Dubai to allow Rents to jump as much as 20%----article

[General Lee]

After two decades+ over here...I think I qualify as a "non" narrow-minded American....I dot have an airline to go back to...we struck, I walked..they scabbed...I came...I stayed...young folks...GO HOME if you have a legacy recall, or job offer!

Enjoy your parties with your Emirate friends..I know they are posh...been there..easy to party with folks who have never done anything for themselves...with the advent of western countries using their own oil resources and becoming exporters instead of importing cartel-controlled (price-fixing?)oil, the region and their oil will become irrelevant, foreign militaries will find better places to spend their time, and...well..you figure out the rest...dont have to be Nostradamus

All I gotta say is wow. What happened? A year ago you were at Gulf Air, then I'm guessing Qatari, and now your attitude has totally changed to "go back home if you have a chance." Look, I'm sorry if we've tangled in the past, but I'd like to know. You can PM me if you want. Good luck.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Golden Falcon]

All I gotta say is wow. What happened? A year ago you were at Gulf Air, then I'm guessing Qatari, and now your attitude has totally changed to "go back home if you have a chance." Look, I'm sorry if we've tangled in the past, but I'd like to know. You can PM me if you want. Good luck.


Bye Bye---General Lee

There is a "crossover point" I put it at 45 yrs old...if one is below that.. by all means take the recall and get out of here...after that, especially holding a left seat over here at a "proper carrier" (loosely used term)..then it's time to think..its all my humble opinion...but one has to look at the lifestyle differences...if you live to fly...then stay here...but I fly so I can live...from what I see with friends at all the big carriers here...there ain't much livin' going on...

 

[General Lee]

General, you have some very valid points, and you are way off on others.

For example, yes, many of us would love to come back home. I will come home when my kids are done with college (3-4 years) from now, debt-free with my house paid off. Couldn't have done it in the US.

As for getting in at Delta, yes, I'd like that, but at this time, I have no squadron buddies there, and I will not live in poverty or get into more debt for years slaving away at some Hulas-owned sweatshop or at some gem like Endeavor/Pinnacle or whatever they're called these days just to get in...

FAR 117 isn't a US invention. Actually General, it looks very much like CAP 371 - kind of an outdated set of FTDT regulations the Gulf region has been working under for quite some time. You just now got them... this isn't exactly a benefit, but I will concede it's a definite improvement over the old FAR's.

I am grateful for what I have, and what's gotten us through some of the most miserable times in aviation, and while I'm at it... I've gotten to see the world to the point that if/when I get back to the US and maybe even at Delta, I won't be drooling over a LHR, AMS, MUC, CDG, GVA, ZRH, NRT, etc... Been there, done that... I'll be the happiest camper flying LAX-ATL.

Since coming to fly in the Middle East, I've flown into and got to experience places like Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Singapore, Kilimanjaro, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Cairo (and seen the pyramids), Luxor, Sharm el Sheikh, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Kruger National Park the list goes on and on... some nice, others interesting.

Life is what you make of it. I'd say coming to the Middle East isn't exactly what I envisioned for my career, but life's unfortunate circumstances such as Aloha going under with literally a couple days notice have brought me here. I can choose to be miserable and dwell on stuff I can't control, or I can choose to make the best of it. I think it's pretty obvious what I chose...

Enjoy what you have General... and hope happens to your career as it has for many of us.

Well said, I agree. I do bring up things about the ME that I would find troublesome, like some of the local laws and how "Westerners" are treated there. How do I know? I have a very good friend who was furloughed from Indy Air that went to Emirates, and he's still there, single and having fun that way, but tells me EVERYDAY he wakes up dreaming he was at DL or UAL. I've heard what he's said, and I read articles about things that go on.

As far as the flying goes, I bet you have seen the World, a lot of it. That is amazing, and on very nice equipment. There is no disputing that. And flying with younger FA's all the time must be great for the single guys. For married guys, that might be tough.

The issue with your airline and some of it's pilots wanting ultimate global domination is also troubling. Luckily the US Majors are getting a lot stronger, trying to change their products for the better to compete, and they all defend their hubs well. Hubs include connections to smaller cities nearby, and many passengers flow in and out of hubs from smaller cities, ensuring fairly full flights. And, the ME is far away from the US, and therefore the Gulf 3 threaten the European carriers and SE Asia ones more.

If you do want to eventually come back to the US though, the next 3-5 years would probably be a great time to do it. Huge retirement numbers, strengthening airlines, expansion, all coming at the same time. There has been stagnation since 9-11 and age 65 that has affected all of us, but that is starting to get a lot better. If you are thinking about it, do it, and do it during the beginning or middle part of the hiring wave, not the ending.

You said you guys have a version of the FAR 117 concerning fatigue etc. So, what's up with India turns from the ME that are over 8 hours total with 2 pilots, in the middle of the night? My buddy said he hates them, and still gets them now and then. That doesn't seem safe.


Good luck to you.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[General Lee]

There is a "crossover point" I put it at 45 yrs old...if one is below that.. by all means take the recall and get out of here...after that, especially holding a left seat over here at a "proper carrier" (loosely used term)..then it's time to think..its all my humble opinion...but one has to look at the lifestyle differences...if you live to fly...then stay here...but I fly so I can live...from what I see with friends at all the big carriers here...there ain't much livin' going on...

