Gulfstream Airlines uses car parts!

[Longhorn]

What do you expect from a company started by an Eastern....well, you know.

 

[Jackie Moon]

Maybe it is overkill, but I try to digitally photograph every aircraft logbook page before I leave the airplane to prove that the times I have are official. It has helped me out in two instances when my company was trying to make me legal in a 30/7 situation. Crew trac times have no value...what is in the can is what counts.

As for GIA, it sounds like life at every regional I have worked at, some more so than others. Mx tends to ignore certain pilot complaints, to ops check good half the write ups, and just move a bad part from one plane to another and hope the next crew doesn't write it up for a while. These behaviors tend to get caught, go away, and eventually resurface when pilots let their guard down again.

I hope GIA gets their act together. It seems like there are multiple cries for help coming from the rank and file... will the FAA listen?

Maybe at a 135 operation but I have never seen this type of thing at a 121 airline. If you have to take pictures of the flight log to keep the company honest then you need to change airlines. If you accept this it will continue. That along with pencil whipping is why I left 135 flying.

 

[s3jetman]

first lets set some things straight. from the fed that did the investigation, i know him on a personal level. GIA was ordering the parts from Company A and having them directly sent to the maintanace facility. That particular part must be sent to Beech for them to put thier sticker on it and make it approved before sending it to GIA. Mostly a paperwork, thing from what i understand. GIA began ordering from company A directly and did it for some time before this was a prob. Never a safety factor but when GIA learned this could not be done it was corrected.

As for the TCAS thing, give me a break! Okay it has been said a few times and i just dont get it. Your telling me you dont take the AC because of scary VFR traffic?? Look at the case it was night, there were multiple thunderstorms in the area, and it was getting late. So yea it sounds like a great time for Private Joe Bob to get some training or be out practicing?? Yea give me a break!

I belive in the capt. authority to deny an aircraft and will do it in a heart beat if i feel my passengers, myself, or the airlplane is dangerous.

 

[Skywest Pylot]

S3jetman,

You seem to contradict yourself.

As for the TCAS thing, give me a break! Okay it has been said a few times and i just dont get it. Your telling me you dont take the AC because of scary VFR traffic?? Look at the case it was night, there were multiple thunderstorms in the area, and it was getting late. So yea it sounds like a great time for Private Joe Bob to get some training or be out practicing?? Yea give me a break!

I belive in the capt. authority to deny an aircraft and will do it in a heart beat if i feel my passengers, myself, or the airlplane is dangerous.

Cut the guy some slack. He used his PIC authority when He felt like the situation was not safe. Who knows who else was picking their way through those thunderstorms. Is this, To Hell With Safety, the kind of attitude/culture you guys are promoting at Gulfstream?

 

[CA1900]

Is this, To Hell With Safety, the kind of attitude/culture you guys are promoting at Gulfstream?

I'd say that's a pretty obvious "yes," given the history of their maintenance. To say nothing of renting out the right seat to anybody with a wet commercial and $30K to spare.

 

[s3jetman]

yea been renting out the right seat since 1991 with thousands of hours and flights with never a single fatal accident, more than some of the "professional airlines" can say! Most be some bad pilots in the seats. or maybe its that crappy training they make the pilots recieve! I was part of the training department for 6 years and i have seen it all from 250hr wonder kids to 4000 hr furloughed pilots. As a captain in know whats safe and what is being done to make a statement. If someone wants to make a statement they need to make sure they can back it up. I make myself clear on providing my passengers with a safe flight, and management has never given me a prob.

 

[Skywest Pylot]

If someone wants to make a statement they need to make sure they can back it up.

I still don't understand how the captain's actions weren't backed up by the conditions. So you don't think the company was trying to make a statement by firing the guy?

 

[Cardinal]

As a captain in know whats safe and what is being done to make a statement. If someone wants to make a statement they need to make sure they can back it up.

There is one particular route in my airline's network that I won't fly without TCAS. Got a problem with that? Think I should be fired? I think I should get a freakin medal for sparing my pax an unplanned Cessna forking.

The guy had a rational, if conservative, basis for refusal. Anytime you take a stand there's a chance of a carpet dance, but fired? I'm glad this guy is getting in the papers, put some heat on the scabs that fired him.

 

[Daytonaflyer]

South Florida: Sunny place. Shady people.

-Brett

True, but everybody in South Florida is either from the Northeast or another country. Nobody's actually from S. Florida anymore.

 

[CX880]

If someone wants to make a statement they need to make sure they can back it up. I make myself clear on providing my passengers with a safe flight, and management has never given me a prob.

Your airline uses car parts on airplanes with poor unsuspecting passengers. By the way you guys probably produce pilots with a reputation because the instructors with 6 years experience have only 850 hours of actual flight time.

 

[Ezralite]

GIA began ordering from company A directly and did it for some time before this was a prob. Never a safety factor but when GIA learned this could not be done it was corrected

It was corrected when GIA found out it couldn't be done or when the FAA found out it was happening? Do you really believe GIA didn't know what was going on? Yeah, keep sucking on the Kool Aid bud.

 

[Minimaniac]

Maybe at a 135 operation but I have never seen this type of thing at a 121 airline. If you have to take pictures of the flight log to keep the company honest then you need to change airlines. If you accept this it will continue. That along with pencil whipping is why I left 135 flying.

Sadly, this was a 121 operation. Fortunately the "reason" I felt compelled to duplicate log pages is no longer with the company, but old habits die hard. And by photographing the log pages, I was no longer accepting the shadiness. That was my way of taking a stand... direct proof stands up so much better than anecdotal evidence in any discussion with the company.

 

[WSurf]

The guy had a rational, if conservative, basis for refusal. Anytime you take a stand there's a chance of a carpet dance, but fired? I'm glad this guy is getting in the papers, put some heat on the scabs that fired him.

I agree, why fire him? Call out a reserve pilot to fly the route. I remember the Eagle ATR guy that got fired after taking off and returning to the airport after picking up a bunch of ice (this after the Eagle Crash in Indiana showing that the ATR was suspected of Ice Bridging). Eagle said you go or your fired. Didn't that dude win millions of dollars in his lawsuit? It would have saved them millions to just call out a reserve pilot.

I am sure if Gulfstream had a chance to do this again they wouldn't have fired him knowing the heat it would bring on them.

 

[s3jetman]

cx880 sorry i do not update my hours every 2 legs just so i can justify myself. if i am a captain then i think you know how many hours i have. I was on lost medical for 5 years 3months and 4 days. If i stuck with it this long it is because i believe that aviation is the best thing in the world. It sad when people dont know the whole story but talk like they have first hand knowledge. Just like any accident it was not just the denial of the ac, it was many other things that had led up to his termination. I have nothing against the guy he is a great guy and had him in one of my classes i instructed, i think he made a poor choice on handling the situation. true if GIA knew the outcome the situtiaon may have been handled diff. just as many companies sometimes make poor decisions.

 

[CheeseDick]

In Gulfstreams defense...

...You can buy a landing light bulb for the beechjet at Tractor Supply company. It's the same box, has the FAA PMA number on it, the difference it's it's $24 at Tractor Supply and $200+ from some other parts dealers.

Maybe they've run into the same situation.