at times, this has to be worse. They can have it. Good luck to MG and whoever slides into training...they are going to need it.