Had recurrent training this week and an FAA guy was in ground school.

Someone asked him if the 767 sim passed and he said "Yes, but with restrictions."

So at least one 767 sim can now start cranking out the sessions.

Also saw a LAN Cargo 767 on the ramp last night. Wet-leased to do Bogota. So yeah, we seem to have a bottleneck on bodies.

 

Aren't the LAN Chile birds leased by us and flown with Indy crews?

 

That's what I thought, but the guy giving me a ride home said he had a LAN crew on the bus the night before. I asked him again if it was a non FedEx crew and he said yes. So, crew bus rumors at their best!

 

Over in Hong Kong, we are now flying both. Had a line check in Feb to requal me on the 757 which I had not flown since June.

At management visit last week, Don Dillman says we have 76 sim operational, second spinning up, and they are looking for a third. Due to the age of other 76 simulators it will likely be new vice refurbished from another carrier.

We are getting SATCOM in about 25 birds 75/76 to allow CPDLC ops over here in Asia. We have some areas where it is extremely advantageous to not have to rely on HF.

Obviously it depends on which lens you look through, but the impression they gave was the teething pains of the 75/76 beddown are slowly abating. They seem confident they'll have 2 sims up soon, and perhaps a third next year. More 757 sims are being added, which should perhaps help alleviate the miserable 0400 box times for ITU.

Not carrying management's water, but both Dillman and Leonard came from other airlines. They are not married to "we've always done it this way", and they aren't caught up in a long history of relationships and politics. I thought hiring someone from outside was dumb initially, but I am seeing the potential value of a fresh set of eyes on some of our issues.

I think many of us were cautiously optimistic after the meeting. Many of us don't agree with the 9/18 training, and I am sure there are other issues that cost savings will outweigh the input of line pilots. That said, some of the operational issues that were concerns here at least seem to be getting some attention. I'll be happier when I am again logging in on CPDLC going from NRT-SIN...we'll see how long it takes to make that happen.

 

Second 767 sim got approved last week, supposedly weight restrictions have been lifted.


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We have 3 leased LAN Chile Birds in IND. All are painted in FDX livery. The LAN bird that has their livery is a wet-lease and the LAN crews fly it.

 

There are LAN crews flying LAN 767s to MEM. I saw their plane in LAN livery, crew SUV, and the pilots last night at the Hub. I didn't ask where they were flying to. They took off on 36R in front of us.

 

Got it, knew we were wet-leasing in general, didn't know about those specific birds.

 

Where are the payments for the extended wet leasing? Oh wait, Union war chest payments.

 

The union has stolen wet lease payments before, and given them to select crew members.

They had better not steal them this time!