What's your favorite ground crew?
 

I saw a thread previously about everyone's favorite controllers, and it got me thinking that we need to show some love to the ground crew/rampers. Anyone that's willing to stand out there in 0-degree weather slinging bags for $10/hour has my respect!

That being said, I'm sure we've all had our favorite stations with the ground crew and of course our least favorites.

My personal least favorite would have to be JFK... can't even understand half the ground people when they try to talk to you and when they do they are just unfriendly pricks (not sure if I can say that or not).

My favorite would have to have been the former Comair/Regional Elite rampers in Dayton. Those guys/gals were always on the ball whenever I flew in and whenever we needed a quick turn they were always ready and willing, even with two other planes on the ground and short-handed. I actually witnessed one of the rampers single-handedly load a plane by himself, as everyone else was over on a mainline flight. The poor guy was running up and down the beltloader to load our 200 and looked like he was about to die. After I saw what was going on I went out and tossed the bags on the belt for him so he could load the bin. Very appreciative fellow and we still managed to get out 5-minutes early!

How bout anyone else? Any fun little stories or anything that anyone would like to share? Figure it'd be fun to have a happy thread amid all the doom and gloom threads going on right now.

If there was a Ramper-Olymics, I'd say that almost any station in Mexico would win the Gold. Very professional, courteous and speedy. Polar opposite of places like IAD,ORD or EWR. Basically any Lowest bidder UAX outstation as well.

The Comair folks (ramp and gate) in CVG were known for their professionalism, love of the job, and efficiency. There were rarely any problems. And when there were problems, it was usually due to something out of their control (understaffing, deicing, etc).

On the flip side, the folks in DTW and IAD seem among the worst. Uncaring, slow, not usually willing to go the extra step.

My favorite ramper is the one that doesnt look at the ground while holding an orange stick in the air.

CVG hands down

+1 Without question. Even after what they've been through they are still the best in the system.

In Mexico the folks that get hired as ground personnel love aviation and have pics of their ramper stuff on facebook, etc etc. They are true enthusiasts. It is big deal to say you work "at the airport" in mexico. Plus the "Capitan" is like God in Mexico, no matter what kind of plane.

USA used to be like that......oh well

On the whole "int'l" theme...

Our Canadian stations tend to impress me the most on a regular basis. And if we're talking Halifax, their gate agents are absolutely lovely and make my walk between the airplane and a jetbridge stairs a distracted one.

Muskegon KMKG in the summer you could call in a cheeseburger order when you called in range and it would be waiting fresh off the grill for you when you landed. Plus they could turn a full flight for a full flight in under 15 minutes.... Then there was (Is even worse now) DTW.....

When I worked @ SWA we turned an airplane in 20 minutes all day everyday. 137 pax and bags off and on. Most of these low-bidding stations cannot turn a 50 seat RJ in 40 min.

The blonde chick in PIT, kinda has a billy idol looking hairdo. She's always running and busting her booty (which is nice and round) anywy, she was with United then left for SouthWest.

+2. They all have masters degrees too.

The station manager at one resort destination (hot 30-something) would sometimes take us out clubbing. I probably wouldn't do that these days though.

Agreed about Dayton, delta folk there turned around a full RJ in 12 minutes... so far my personal best as well... plus there is a cute red head there that always pushes us back!

The old Continental (now UA) crew at CLE. They are on top of everything. Can't say enough good thing about them.

The worst has got to be AWAC in IAD for UAX. Nothing like boarding everyone up then waiting 45 mins for the ground crew to show back up. Then there's the time where they decided to do pushback training on an actual flight with people in the back. Pushed us back 20 ft, jack knifed it, pulled us back in, repeat for the next 10 minutes. Finally the supervisor who was watching takes over and proceeds to jack knife us 3 more times before she got us back just barely far enough to turn out. It was actually rather hilarious. We had about 3 planes on each side of us watching the cluster go down

I actually prefer EWR over IAD, which is saying something.

While it's nice that some pilots want to speed things along and help with the bags, isn't that a big no-no? I thought I heard somewhere if you get hurt doing it you're ineligible for Workman's Comp. If so, be careful-you don't want to get punished for doing a good deed.
As an aside, I once had the displeasure of working with a FA (on a 2 FA a/c) who wanted to be helpful and thought getting off the plane and flinging bags was a great idea. I couldn't seem to get it into her thick head that there was soooo much wrong with that and she broke a FAR doing so. Her brilliant retort was that the baggage handlers really liked her. :rolleyes: