Hawaiian Airlines Question

[AQ PILOT]

Hey all you HAL guys! Big time congrats on your recent numbers! I can't believe how well your stock is doing! Good for you guys, you needed some sunshine.

What is the status of your furloughees? Have you been recalling any? I had heard a rumor that there was an informal meeting to stop flying the extra hours to get some guys back. Is that true?

When are you guys gonna start your Sydney service? I need to get down there in about 6 weeks...can you be up and running by then ;-)

Seriously though, it is good to see our airlines making money for a change!

 

[AQ PILOT]

Thanks for the info!

Hey Jim,

Well it does sound a little more positive over there. I'm sorry for those other 7 that got their notices, the rumor I had heard circulating around was that guys were turning that extra flying and there already had been recalls. Dang...I was hoping for you guys. Do you know how many total furloughs you have now?

I'm on the same bandwagon you are, don't give any more than you guys already have. You have been drug thru the mud enough. Get that trustee of yours to continue his job and get you back some of the $$ you had to forfeit!

We had a pretty great year over here as well. The economy should be really supporting both companies now. But really, hurry up with the Sydney service! Best of luck to you guys!

 

[HAL]

Furloughs

Right now we have 112 on furlough, with those seven more getting their notice this week.

I'd like to think that the future is bright, but I have my doubts, with the trustee doing everything he can (it seems) to delay getting us out of bankruptcy and growing. I hope the Australia thing is true though, because that would take me back off of furlough. But I'm not holding my breath.

HAL

 

[Hansoma]

I'm not holding my breath either. At 500 bucks an hour our trustee doesn't have a whole lot of incentive to get things done real fast, if you know what I mean!

Hey HAL, find any holes in your plane latley?

MH

 

[HAL]

Hey HAL, find any holes in your plane latley?

MH

Not yet, but it was -40 out there this morning. I think my eyelids were frozen shut until we reached cruising altitude. And if I find any the size you did, I'm turning around and going back to bed!

Find any gold this year?

HAL

 

[Hansoma]

Not enough to quit my day job....wait a minute, I don't have a day job, what am I thinking!

 

[AQ PILOT]

Uh oh, what kinda holes are you guys talking about? You guys think Gotbaum is just trying to squeeze as much money as he can out of HA before he moves on?

 

[HAL]

Uh oh, what kinda holes are you guys talking about?

Just an incident we had on a DC-10 in ANC a couple years ago when I was FO and Hansoma was FE. An inside story.

HAL

 

[Hansoma]

Dang!! I wanted to use that one!!

 

[AQ PILOT]

rog the inside story....

we all have a few inside stories eh? well, i sure hope the new G man aint trying to just line his pockets and those of his flunkies. you guys have had enough! best wishes to you guys over there....happy holidays!

 

[Hansoma]

The incident.

Since you asked here’s what happened. We were going from ANC to HNL one winter morning. It was one of those charters we used to do before all the cut backs. Like HAL said before, I was the FE, he was the FO. We had one of our better captains with us, which was good since the weather was kind of crummy, not really unusual for ANC in the winter. Snow, ice, fog, braking action poor the whole thing. Nothing against ANC but we were really looking forward to our overnight. So we start off. Immediately the thing starts swerving from left to right and I have to grab the seat in front of me. I look at the guys in front and they kind of shrug it off and we keep going. Things just keep getting worse as we go faster though. We hit some bumps at the intersection and kind of slid sideways for a second, pointing at the snow bank on the left side, that’s when I hear the flight attendants tell everyone to assume the crash position! I look back at the guys up front and give them the “WTFO!” look. Then I looked forward through the window and see the end coming up, HOLY CRAP we’re going fast! So now he hits the brakes and we start slowing down but I’m sure there’s no way we’re going to stop in time. We pass another intersection, more swerving, more yelling from the back, the last intersection goes by…Finally, we come to a stop with just about an inch remaining! Nobody moved and there was dead silence for a minute or so as we just sort of sat there. I know I was thanking my lucky stars and I’m sure HAL and our captain were doing the same. All of a sudden the van driver slides open the side door, scaring the crap out of us again and says “Have a safe trip, see you next time! Be careful, the sidewalk is icy.”

 

[AQ PILOT]

very classic story....you had me all the way to the end!

 

[Hansoma]

Ok, since I got you on that one, I'll tell you the real story. After we survived the van ride, on my walk around I found some damage to the right horizontal stablizer. Apparently when the inbound crew landed they hit a chunck of ice left behind on the runway by one of the snow plows. It got thrown up by the main gear and left a soft ball sized hole in the leading edge. The flight got delayed while they flew another airplane up and that was that. The scariest part about the whole thing was we had to ride in the van 2 more times before we could leave!

 

[AQ PILOT]

Ugly! Did maintenance not catch it on their walkaround? Good eye...i wonder how she would have flown...prob no diff eh?

 

[HAL]

It was mid December when it happened, so very dark in ANC. But that was no reason for maintenance to miss that big a hole. They weren't doing their job that day, but hansoma caught it! And personally, I think it was bigger than softball sized too, with a nice big dent all around it. Pretty much took up the entire leading edge of the stabilizer.

HAL