Hi 73,
I was getting my medical a few years ago at LGA and I started up a conversation with a CPT on the 767 and he told me they were going to start it, but still hasn't happened. Im surprised AA hasn't jumped all over the ATH route. Tower Air and TWA had the JFK route and AA has the rights, seems strange. US air out of Philly, DAL out of JFK,ATL,LAX and CAL out of EWR have it. Olympic use to go to ORD but that was stopped. I would think AA would make a good amount of money with the ORD-ATH flight even if it's seasonal.

 

Yep, sorry! Was concentrating so hard on trying to spell the damn things that I put them in backwards.

The meters thing is actually kinda funny. They tell you to descend and maintain say "seven thousand four hundred meters." Then you've got 3 guys all checking the cards to see what to put in the altitude window. And then your always dialing in something strange, like 10,100' or 4,600'. Takes some getting used to.

 

Just multiply by 3.28 should be good

 

Just be glad during climbs and descents they don't ask you to expedite and then give you rates. The Russians use meters per second... or at least they did on the Tu-154 I flew. And with airspeed indicators in Km/Hr it throws off perceptions.

300Km/Hr is what... 186mph or about 160kts?

Delta 231... slow to 300km/hr and descend to 8000 meters and give me a rate of... at least 15 meters per second.

(lets see... 15 meters time 3.28 times 60 for fpm... er..... 2952fpm?

 

Olympic,

One thing you need to know about AA - they are very conservative in adding new routes. They are industry followers, not leaders. The main reason right now is simply a lack of aircraft AND manning - pilots and FAs. AA has zero widebodies on order, and the ones we do have are stretched thin on maximized utilization. Whereas DAL and CAL both have been receiving new int'l aircraft, hence the int'l expansion. Plus they are hiring like crazy. AA, instead, keeps CUTTING the flying EVERY year for the past three years to accomodate the massive retirements, and keeps the recalls at only 30/month. Therein lies the problem.

Example - for the month of March, AA reduced the flying out of EVERY base by 3%. NYC, for example, lost 15 int'l lines!! Simply because there were 143 early outs in Feb, mostly 777 and 767 CAs. So instead of ramping up the recalls to protect the routes, they simply cancel int'l flights and cut the lines. As a result, I went from holding a Europe line in Feb to reserve in March. All this while our direct NYC competition - DAL and CAL - announce increased int'l flying this summer. Boy do we have geniuses running this place. I hope they get very well rewarded with PUP bonuses in April.

<Rant off> 73

 

73,

With all those 777s going to Heathrow, Im sure they would be able to send out at least one flight to ATH

I am curious, because I have flown AA a lot of times as a passenger, and love their F service on the 777 (Int).

I was talking to a recall a few weeks ago in NY, let's hope all street guys get back into the company and maybe see some hiring???

 

At the risk of hijacking this thread a little, but at DAL, does the relief pilot get a First Class seat or is it coach, with an upgrade only if it's available (ala CAL)?

 

C seat in the last row of BusinessElite on the 76. Not sure about the 777 (bunk?).

 

So you miss 298/299/301 huh?

 

A little addidtion:

Like f10a said, it's a BusinessElite seat with a heavy curtain on little rails connected to the overheads so you can enclose yourself. A few of the ERs, can't remember how many, have been redone and a small room has been installed in the front of business elite. It's got a pair of bunk beds and some storage/hanging space. These are for the new 4 man ER routes where the block is over 12 hours. The 777, as I understand it, has some stairs leading to a little "apartment" with 2 businesselite seats with all the trimmings and 2 bunk beds behind the seats.