I was talking to my assistant chief pilot this morning and I asked him when the seat bid was going to take place. He said march and that it would include LAX expansion and probably some A300 expansion in MEM. I asked about ANC growth but he hasn't heard anything. The only vacancies in the DC-10 will be from guys leaving to go to other aircraft. The DC-10 lines shrank by four lines for next month and the quality of the lines is getting worse. I think now that more of the MD-10's will be from current line flying DC-10's as opposed to desert aircraft, so the lines will continue to decrease. I'm not real sure what's going on over in the 727 fleet but I know that they are retiring the 727-100's and they plan on keeping the 727-200's around for awhile. So all in all most of the growth will be from the MD-11 fleet. I keep hearing rumors from mad dog pilots that the MD-11 pilot force will double in the next three years. I think we are still trying to bargain for the Swiss Air birds and we are looking at KLM's MD-11's also. Well, that's the latest that I've heard from the rumor mill, anyone else heard anything good? For those of you in the pool, hang in there and you'll be over here before you know it spreading rumors on these message boards that you hear in the cockpit. Looking foward to seeing you guys and gals in the crew room.
NightFlyer