No worse than those skinny stripes that made you look like a parking lot attendant in a St. Louis ***** house.

 

Funny you mention that. Flew with 2 outstanding SW guys recently and they couldn't have been nicer. Guess they got the memo over there.

 

I see.

They are on reserve. I am on reserve too. Not wearing any "legacy wings." I keep those in a desk drawer.

Lots of pilots on reserve again who haven't been on reserve since they were a new hire.

We had a merger. I think it was in the newspapers. Time to get over the "legacy this and that." I doubt seriously if the suits up there in Chicago or TK are wearing any legacy bell-bottoms or polyester leisure suits because they want to reminisce about the past. We pilots tend to take this stuff way too seriously.

We didn't get a vote on weather or not to merge. So who cares? It's a uniform. I don't control what color the paint job is on the jet and I don't control what uniform I get issued. I do care if the paychecks cash and if the cash is green. Thank God not getting paid in Russian Rubles.

Disco balls and bee-gees music for everyone.

 

I would second that.

But, it should not have been that hard. The DEN TK people are super-hard-headed. Just hard to communicate with.

I had to threaten to fly around the Thompson Airways B757 MEL along with the Delta MEL because they wouldn't put it on the IPAD. Had to file numerous stupid PDR's and lots of silly emails to get them to see the light that an electronic log book has nothing to do with actually being able to read and reference the aircraft MEL.

In more than one simulator session I just handed the IPad to the check airman and said "here you go, you figure it out." They were trying to force us to use the Ipad to run complex emergency checklists. You can't even save book marks from update to update. You can't high-light, mark pages, etc. Once a new update comes out to the checklist or normal and abnormals, what you thought you knew, and where you thought it was - was gone.

The Ipad is not the place for this kind of stuff, especially tired, and blurry-eyed in the middle of the night, or in the weather. Or, when you drop your Ipad and it is frozen up and locked you out after you put in the wrong six digit code for the 5th time.

The beauty of the QRH is it's simple and it always works.

 

Too many Tulips is what I think you are trying to say.

Ah, yesterday.............

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly I'm not half the man I used to be.
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

 

I haven't run into the legacy uniform stuff myself but I think you have a good point here... Too many pilots' identity comes from their career and company they work for. The CEOs and executives often move to different companies all the time and for the most part it doesn't much matter which company they work for. Because of seniority, it's in our best interest to stay with one company for our career, which makes the company a more significant aspect to your life, whereas execs are free to move around as necessary and don't have the same incentives for identifying with a certain company. I'm not speaking out against the seniority system, it's just an observation and I think maybe has something to do with why some pilots may not want to give up their "legacy" wings. I agree with you though that it really shouldn't matter as long as the job fulfills your needs.

 

100% agree. QRH from the iPad is idiotic, and I'm a huge proponent of the EFB. However if you need a QRH, you likely need it right now, and will need it in conjunction with other things. Turning the iPad into a Jesus bolt is too much of a stretch for my comfort factor.

 

I meant to say lots of the bid avoid captains I fly with wear the legacy wings. As in. The odd ones.

 

I understand.

Here's my big take-away.

If you are Legacy UAL, great. Put your wings in the desk drawer or make a cool shadow box and long for the glory days.

If you are a legacy CAL pilot, fantastic. Put your wings on the shelf, or frame them and make a cool momento box.

Same goes for Eastern and Pan Am. We have a few of them here as well. All that I have met from those two legacies are super to fly with. Very enjoyable and offer a great perspective.

We will know that our merger is complete when two things happen: 1. We no longer work for CAL UAL Holdings, and 2. We wear our uniform proudly and no longer refer to legacy this, or legacy that.

When the two things above happen, I think it's advantage pilot group. It's hard for management to push around a unified pilot group.