ASA=Back to crap trips...

[JoeMerchant]

Here is my prediction for next month:

Very few red arrow days, and much more bitching about how bad the lines are...Anyone want to take that bet?

 

[Tarzan]

They think lines are bad now, wait until the ARC publishes the new rules......

All those guys shouting about ten hours behind the door will see what it brings them.

 

[Top Gum]

I’d be very happy to have some of those good ole MEM trips back that you guys got. Guess Delta felt like it would be best for us to exchange some routes. So instead of SHV turns I get the JFK and LGA junk.

At least we have jobs. I know some who are really down and out right now.

 

[JoeMerchant]

They think lines are bad now, wait until the ARC publishes the new rules......

All those guys shouting about ten hours behind the door will see what it brings them.

BINGO...Between the new rest rules and having fewer "red arrow" days...Things are about to get much worse from a QOL point of view.

Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.

You will be more rested (assuming you actually go to bed when you are supposed to) and you will be able to swap more easily (until PBS starts..then this is a moot point)....But you will be at work on the road more than you are now...and you will b!tch about it..

 

[OCP]

They think lines are bad now, wait until the ARC publishes the new rules......

All those guys shouting about ten hours behind the door will see what it brings them.

Tell me why that will be bad. I had a 3 day that was almost 18 hrs with over 10hrs behind the door rest each night.
You are obviously a line holder and have been one for quite a while. You have NO idea what has been going on lately at ASA. You may spout that "I've had to do reserve" and "It's better than it was". Really? Did you sit reserve for 3+ years? Did you get called in to work on the last day of your reserve period only to be told that you are there because a tug broke and you are now going to "bmove" airplanes for 8 hrs? Have you done 6 am ready reserve 2 days in a row with "at least" 9 hrs of rest?
I am amazed at the people who really don't understand what 10hrs behind the door rest will really do. If you don't get it, then I hope I don't ever have to put me or my family on your flight because you thought "hey, it's only one leg, I can be tired for that". But would I know?

 

[Tarzan]

Tell me why that will be bad. I had a 3 day that was almost 18 hrs with over 10hrs behind the door rest each night.
You are obviously a line holder and have been one for quite a while. You have NO idea what has been going on lately at ASA. You may spout that "I've had to do reserve" and "It's better than it was". Really? Did you sit reserve for 3+ years? Did you get called in to work on the last day of your reserve period only to be told that you are there because a tug broke and you are now going to "bmove" airplanes for 8 hrs? Have you done 6 am ready reserve 2 days in a row with "at least" 9 hrs of rest?
I am amazed at the people who really don't understand what 10hrs behind the door rest will really do. If you don't get it, then I hope I don't ever have to put me or my family on your flight because you thought "hey, it's only one leg, I can be tired for that". But would I know?

I've had my share of time on reserve with more in the future no doubt. I've had my share of the short overnights and wondering why I got into this industry. I have better understanding what is going at ASA with abuse and loose interpretations of reserve, duty and rest rules. I likely have a much better idea that you. It pi$$es me off too but when the contract doesn't sow up those loose ends what can the ALPA guys do? Beg for relief? Times are tough and the company is going to look for any loopholes to makes it operation as efficient as it can. It darn sure doesn't make my life any easier either but that is how it goes.

What I am saying is that once the airlines are forced into this, some lines will remain descent while other will turn into unproductive four days because there isn't enough flying in and out of a city to keep things productive. If things come out like I've been lead to believe, we may be okay for now. However, another here and there and things will go in the crapper rather quickly. Then guys will complaining about how lines suck and how the company is out to screw them. No matter what, there will always be something to complain but once the the Big Gov gets in there, we can not fix it with contracts. We deal with it.

I do know this though, if 100 hundreds fell on the company's doorstep, all this wailing and gnashing of teeth would end tomorrow.

 

[Medeco]

I sat in on the "focus group" for reserves yesterday.

We had about 12 pilots, and at different times of the day we had the decision makers from scheduling, crew planning, as well as Charlie and Scott.

The reason for this group was to help these decision makers understand why we have had spikes in Fatigue calls.

All of the pilots in there had been on reserve for a minimum of 2.5yrs and up to 5yrs intermittently.

The main points we pinpointed and drove home to these "decision makers" were as follows.

* Constant reschedules/additional assignments and the unknown is never ending and fatiguing
* min rest/max duty (also known as Fake naps)
* Bullsh!t "courtesy calls" on days off
* Change in sleep cycles (6am reserve being put to rest at 6:01am)
* Asking the company to apply technology that allows individual pref, on thinks like courtesy calls, etc...
* Too many RRR assigned to the airport and not being used, and overall efficiency of crews (line holders and Reserves) is not good. DH's in both directions, etc...

As you might imagine, much of the day was spent with everyone having a story of personal experience and rants, but I think we have a chance of getting something out of this, If the pilot group has the knowledge that Charlie T. promised improvements.

Some facts (like them or not)

*We are properly staffed, but the company has made a financial decision to try and save money by driving down line values. This will change in June and line values will go up at least 10hrs, creating more reserves.

*Schedulers are faced with an impossible task with reserves that has now rolled over into lineholders being JM and extended. Charlie admits, that April was a big mess and will fix this(we shall see)

* You cannot please everyone, and no matter what the company does they will hear from someone,or a group, or ALPA. In many ways when common sense should prevail on a decision by scheduling, they are limited by our contract. A very good point was drivin' home though, that when scheduling is in a TOTAL bind, they will bend the rules in both directions

* We have CP's that say 75% of fatigue calls are BS. Examples that SH noted would be someone calling in fatigued because they had to take/pickup their girlfriend to the Airport at 2am, or someone who just got back from vacation and admitted they were tired from getting in late. We all agreed that they could be fatigued, but those kind of calls are not the companies problem and should not be paid. The point was asked what about fatigue calls from reserves, to which they had no numbers or answer.

* We are re-branding the company officially on the 21st of May. They believe that the public knows the name "ASA" but they have no idea who Atlantic Southeast Airlines is, therefore "ASA" will go away and a possible complete name change could be down the road.

* A no confidence in CP's was voiced by some, and it was asked to SH if they new ATL CP to be hired would please be a recent line pilot rather than someone who lives in a box or the GO.


* JP and DB in planning and scheduling are worthless

I'm sure I left out something.

M

 

[777forever]

I like courtesy calls. I'd MUCH rather know the night before I have a 6am RR assignment then to have my phone blaring at 4am. Also, I'd much rather know I have a 11am duty in with no reserve in the morning, then go to bed early in preparation for a 4am call.

I agree with the decision to put a GO guy in the Chief Pilot's office. The reasoning behind it makes sense and I've heard from several pilots that the Line Pilot in the Chief Pilot's office has been tried several times and failed.

 

[Medeco]

Like I said you can't please everyone...

 

[Data]

Some facts (like them or not)

*We are properly staffed, but the company has made a financial decision to try and save money by driving down line values. This will change in June and line values will go up at least 10hrs, creating more reserves.

Hmmmm, where's Metro752 (probably knee deep in some (•)Y(•)! ) on the subject of being wrong about staffing...