And ShadyOps is vindicated! He is not a cranky curmudgeon right seat Captain!

 

OK. Here goes. But, I caution that I'm not really that good at this sort of thing.

Dear Compass Flight Ops,

Me and the rest of the pilots are more than willing to sacrifice customer comfort to help keep the costs down but we are not going to do it for free. I suggest the following incentive program so that we can all prosper together:

Cost saving action ...... incentive pay in credit hour per leg.

Never use APU ....... .1
Plan all descents at 5000 fpm ... .2
Never request to change course
to avoid thunderstorms ..... .2
Start doing single engine takeoffs ... .3

I have lots of other good ideas if you are interested. Just let me know. Thanks.

Sincerely,

ShadyOps

P.S. Oh, and could you please tell all the Captains that I'm right. Thanks again.

 

Maybe if you bothered to clear your CA on 3 it would be started by the time you got to the cockpit. But no you'd rather him start it when you're in the aft equipment bay I guess so you can whine about that too!

If you want it warm after your preflight, preflight the tail area first, then come clear the CA on 3 and continue your walkaround.....

 

Good job!

 

Right. Scientists have almost perfected the "curmudge-o-meter" which will detect those who are ready for the left seat.

 

Sounds like something for Billy Mays to sell. How about the Turbo Curmudge-O-Meter 2000? It's new and improved.

 

As an F.O., one of the first things I do is walk the cabin when I get on to check the temperature. If the temperature is inadequate, I try to correct the situation by working with the ground crew to fix the ground air. If the ground air is broken, we have an 800 number we can call to give the gate number of the broken air unit. They'll send somebody out to repair it, and they're pretty dang good about it! Once we start boarding, if the flight attendants start complaining about the temp, we don't hesitate to start the APU. Passenger comfort comes first then fuel savings. But if there's a way to keep the pax comfortable without using the APU, we obviously use that first.

At Skywest, it was different. Very few of the gates had ground air and those that did were barely ever used. Skywest was pretty dang good about hooking up power, though. The United ground crews in Chicago were horrible about hooking up power and sometimes the GPU's didn't even work. But that's United for you. Delta ground crews are RELIGIOUS about hooking up power and air. In CVG and ATL, they hook up the ground power before we can even get the seat belt sign off! It's a huge change from DCI.

 

These are some very excellent points but I'm having trouble understanding how this helps ShadyOps to receive an incentive (money).

 

There is a difference between vendor carriers and mainline for sure and the quality of service, but to reiterate what you said "Passenger comfort comes first then fuel savings." That's the point of this thread. There is no incentive to sit there and be uncomfortable and some people still fail to see the logic.

 

Naw. Those cheap curmudge-o-meters advertised on late-night TV are not accurate. Buy only one certified by the National Bureau of Standards and calibrated against a retired Captain of precisely known distemper.