Not the funniest thread of the year.. but ranks up there.
"Great" way to end the year.
Anonymous posters complaining about fellow pilots calling in sick over the Festivus Holiday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JR6xt9S02o

Always
Motch
(P. "Motch" Matschulat)
(EWR 756 FO)

 

I don’t consider a pilot that bids into a junior position and subsequently calls in sick to get Christmas off a “fellow” pilot. I consider that pilot a scumbag. Previous legacy / fleet and seat is completely irrelevant. It certainly highlights individual cases where the hiring process got it terribly wrong.

 

You’ve got some smart kids! It’s been a Guppy for the 25 yrs I’ve been at UAL.

 

LOL
So.. that SCAB who bids into a Junior position (and is a pin wearer) and doesn't call in sick is ok but the other guy who never called in sick the whole year but now did self help (maybe for the first time..) to spend a last xmas with someone in the family who is dying of cancer is a 'scumbag'.
Got it.
[Actually, we know where the SCAB stands... but I'm trying to make a point!]

Or..
Maybe we just do our jobs and not worry about every other pilot. If you know of someone who is directly violating our Code of Ethics as a union pilot, then confront him directly
Post his name and situation along with yours.
I've never been afraid to call a spade a spade (nothing racial there! lol)..
Or to call out anyone or anything.

For the record-
1) Called in sick for 3 trips in December years back. Never got a call even though I would have been able to present a doctors note along with hospital bill!
B) Bid reserve one year in December to get Xmas off..
AND
iii) Called in sick for a trip over Xmas one year because I had a doctors appointment (before surgery, scheduled in January) on the 24th and just couldn't trade out of the trip nor could he reschedule.
[One of the MAJOR problems with our PBS system and not getting our schedules till the middle of the previous month.. but I digress~]

End of the day, I find it kinda funny/kind of sad that someone starts an anonymous thread about holiday sick calls.
I will bet ANY amount of money that IF the company came out with some memo or policy about Holiday Sick Calls, many pilots and the Union would be screaming bloody murder.

I get Untied and a few others are ****ed. But then give exact examples and names. To lump everyone in who called in sick over this weekend is BS.

Just my opinion.
Motch

PS> Last time I looked, ALPA has no control over the hiring but somehow every pilot hired is allowed into the union after their first year~
If the hiring gets it wrong, shouldn't the Union do what needs to be done to get it right? Just asking..

 

I’ve tried to avoid this thread but need to say a little something....we all trust our CO-workers to do our jobs, espically our brother/sister Pilots. Be it going short haul or long haul, we were all trained and continue to be re-educated about fatigue, fitness for duty etc. We are professionals, and some of the best of the best. Please take that into account.
Holiday seasons mean being around LOTS of family and friends, as our younger/reserve pilots are hired and move up, remember they are most likely around younger kids, working spouses, outside work/activities etc. not to mention colder weather and the sickness that accompanies that. All of it means higher likelihood of sickness.
Please respect the fact that professionals do the right thing for themselves, their families, coworkers and their families, the profession, and passengers.

 

Guppy, guppy, guppy, guppy....get over it. It's a big fuselage, with a little tiny guppy wing.....

Don't look now, but I think it may be bigger than a 727.

 

I took some grief one year from my company on this, and I've heard similar complaints, so let me offer a few examples.

F-15s (and other fighters) pull alert. The active duty and AGR guys get slammed with a lot of this, and there are times the part timers step up and help out.

In my case, I was in the training unit at Tyndall. We were behind the training timeline and workload was high. We had a LOT of guys who were NOT from NW Florida and on active duty that wanted to go visit family, burn some leave, go ski somewhere, etc etc. For guys like me--who lived locally anyway and considered it home--going on 30-40 days of orders took the pressure off the squadron/wing to let guys take leave and bug out. The "locals" held down the fort during the Holidays. While not "required", it was a way for the part time guys to step up over the holidays and give a break to the AD (and AGR) guys who didn't get the time off or have the flexibility we did during the year.

In my case, I had just upgraded to the right seat of the 727, did not fly an fighter sorties during the period, and was about to go non-current on several mission quals and below my required sortie count for that year. Going on orders allowed me to not only help the squadron, but it allowed me to hawk the ops desk and catch up on some flying too. It was a win/win.

An over-zealous assistant chief pilot emailed me to "deny" my mil leave request, especially since I wasn't "helping the war effort" with that kind of flying (his words--not mine). At that point, I deferred to my ANG boss who called and discussed the matter. I made it clear I wasn't trying to dodge work, all I was trying to do was stay current, do a good job for my Guard unit, and try to keep ALL my bosses happy. I offered to my ANG boss if he would let me dash out on non-flying days (including Xmas and NYE) I'd fly for the company on those peak days and fly Eagles or pull SOF every other day he needed me. In the end--that's exactly what happened, and my logbook from Dec 2004 has a ton of flying--Eagles and 727s--and about zero days off that month. I was more concerned about money and trying to make everyone happy that month than opening presents under the tree--but the point is I was wedged between two big boulders and was trying to keep from crushing me.

So--the "scam" your military bro may be pulling may be exactly why you WEREN'T in the tower, the command post, or on alert that Christmas. It may because some of us were. I'm not asking for thanks for anything--it was my choice and I loved doing it--but taking spears from our co-workers when we just worked 27 days out of 31 sucked. You might want to do a little research before you go blasting those guys...

 

Better man than I. My next call would’ve been to a lawyer (with orders in hand). Mil leave isn’t a request it’s a statement. The guys in my squadron getting harassed the most seem to be FX and DAL. If I needed the coin and the situation like yours was advantageous so be it but it wouldn’t have been with a gun to my head, quite the opposite. Being on title 10 orders and doing this would be a legal nightmare if something happened. That sounds like a painful month.

If you have a legit reason to be on mil leave during the holidays, like the above, awesome. Especially to help out the full timers. It only takes a few BS artists though to make everyone look suspect however.

 

Service specific in this case, get off your box. Not trying to start a war with a fellow service member and who the F did I blast? I assure you the abuse happens. There is the occasional hero who takes it for the team in their reserve unit so the other dudes have off I'm sure. But in my experience, there was nothing to do for the holidays or did I ever witness it unless deployed. The abuse happens.

 

If you really want the main holidays off flying I suggest quit complaining quit the airlines and work a flying job that gives such holidays off.