Evening all. I would just like to say that I, as a ramper, appreciate the hard work and crap you guys go through, and the friendliness and professionalism that you guys deliver to us on a regular basis.

There are some bad apples out there, and to them, I would just like to ask that you please respect the safety of your rampers. It is unacceptable, dangerous, childish and negligent to turn out from a parking space, point your tail towards your rampers and deliver an unusually high amount of thrust (causing the gate agents upstairs to come to the window wondering what was going on), simply because you were wrong about the max which was in plain English on the release that you held in your hands. You blew away our maintenance steps, our bag scanner, almost toppled our carry-on cart, almost tore off half of our raggedy and vacant jetbridge, and worst of all, very nearly picked up one of our rampers and threw him across the ramp.

I understand why you guys can get angry and frustrated, I don't blame you. But please do not let your frustrations cause you to neglect safety. Can't we all just get along?

I'm sorry for the rant...just needed to get it out.

 

as a former ramper, i definitely understand your rant. when those d-bags flew in and decided to show their @$$es with acts very similar to what you've described, i contacted their cp and filed a complaint with hr. this wasn't to "snitch" or "put them out on blast"(no pun intended) but it was to show them that rampers are human beings and would fly across the ramp the same way they would if jet blasted. C.Y.A. and make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

Good times...when the Dash 8 and its nearly 14' props pulls into the gate in a blizzard and put the props into disc the rampers all get an elementary school esque' white wash.

Completely unintentional and nothing we can do about it but it is mildly entertaining.

On a serious note, we appreciate the hard work that MOST of you guys put in and I enjoy my talks with SOME of you. I prefer the outstations where most are younger pilots working their way towards a goal and are working on their ratings, they are great to talk to. I also appreciate the professionals who do this job for a living and work very hard at it. There are some (cough IAD, EWR, cough) that are there because its a paycheck and move slower than molasses and have the attention to detail of a 3 year old.

 

Yeah, I watched one of our company birds blast the rampers - and our boarding pax - in Chattanooga a month ago. Ya'll guys have the worst of it - heat, weather, and having to sometimes come in contact with pax. I try to do what I can to help y'all out - whether it's offering a drink or just a thank you on ops for a job well done. Don't let the jerk get you down, there's plenty of us who appreciate your contribution.

 

Fill out a safety report, or talk to your supervisor, send it up the chain. Theres no reason for that kind of behavior and its dangerous. You're the only one who can stop this from this jerk doing it to someone else in the future.

 

agreed +4=10

 

If you were talking to me, I did. I conjured up the spirits from my evil past as a journalist, and wrote up the incident in excruciating detail. It didn't appear in any of our safety newsletters, or ops updates. It disappeared. Gotta love it when legitimate safety concerns just up and disappear.

 

Does FAYEV = Fayetteville, ASA?

 

^
Yes.

I should've added, the CP's Office has been notified...

We also had another crew witness the event as they were waiting for this guy to leave so they could pull up to the gate.

Thanks for the support. I absolutely understand when you guys are in a hurry and may accidentally blast us a little bit every now and then. Nothing that could blast us off our feet though...

I also understand that there are some pretty pathetic rampers out there (*cough* ATL ramp & former ASA outstations *cough*). I, for one, love working with those machines that you guys get to fly (I'm working on my ratings) and few things make me prouder than turning out a delayed arrival into an on-time departure, or receiving a "well done" over the ops frequency.

 

I spent many years in the right seat and never had a Captain deliberately try and blast the rampers, and I don't do that in the left seat. In fact, never really heard of anyone TRYING to do that. Now having said that, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I will say though that with Delta encouraging single engine taxi, perhaps that's some of the problem. Also, isn't there a pretty immediate turn leaving the Fayetteville ramp, on a bit of a hill?

Thanks for your post.