Run to mama? I most vehemently disagree. Items in the contract are all paid for out of negotiating capital. You and I both paid for all these items. Most of us are only asking for the contract to be followed. Insanely stupid as this idea is, it will effect our next contract talks starting next year!

Safety is completely separate from contractual items. I insist on this as well.

Remember, the company asked for a lot of these really stupid ideas and got them. 45 minute report is one that comes to mind. They want it, I'll give it to them, and not by splitting the flight planning duties. It's well time to get over the idea that pilots can save this airline. It will sink or swim with Jeff's whims.

Enforce your contract. Insist on it!

 

Yet you chose to anyway?

 

What do economic considerations or sticking it to management have to do with a crew making safety decisions? An MEL is the result of an airline's ongoing negotiation with the FAA about 'minimally' acceptable equipment. The FAA is the best regulator airline money can buy and no MEL can anticipate every contingency or replace judgement.

The number one job of a Captain is to say, 'no' when required because almost everyone else is almost always saying go.

 

I think I remember something about "final authority" or something like that...

Or was it biggest ***********? Seems to be some confusion around here.

 

Flew on my first mixed crew last week from IAH to GRU. I'm an IAH 76T guy and we only have 2 LCAL Capts on our fleet as of now. One is an '83 hire and has already made himself a reputation. The other LCAL guy is an '87 hire and is known to be "just a normal guy". I flew with the "normal guy" and he actually turned out to be a great guy. If the other FO hadn't told me our Captain was LCAL I wouldn't have known. All of us flight planned together in ops and he even used the term "bunkie" for the relief pilot. I was impressed.

 

I'm L-UAL 76T who bid to EWR-756 in first bid after SLI. Been flying pure CAL 76-400 since February.

Observations:

1) In my fleet and seat captains are great. Even the one "jerk" turned out to be ok once I understood where he came from (long military career then to People's Express only to have seniority stolen by NYAir guys and then felt like SLI wasn't fair shakes . . . got it)

2) FO's: some CAL guys are holding a "big grudge" 'cuz they've been pushed WAY back in EWR and can't hold 76-400 flying but again once you break through the BS they are just like every other pilot I ever met . . . fun to hang out with.

3) FAs: I have had nothing but good experiences, but I am aware of two opposite stories from CAL FAs regarding UAL captains. First was the UAL captain that insisted on being fed early. That's not what CAL ops allows and it really frustrates the heck out of them. The second was a UAL captain that refused a plane for a repeat gripe that the FAs had seen on the previous trip and got the same plane back with the same gripe. Sadly in my old senile age I don't remember the details of the write up, but suffice to say the FAs were genuinely surprised that the captain was refusing the plane. (I think it was the center fuel pump inop, and the FAs knew about it because they had had the same plane on their previous trip.)

Anyways, the moral of the story is that the people are EXACTLY the same and once you cross the barrier of "you're from THERE" then everything is fine . . .

at least that has been my experience . . .

 

Why would a Captain or any pilot wanting to be fed early be a problem?

 

Normally it wouldn't be. Cheesecake has a history of causing problems though. Remember this gem from the dark days of 2002?

Cheesecake rage
At the operations center in Elk Grove Township, an e-mail arrived from a United 777 captain. Not for the first time, he wanted the bosses to know, the support crew at the Dulles International Airport hub had messed up.
“They are boarding plain cheesecake, with no topping of any kind, with the crew meals, ” the pilot wrote. The flight crew was supposed to get the same dessert as business-class passengers, he noted, and “business-class… this day got cheesecake with a caramel-nut topping.




I'm sure there isn't an F/A in the industry that would have looked forward to dealing with that guy at feeding time.

 

Urban legend....

 

That is good to hear. Some crew members need to be reminded occasionally about things such as Captain's authority.