Getting Hosed!

[IB6 UB9]

Father-in-law retires at NWA in a week or so. Mother-in-law said they don't hose the airplane down anymore...too expensive. I thought it was always kind of cool to get hosed down instead of "thanks...leave your ID on the dash!". Does anybody do this still? Any party, anything, or just goodbye?

 

[juan2go]

Hosed Down

Southwest still does it. We'll take any excuse to expose our hoses.

regards,

juan.

 

[Networ-King]

Southwest still does it. We'll take any excuse to expose our hoses.

regards,

juan.

Yeah juan....we all know how you guys like to do that in the cock pit with one another. Just tell the FA to keep the camera in her purse next time .

Sorry man... couldn't resist.......<grin>.

 

[juan2go]

Well said.


juan

 

[Jump Pilot]

I was at DFW Monday morning and saw an ATA L1011 get hosed as it came off of Golf. Beautiful sight.

 

[ex208driver]

I was in dtw a couple of weeks ago. Leaving the terminal, we were behind a NWA capt by a few yards. He got out of security and his wife and child met him with a balloon. As we walked by they asked if I would take a couple of photos of them. I was happy to obliged. While talking with him, He just did his retirement flight for NWA and this was the celebration. No hose down or anyone to go on the flight with him or even met him at the gate. He was met outside security by family. Sad to say the company didnt do anything for him. It was a pleasure to take his photo that day, his family was very proud of him. I wished a good retirement on our departure that day.

 

[ex208driver]

It is optional at Continental I believe. They used to let the guy pick his crew and his final trip also. At expressjet, we had a captian retire recently and they had a cake for him in the crew room along with posting his name in the fils so other guys could attend if they were around.

 

[1-tacan-rule]

Delta wet-down

A couple of months ago I was flying back from Vegas, a few thousand bucks poorer, a nagging itch on my little fella I couldn't get rid of, and a bad haircut that I don't remember getting.......anyway, when I boarded the plane there was a picture and bio of the captain. It said this was his last flight and he was being joined onboard by his wife, daughters and sons in law. As we pulled into ATL they did hose down the plane which was pretty cool. Everyone applauded as he made his way to the door to greet everyone on the way out. Pretty cool.

P.S. drugs took care of the itch and my hair has grown back out...still couple of thousand bucks poorer though.

 

[FracCapt]

I was on a SWA flight a while back that they did it. The Captain told everybody during the flight that it was his last trip with SWA...and that upon arrival in MCO the fire department would be "creating water arches for the airplane to pass through". He reiterated that again after landing to make sure nobody freaked out and thought the plane was on fire.

It was a very cool sight...I spoke with the Captain(and his wife and 2 sons) for a few minutes on the shuttle to the employee parking lot, and he was still pretty choked up about the whole thing...and actually asked me if I knew of any corporate jobs in the area that would take an "over the hill airline pilot".

 

[jetblue320]

Jetblue

 

[skirt]

I was on a recent JetBlue flight with a retiring Captain. He got the "hose job" twice! Once at the departure airport and once on arrival. Very cool. Then again, we have only had 3 Captains retire.

Skirt

 

[ProLine4]

DFW still does it. I saw a DL 763ER get one last week. The ATA L-1011 salute mention earlier is something they do for the troops returning from the Middle East.

 

[English]

Aloha pilots get hosed all the time, just not at HNL. So, they'll get hosed leaving a mainland or outer island station.

 

[bafanguy]

The Fire Dept in ATL does the best they can to do the hosing of retiring pilots. On the day of my retirement flight, so many people retired they couldn't keep the trucks filled up. As I neared the entrance to the ramp, no trucks were there so we waited a couple of minutes as we were told they were on the way. You know, like the hotel van !!


After several minutes, one truck came by in the distance at a high rate of speed and disappeared. I couldn't keep the pax in limbo any longer for my purposes so we just went to the gate.

DL has a greeting committee so someone is there to shake your hand and say a few kind words. Had my wife, retired DL buddy ( I had ridden JS on his retirement flight earlier in the year ), an old friend, and my son on board the flight.

Also had my alltime favorite copilot to work with. That was perhaps the nicest part...that a guy would move mountains just to work with you one last time ( or maybe he just wanted to be there to make sure I was actually leaving...I heard the FO's began dancing in the streets ) He also arranged for a very cool CD video of events beginning with the layover the night before...very creative.

I would hope that all retiring guys would get at least some type formal recognition of this event.