Piedmont - Union says airline offered pilots 'free pass' on checkrides

[ualdriver]

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/03/07/979524/piedmont-denies-deal-to-uncover.html

Interesting story. How much of it is true, if anything?


Piedmont denies 'deal' to uncover whistle-blowers

Union says airline offered pilots 'free pass' on tests

by Tom Precious
News Albany Bureau
Updated: March 07, 2010,


ALBANY — Piedmont Airlines has offered its pilots a "free pass" on required, annual safety training that tests their flying skills in return for providing names of fellow pilots who anonymously raised concerns to The Buffalo News in January about an airline safety device, its pilot union has charged.

 

[OPECJet]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

 

[WSurf]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

True True...

 

[kf4amu]

I can definitely see him taking any negative attacks on the training dept personally (like the Buffalo news story re: Piedmont not having stick pusher training), so I can see him being human and expressing how much he would like to get rid of pilots who insulted his first born son, the PDT training dept. But he is known to exaggerate a lot of things to get his point across, so something in this case was obviously different.

He's a tough instructor but I think he's fair and goes to bat for pilots all the time. I actually look forward to, and enjoy having CQ with him because I know I will learn way more than just the FAA minimum required.

I sure hope he doesn't get screwed.

 

[zasca]

A couple of times amongst friendly pilots as a joke is one thing. Doing it repeatedly to every pilot he saw in that period equals harassment in my book. Tongue-in-cheek or not. His mouth gets in the way of his job way too much...

 

[Captzaahlie]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

The guy in question is a little emotional at times but I back everything Opecjet just said above.

 

[DASH8AV8R]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

I could not have said it better myself Dan. Very True.

 

[RobCat]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

I agree 100%. This guy would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.

 

[Quack]

ah jon boy...yeah got a mouth the size of the grand canyon and behind all his little quirks he's a good guy that would do anything to help out a line pilot...

 

[Booker]

Concur with the sentiments above. He was one of the couple who I actually respected in the training department.

 

[sucit]

I am sure they know or have a good idea who is talking to the press. It should not be to hard to figure out. The first story I have no problem with. Hey, we do not have the training for the pusher, fact. Are we getting it, yes. So what is the big deal. This second story is just being childish. We all know that the instructor in question was just kidding about the "free ride". If you have ever done a sim session with him you would know there is no such thing as a free ride from him. I really think the union is making a big mistake. They are going after the best instructor at PDT in spite of a few CAs that were downgraded. And from what I have heard, they maybe should not even be FO's. But, I was not there.

 

[sucit]

Does anyone have the letter that was sent to Farrow from the union?

 

[LowlyPropCapt]

I will second all the positive comments about JP stated above. Yes, he can be emotional. Yes, he likes to talk a lot. Yes, he wants to see continuous improvement in the quality of the pilot group. Can he be somewhat abrasive at times? Sure. But having been instructed by and flown the line with him for the past 10 years, I can say that there is not a single instructor more personally invested in each pilot's professional development than JP. He cares, and cares a lot.

I will say I don't agree with him on everything. JP is not a fan of our ASAP program, and I have always enjoyed our little debates on the subject. I will also say that, knowing JP's personality, I am sure he thought he was cracking a funny little joke to the crews he was interacting with. He just cracked it to the wrong hypersensitive pilot.

That brings us to the 800 pound gorilla in the room that need to be mentioned: This is less about JP than it is about this rediculous North vs South, refight the Civil War garbage. Every complaint I can remember about JP came post merger. Why is that?

Furthermore, these leaks are NOT helpful to us as a pilot group, contractually or otherwise. As a matter of fact, the first BUF news article made us look pretty dumb... We should turn the stick pushers off? Are you freaking serious?

If you want to use the press to help illuminate the issues, then fine, go to your union leadership and get Herndon invovled so the pros that we pay good money for can manage the message properly. Having armies of one running around and spouting off to the press distracts our leadership, shows that we have no control over our message and demonstrate a complete lack of pilot unity. These articles do way more harm than good in my opinion and is harmful to our efforts to negotiate a contract.

 

[Captzaahlie]

I will second all the positive comments about JP stated above. Yes, he can be emotional. Yes, he likes to talk a lot. Yes, he wants to see continuous improvement in the quality of the pilot group. Can he be somewhat abrasive at times? Sure. But having been instructed by and flown the line with him for the past 10 years, I can say that there is not a single instructor more personally invested in each pilot's professional development than JP. He cares, and cares a lot.

I will say I don't agree with him on everything. JP is not a fan of our ASAP program, and I have always enjoyed our little debates on the subject. I will also say that, knowing JP's personality, I am sure he thought he was cracking a funny little joke to the crews he was interacting with. He just cracked it to the wrong hypersensitive pilot.

That brings us to the 800 pound gorilla in the room that need to be mentioned: This is less about JP than it is about this rediculous North vs South, refight the Civil War garbage. Every complaint I can remember about JP came post merger. Why is that?

Furthermore, these leaks are NOT helpful to us as a pilot group, contractually or otherwise. As a matter of fact, the first BUF news article made us look pretty dumb... We should turn the stick pushers off? Are you freaking serious?

If you want to use the press to help illuminate the issues, then fine, go to your union leadership and get Herndon invovled so the pros that we pay good money for can manage the message properly. Having armies of one running around and spouting off to the press distracts our leadership, shows that we have no control over our message and demonstrate a complete lack of pilot unity. These articles do way more harm than good in my opinion and is harmful to our efforts to negotiate a contract.

I agree with the above too. There are much better ways to handle the whole thing than crying wolf...
The little boy that is crying wolf to the press is going to get his a$$ beat by the PDT pilots too, not just by the check airmen. The whole thing does tend to make the place look second class.

 

[LearLove]

the stick pusher are only on the 300 and Q400, not the 100/200, right??

 

[Captzaahlie]

the stick pusher are only on the 300 and Q400, not the 100/200, right??

It's been a while since i flew a 200 but i believe that is in fact true.

 

[no1pilot2000]

It seems like Piedmont Pilots are a close knit group of people.

 

[Captzaahlie]

It seems like Piedmont Pilots are a close knit group of people.

The only thing I miss about not being there anymore are the people.
Awesome group of guys & gals! Management doesn't know how good they Fu(kin have it............

 

[LowlyPropCapt]

The only thing I miss about not being there anymore are the people.
Awesome group of guys & gals! Management doesn't know how good they Fu(kin have it............

True.

We are one big family... Disfunction and all!

 

[N813CA]

Captzaahlie

I agree. Where did you find the girl in the hole?