A Pinnacle captain with some balls

[Markm1811]

DCA Dispatching. I was there

Ok.. I will come out.. I was one of the dispatchers here that night and we were in contact with the crew for over an hour via ACARs. We did not ignore nor miss any of the calls that came to us.. We asked the crew to Batphone us and they told us that DCA has no batphone working.. Dont underestimate what the dispatchers and CLC did without knowing the facts. With the station on the phone screaming, Tower on the phone complaining and 3 of us working on the issue that caused this problem we did as much as we could do from memphis . Its all in the MGL closeout people.. Too many flights to launch.. yup. too many PC issues .. yup.. too many fingers pointing at the SOC... yup..

So much for teamwork... You 9E frontseaters know how to get the facts...

over and out.
Midnight Brit..

 

[405]

What everyone has said about 9E being understaffed in dispatch is right on. We have two dispatchers that were promoted to different positions within the company and one that is leaving for another company. So there's three people with some sort of experience gone from the ranks now. These experienced people will be replaced by three people who have zero time sitting in this office trying to keep up with our workload. We have a lot more new people in there now with very little to no experience at all doing this job. Most of my day is spent helping the new people that don't know the little intricacies of dispatching at 9E along with keeping up with my own flights at my desk. I'm not saying I know everything there is to know in there but I've been here for almost five years and I think I have a pretty good grasp of the concept of getting a flight on it's way when something weird comes up.

Why this crew didn't go back to the gate to get this problem fixed is something I don't understand. There's no point in keeping passengers on the plane for an hour and a half while the Captain, Dispatch and CLC figure out a problem. Like I said before it would've taken a five minute phone call to figure this out. The problem this flight had brings up another issue I have with 9E: Our crews need to be doing their own weight and balance calculations and quit relying on CLC so much.

 

[Rook]

I'm sure that the company will come out with an AB about W&B being done manually from now on.

And Mark my man, we know youse guys in MEM are understaffed so don't take it personally. And I hate to monday morning quarterback the CA but if he didn't want to use the cell phone there's a holding pad behind the banjo in DCA, I would've just parked there, gone into ops and tie up the phone there until the issue was solved...or just wait in a pad watching the minutes tick off. CHA CHING!

 

[405]

To 9E crews

If you have a question about something in the SOC, PM me. As always, you're more than welcome to come to the SOC anytime you have questions or just want to take a look at what we do (or attempt to do). I'd be more than happy to show you around.

 

[JimNtexas]

I have a little retail business, nothing like an airline of any size. I do have employees.

If an employee uses his or car or cell phone to solve a business problem, I gladly reimburse them and thank them for their trouble. In fact, I sometimes chew them out if I find out that they DIDN'T ask me to reimburse their direct job related out of pocket expenses.

I don't do this because I'm Santa Claus, it's just good business. The cost is minimal compared to the cost of problems that would otherwise go unsolved. And I don't have jet planes full of customers sitting around with engines running!

I'm not being factious. Surely even regional air line pilots can file for and receive reimbursement of cell phone calls that reduce flight delays!

If they can't, then I don't blame the Captain for waiting for the company provided system to work. A company that can't trust a jet pilot to make a phone call is just too dumb to live.

 

[JimNtexas]

If you use your cellphone for business purposes it becomes tax-deductable.

If those expenses exceed 2% of your income.

 

[FN FAL]

If those expenses exceed 2% of your income.

What's 2 percent of 12,000.00?

 

[Captain Overs]

Again you pin the happiness of the passengers squarely on the actions of the crew but that just ain't all there is to it - and with 15,000 hours you KNOW that!

It may well be an outrage but the pilot was WELL within his rights to decline to use a form of communication that is a) probably illegal once the plane is underway according to their own pre-departure briefing, and b) generates a cost of operation to be bourne by the company, not it's employees.

A company with some class gets its ducks in a row. This one clearly doesn't - at least not all the time - and therein lies the outrage sir. Leave the pilots out of it. They're just doing their jobs.

I pin the happiness of the passengers squarely with the crew when they are IN YOUR CUSTODY. I realize you guys are frustrated, but management doesn't care. They don't care if that flight is late. The only people being punished are the PAX.

 

[iflyabeech]

I wouldn't expect an airline that paid its pilot prostitutes $15,000 a year to reimburse them for anything---much less a cell phone. Do they have any idea how uncomfortable the ride is in the back of one of those RJ's? Especially when you aren't going anywhere.

 

[405]

......