MasterBates
Well-Known Member
A4s,
Why did you go there? PAX, Cargo, really good bar?
Why did you go there? PAX, Cargo, really good bar?
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Airline transition, Where to?
- Thread starter bluto
- Start date
Nope. For 4-5 days with the same stews .... we're talkin' life, we're talkin' relationships, here ...
And they still want more.. And now they want 5 more years of theirs!
I suppose my perspective is skewed due to the difference in our type of flying or more so lack there of... I think the highest number of hours a year that I have heard is maybe 450 hours.. I would say I average 200-250 hours..
You might have more luck guessing the winning lottery numbers than predicting that!
That's actually financial plan A. Plan B is get a flying job. Plan C is to be a man whore. I really hope the first two work out...cause I don't want to stay active duty.
Just remember there are lots of flying jobs out there.. Everybody gets short sighted on the airlines.. I know lots of folks that have flown for a variety of places waiting on there final job and I know some who now fly corporate and have no intention of going back to the airline gig... They best advice I could give is to build that resume and network!
I recommend the training command because the gouge flows and networking is easy... Just like earlier the one dude mentioned 'Ghost'; bam, right there instant UPS contact.. Fly with him and not be an ass-clown there's one letter of rec with more to go the same way!
I can understand guys who have lost their retirement wanting to go beyond age 60 --- and while it screws up seniority, retirement calculations, and promotions for those junior, the old guys deserve it; they have put in their time, they rate it. But as for the rest, there's gotta be SOMETHING ELSE you want to do in life. I was ready to quit at 50. Probably earlier ...
... but then again, it's not my business if someone wants to go past age 60. I didn't ... 450 hours?? 200-250 average??? Wow, and here I thought professional, full time trash-haulers got a LOT more hard time than that -- I never checked, I just assumed. A rough WAG says I averaged @ 650 hours/year over 29 years flying the line at two carriers ... I even bumped against the FAR annual maximums once or twice (?) with monthly CRAF waivers.
Where do we get such men .... ???
Reality check: my logbook and $3.50 will get me a cup of froo-froo coffee @ $tarbuck'$.
You know where the "thumb" usually goes, too ....
Some people pay extra for that type of action. I do, anyway.
~D
We do have hard time trips out there but those are usually EWR-LAX or BUR-IND, SEA-MEM, etc with only the standard 14-16 hour layover.. On the international because of the longer layovers they are nearly always some sort of rig.. Plus lots of deadhead time.. As somebody put it to me.. "Cargo doesn't make money by being airborne..." So we tend to have faster cruise speeds trading off a higher fuel burn.. Although lately we have a new incentive program where we do slower more fuel efficient speeds during the day flying (it's all USPS so I guess it doesn't really have any delivery schedule).
"The World On Time"
"The World On Time"
One of my airlines used to preach .84M cruise for the Whale. But in their "defense", so did everyone else. Best cruise economics, most efficient, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah .... yes sir, three bags full.
It never seemed to be "best" to me when fuel burn was tight, so while I was working in training, I ran the numbers and came up a different answer. .84 was bullshit for the Whale -- the "real" answer was: CLIMB OUT FASTER; GO FASTER AT CRUISE, no matter what the altitude was .....
Hoo-boy, was I unpopular with the Kool-Aid crowd on the third floor. So I just started "doing it" .... and guess what?? I flew .86-.87, or at least always > .84, and I was ALWAYS UNDER PROJECTED FLIGHT PLAN FUEL BURN and never had a fuel "problem". And ... I always beat the competition into the gate at the destination.
I did some more research and found the .84M mantra came from the consensus of all concerned when the NOPAC routes were originally set up for jets and there was no radar coverage for much of the route in the early days. Sooooooooooooo ..... everyone fly the same speed and longitudinal (nose to tail) separation problems would not exist. Right?? Wrong. Only trouble was, they did exist, especially when the non-Boeing birds started showing up and could not comply with .84 M.
The "problem" had a simple solution, but no one had ever bothered to go back and revisit .84M.
My 747 rule of thumb (there's that ol' thumb again ) was:
GO HIGH -- GO FAST!!!!!
Unless there was a good chance that we would be hard fly for the leg -- then my "rule" became:
GO HIGH -- GO SLOOOOO-O-O-O-O-OW....... . . . . . . . . .:sleep_125
In that case, guess who got the "thumb"???
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
What was the critical Mach # on the Whale?
We hit it at .8M in the -45.
We hit it at .8M in the -45.
I do focus a lot on the airlines, but in a perfect world I'd like to fly bug smashers in Alaska. ERA Aviation flies to a lot of neat little places in some cool planes (restored DC-3's for example) but the pay is crap. Still, it's about how much you enjoy what you're doing, not how much you get paid. Of course...getting paid a lot helps you buy (or rent) happiness)
That's what I really wanted to do. But the "needs of the navy" have overridden my desires - so I'm spending three years in purgatory hoping for a flying tour when i get back to sea duty (in 2010).
For the networking angel i'm thinking of going ANG or Navy reserves, lots of networking to be done there I understand.
"Dick" Anderson: the man is a walking, talking, penis in a business suit.
Remember this: upper management HATES YOUR GUTS.
