Heyas BB,

Yea, I kind of noticed that the people who complained the most about the jackets were the ones who never had to do walk arounds in the -20 weather in MSP.

You can hide under the pack heat exchanger outlet for only so long before someone misses you.

Nu

You enter your CQ "Golden days" on the computer, you get a notification when you are up for your training cycle to help remind you. I forget about 90% of the time anyway.

I think you get PS passes to CQ training, but no hotel (you do get a hotel for upgrade training). I am not based in ATL so someone else will have to help you on that.

You can do the same thing on Travelnet and delta.com. If you are deadheading, the reservation will be a generic "Crew" listing. You can go on Travelnet, go to the Company Business tab, and then enter your rotation (pairing) data. You will then be listed by name on the reservation, and you will get your record locator.

If you are going to training, it will already be in your name and you can see your record locator (look under the "My Reservations" tab.

After you have your record locator, you can go online at delta.com and input your first name, last name, and record locator and then you can change your seats just like a real passenger. I don't think you can check in online with a postive space seat, I have always had to use the kiosk when I get to the airport.

Hope this helps.

Yes, via computer. If you are going to be scheduled for CQ, you will be notified by the 5th of the month prior to the bid period. IOW for the july bid period, you will be notified by the 5th of june. Prior to the first of june, or the first of any three months you can possibly have CQ, you can designate up to 5 consecutive days which you do not wish to be scheduled for CQ via DBMS.

Yes, you get pos space to and from training. You merely call the jumpseat desk, and they will book it for you if it is online or a wholly owned. If you get the reservation number, you can then check in at a kiosk. You do not get a hotel in ATL if you are based in ATL for CQ. You do get one for qualification training if you are based in Atlanta or not.

There was a plan in place and they were working on a system where you would bid for your training days. That has been put on hold because of the programming involved. Every IT guy is involved in merger issues now. Hopefully once the merger is done we can put this system into place so you have some control over when you go.

Yeah we're big picture training too, just trying to say he is a real smart guy:D.

A Capt do a walk around? That will stop! Just kidding, our's do some too, just real rare.

I always find it interesting how companies can be so different doing the same stuff on the same airplane. For example, I jumpseat on AA 757s now and then and they start engines EXACTLY BACKWARDS from the way we do. What I do the Capt does and and the FOs do what our Capts do, go figure. It will be fun, especially the call outs.......there will be more than one of your Capts that will talk about the moron Ferd:eek:

The hat and the leather jacket issue is dead and as cold as a MSP walkaround. Delta management would not even discuss it from what I was told.......not the "brand". In fact, the leather jackets that were purchased from the approved vendor, have been purchased back from guys who wanted to sell them and donated to a charity.

See you guys in the sim, and no laughing..............

Ferd

Flown most recently on the 757 and the DC-9. I have JS'd on Delta's 757's over last summer and just the other day on a Delta MD-88...nicest group of guys I could hope to merge with...metaphorically speaking :)

Biggest difference I could see was in the starting engines stuff...on the -9 at NW, the Capt. does it all ..near as I could tell, we will be letting the FO do just about everything until the end of the runway. I don't have much of a problem either way.

I definitely see the safety of the Capt. getting the "big" picture while the FO pushes all the buttons.

And on the 757, I can say that having the PM doing all the FMC stuff leads to confusion sometimes..I'd be interested in hearing from some of the early 757/767 drivers of the early 80's talk about what it was designed to be like. I too, liked the 757 CP guy from NW...I think he will be able to accomodate all good ideas.

One thing that struck me was how similar the general attitudes were. And I've JS"d on a bunch of other Airlines. Everyone here will be focused on the differences, but stop, drop, and think about how relatively close we are.

Holy Kumbaya!

8

What, you don't like the MSP issue body-condom? Is there a ear-muff attachment for the U-boat commander hat? :D

Several years ago I flew a trip with a captain who was on DALPA's MEC. He had recently been to a ALPA national meeting and was telling me about the differences between pilots from various ALPA carriers.

His belief was that the NWA pilots were most like the DAL pilots in terms of personalities, etc.

if anyone has comments on the PM doing the FMS stuff, speak up. This battle is going on right now.

IMHO, when you make changes to the FMS, you very often are using the FMS to fly the airplane. So the PF should make the changes. Especially when doing VNAV stuff.

PF making the changes followed by PM verification is the way to go.

I agree 100% and it is just plain intuitive.