Wrong. Didn’t need pro standards just needed a difficult to hear debrief.

 

That is such a lame excuse. What is your price for being a professional? Aren’t you a former intern? Confirming the myth.

You are being paid per diem in the van. The same amount you are paid until the brakes are released. So what is free? Do you wait until after brake release to flight plan?

Your good will has been beaten out of you? You’ve have a pretty golden career compared to many others at UAL.

 

Van time is free time? Who knew?

If you're that sensitive, maybe this isn't the career for you.

 

You guys brief on the van at United???

 

not really, some crews will make a casual mention of the flight plan looks good, but in depth planning is usually limited to the insecure captains. I get car sick when i look at my ipad in the van so it stays in my bag, if i have time and the flight plan is out i will download it at the hotel so i can get an idea of how long the breaks will be. if its not out, i download it at the plane.

 

Needing to brief in the van does not mean you are a professional. I have not felt pressed for time since I was at a regional trying to figure out how to get some food during a 25-minute turn. At a major airline, there is no need to rush. We get to the airport an hour or more before the flight. It takes me 10 minutes to review the release and 10 minutes to do my flows/load the flight plan. Add in another 15 minutes for food/coffee and 5 minutes talking to the gate agent and FAs, that leaves 20 minutes to review an MEL or talk to the dispatcher about fuel, weather, or alternates. I can't think of any MEL that required more than a few minutes of my attention.

The kind of pilots that want to talk about the flight before they get to the airplane always seem to be under a false time constraint. Maybe it's a carryover from regionals or previous cultures where flight crews rushed.

 

Naw, not really. There will be brief mentions about the gas or maintenance. If we are with the FAs, then the Captain might give them short brief….

I don’t like looking at my the Flight Plan on the van ride either. I get motion sickness. I will look at it at the hotel room before leaving in order to build my SA before the flight.

 

I get up early, to prepare MYSELF for the flight. I do all the homework and treat it like I’m a professional. When I get to the van, I assume my flying partner has done the same. We don’t need to talk about it on the ride to work. We aren’t planning a lunar expedition. We don’t need to prebrief the brief, and then DEBRIEF the brief. Threat and error management, along with good CRM. At some point, if you saturate me with explaining how you fly an airplane….I’m no longer listening to you. Is THAT an effective means of briefing?

 

I happen to fly with quite a few half-wingers that don’t prep ahead so I have to take time to mentor them on being a professional pilot.

we don’t do a deep dive on the flight plan in the van. It’s a simple “what do you think? How’s the gas? Many times I get the blank stare, that’s a CA’s job or I don’t start working till I get to the plane.

Guess what happens next, we barely can get the jet prepped for departure and that’s with the divide/conquer method.

Quite a few of the half-wingers spent less then 5 yrs at the regional level and they didn’t have the mentorship they needed. Their CA’s there barely knew how to perform their jobs. We’re seeing the effects of lack of leadership/mentorship at the RJ level coming to UA.

I spend time in cruise attempting to mentor the half-wingers and help them understand what it takes to be a professional pilot. Some accept it, some reject it. Those pilots in the latter half get a “not nice probie report/call to pro-standards”. I have had one half-winger that after I contacted pro-standards they let me know I wasn’t the first CA to call regarding their lack of professionalism

 

Is this a joke? You expect your FOs to review the flight plan before you even get to the airport? What about when you have an hour or less turn? Is that not enough time for you to prepare yourself? How did you accomplish this van briefing session before we had ipads? Did you print it out in the hotel business center?