Even former Vietnam USMC Freddie Smith of FedEx has moved away from his previous "love fest" with pilots --- "love fest" until the pilots wanted to join ALPA. The reason they wanted to organize was because Freddie was starting to shift his emphasis to the bottom line (nothing inherently wrong with that, but not at the expense of pilots when management is reaping all of the gold). Lots of considerations, lots of particulars, but remember this: if there was a way to do it without pilots; i.e., fly airplanes ..... management would ....
I had a very good friend from another airline-life (pilot) who ended up in senior management @ 3 airlines after our original employer crashed and burned. He was very successful, moved easily in the thin air of the management suites, and he confirms the disdain and disrespect from management toward pilots. As he used to put it: "it isn't about the money ... they already have more than they can spend in an ordinary lifetime ... it's about 'ego' and their place in the airline CEO 'club' ..... and they want to run the show. They hate pilots, because pilots are semi-autonomous by the nature of the job. "
He was right .....
I once had our CEO in my cockpit on the way over to Tokyo. During the (forced) pleasantries, he observed: "I don't mind paying you guys what you're worth .... I just don't like paying you TWICE what you're worth .... " :icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol:
I think he was waiting for laughter and applause at his wit and wisdom -- instead he only saw the backside of our heads. After a few minutes of of dead silence only broken by his attempts to re-ingratiate himself with "us" ... he quietly left the cockpit and returned to his 1st class seat.
Most of upper management today closely resembles carpetbaggers and robber barons of a time past. They move seamlessly from airline to airline. The have no center, no honor, no code, and no soul. It's all about "them" and the perceived CEO power to be derived that infects a lot of present "airline management".
The days of C.R. Smith, Robert F. Six, the Braniff Brothers, Juan Trippe and Howard Hughes ... i.e., airline pioneers and CEO's who had "something of themselves"in the airline .... are long gone .... :sleep_125
I couldn`t agree more with this post...I spent 30 years at Delta and the "good old days are gone"...Never heard of "Delta Lite"..your buddy was either with Delta or he wasn`t. If he was with a commuter, it wasn`t Delta, maybe owned by Delta, but not Delta. About Delta`s former CEO..We called the little a$$hole "Harry Potter"..The one before that, Ron Allen, another jerk that hated pilots...and we returned the favor..The last decent one, Dave Garrett, well that was 20 or so years ago.
Corporate life can be good, works for me. Matter of fact, we are looking for someone to fill a slot right now. Must live around Santa Monica, CA and live on the beeper. PM me if interested.
Trying to predict the airline industry is a complete impossiblity. My personal belief is that within the next few years there will be multiple mergers amongst a few of the companies. Who will merge? I haven't a clue. Bottom line is be prepared that whoever you get hired with may not be who you retire with. I think A-4's said it best just get hired.
I was hired at 3 companies: United, American and SWA (Delta, Continnental and FEDEX were not hiring). At the time the brass ring was United or American and SWA was the "other guy." Why I chose SWA? First off, I ENJOYED the interview. American and United made me feel like I should feel privledged to be interviewed by them. I felt like I was one of the 4 guys sitting on the couch at the fraternity Rush party in the movie Animal House! SWA went out of there way to make me feel welcome. First impressions are everything. Secondly, SWA was very proud of the fact that it has never furloughed a pilot.....job security was a definite plus. Third, SWA was about to retire 25% of its senior pilots from 2005-2007......Upgrade time was at 5 years.(9-11 messed this one up but I still upgraded at a little over 6 years). Fourth and probably one of the most important reasons, SWA has been profitable since 1972.....profitable company means happy labor and I wanted to enjoy coming to work. I have other reasons but the one thing I never considered thoroughly was pay (probably good that I didn't). SWA pilots made a lot less then everyone else in the late 90's. Who knew that we would be getting paid the money we do now.
Frankly, I hate the industry but I love the company and have never regretted my decision to leave active duty. Of course, I'm not stupid, I stayed in the reserves as a fall back in case things went "South!" Good luck on your decision.
Semper Fly, Frumby
I was hired at 3 companies: United, American and SWA (Delta, Continnental and FEDEX were not hiring). At the time the brass ring was United or American and SWA was the "other guy." Why I chose SWA? First off, I ENJOYED the interview. American and United made me feel like I should feel privledged to be interviewed by them. I felt like I was one of the 4 guys sitting on the couch at the fraternity Rush party in the movie Animal House! SWA went out of there way to make me feel welcome. First impressions are everything. Secondly, SWA was very proud of the fact that it has never furloughed a pilot.....job security was a definite plus. Third, SWA was about to retire 25% of its senior pilots from 2005-2007......Upgrade time was at 5 years.(9-11 messed this one up but I still upgraded at a little over 6 years). Fourth and probably one of the most important reasons, SWA has been profitable since 1972.....profitable company means happy labor and I wanted to enjoy coming to work. I have other reasons but the one thing I never considered thoroughly was pay (probably good that I didn't). SWA pilots made a lot less then everyone else in the late 90's. Who knew that we would be getting paid the money we do now.
Frankly, I hate the industry but I love the company and have never regretted my decision to leave active duty. Of course, I'm not stupid, I stayed in the reserves as a fall back in case things went "South!" Good luck on your decision.
Semper Fly, Frumby