Thank you.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Father Jack]

I'm at the usual 90 hours this month, but if you count my rest days and standby ULR I have 18 days off. Not too bad really.
It's better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

 

[Freight Dog]

Well said, I agree. I do bring up things about the ME that I would find troublesome, like some of the local laws and how "Westerners" are treated there. How do I know? I have a very good friend who was furloughed from Indy Air that went to Emirates, and he's still there, single and having fun that way, but tells me EVERYDAY he wakes up dreaming he was at DL or UAL. I've heard what he's said, and I read articles about things that go on.

As far as the flying goes, I bet you have seen the World, a lot of it. That is amazing, and on very nice equipment. There is no disputing that. And flying with younger FA's all the time must be great for the single guys. For married guys, that might be tough.

The issue with your airline and some of it's pilots wanting ultimate global domination is also troubling. Luckily the US Majors are getting a lot stronger, trying to change their products for the better to compete, and they all defend their hubs well. Hubs include connections to smaller cities nearby, and many passengers flow in and out of hubs from smaller cities, ensuring fairly full flights. And, the ME is far away from the US, and therefore the Gulf 3 threaten the European carriers and SE Asia ones more.

If you do want to eventually come back to the US though, the next 3-5 years would probably be a great time to do it. Huge retirement numbers, strengthening airlines, expansion, all coming at the same time. There has been stagnation since 9-11 and age 65 that has affected all of us, but that is starting to get a lot better. If you are thinking about it, do it, and do it during the beginning or middle part of the hiring wave, not the ending.

You said you guys have a version of the FAR 117 concerning fatigue etc. So, what's up with India turns from the ME that are over 8 hours total with 2 pilots, in the middle of the night? My buddy said he hates them, and still gets them now and then. That doesn't seem safe.


Good luck to you.


Bye Bye---General Lee

Thank you General. Now to answer your question about FAR 117, and CAP 371... check this out:

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP371.PDF

This is the set of duty time/rest rules UAE certificate holders operate under and have been long before FAR 117 came about... Given what I've seen from FAR 117, while it looks like it's a step in the right direction, it still seems to fall short of CAP 371 which is kinda outdated itself. Unlike the FAR 117, in CAP 371 there's no exclusion for cargo or supplemental guys (FAR 121) or bizjet charter operators (FAR 135)... everyone operates under the same rules.

 

[Golden Falcon]

They still need to make the require rest equal to the previous duty....

 

[Dumb Pilot]

They still need to make the require rest equal to the previous duty....

I know, this would be a great career if it wasn't for the whole going to the airport to go fly thing....!

 

[whymeworry?]

I know some twenty year guys at Delta. They are all sitting in the right seat asking for wind checks. And I make more money than them.
As for quality of life, there are some guys that love The Sand Pit. Emirates has at least one ex Delta FO that is living his personal fantasy dream life.

I highly doubt that. My Narrowbody FO did $242,000 last year. He is super junior and he's not even topped out on the pay scale. I think he's at 6 years LOS.

Sure he'll pay taxes on that but that's what we Americans do, pay our weight. Don't get me wrong, I hate funding pointless wars and giving away all that foreign aid but it is what it is. If you're good at the tax game, ala Mitt Romney, you'll pay less than 20% tax.

Now factor in that he got another $32,000 in company funded retirement contributions and another $17,500 that he put away pretax (401K) and it becomes painfully obvious that flying for a US major isn't nearly as bad as you guys like to rationalize it out to be.

The real kicker is union protection. I'm no fan of ALPA but I regularly get bullied into certain questionable assignments when it comes to the new FAR 117 and other contract issues. I laugh when a manager makes a veiled threat. The union will take him to the mat as long as I'm doing my job, which I do 100% of the time. Just last night a CP, a FODM, and crew scheduling tried to intimidate me into an illegal assignment. It was amusing watching them back-pedal when I called in the union reps to fight my battle.

Of course, you guys aren't dealing with 117 issues right now but something operationally will come up, somewhere down the line, where you have to hope you make all the right decisions all while managing your cockpit and crew. I'd rather do the latter and leave the rest up to my union reps.

One more thing, your comment about "sitting right seat and asking for wind checks" is indicative of the problem in M.E. and Asian cockpits. You don't respect your First Officer the way we do in the West. My First Officers are all highly capable aviators with extensive experience and backgrounds. That is a HUGE safety element in todays compressed aviation environment. I try to give them their fair dues when we fly together. They get choice of meals, rest-break, and flying leg. And when it's their leg I don't tell them how to fly the jet (unless approaching a safety threshold, but that's just CRM). They've earned it and I'm happy to have 99% of them sitting by my side. When I wake up from break and come back to the cockpit and see all red and magenta on the radar all the way to final, then the guys tell me it's 23G34 in heavy rain, I'm thankful I can trust the guys I'm flying with to do their work at the highest level of precision required in such an evironment... all, often times, at 0445 at the end of a long duty day. Aviation ain't a one-man show.

 

[WYOMINGPILOT]

I highly doubt that. My Narrowbody FO did $242,000 last year. He is super junior and he's not even topped out on the pay scale. I think he's at 6 years LOS.
.

Hmmmm. Let's see a United narrowbody FO at year 6 is 118 per hour. Even if he flew 900 hours last year which is possible he earned 118 X 900 for a whopping $106,200. Factor in health care deductions and your 20% tax rate and he takes home $78,000. Granted he will make retirement contributions and benefits.