General Lee
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2002
- Posts
- 20,442
Hey, I'm back from a 12 day vacation to the South Pacific. My wife found a great deal on the internet with Air New Zealand------Fly from LAX on one of their 767-300s to Auckland(they also have nonstops on their 747-400s), and be able to stop at any island they fly to either one way or both ways. My wife knew that I was spending too much time on this board, and knew I had some vacation---so we non-reved to LA and then went to Papeete, Tahiti first for 3 days, then rainy Auckland for 4, and then back through Nadi, Fiji for a few. The islands were all nice, but New Zealand was rather wet---but verdant at the same time. I was able to secretly find an internet cafe once in Nadi, and I saw the "Where is General Lee?" post, but I didn't have my access code......Thanks for all of you support?????
It's late here in ATL, and I will have to catch up tomorrow on what has been going on so I can give MY SPIN on things, but---I did want to refute atleast one thing FINS said---about Delta pilots averaging 41 hours of flying a month. I am sure he understands that Delta is a little less efficient compared to Southwest due to their single aircraft type. Those guys go to initial training once, then recurrents each year, and then an upgrade class probably. We, on the otherhand, have many types of planes, and our pilots constantly switch aircraft types--resulting in long 6 week schools. Then throw another two or three weeks to schedule IOE etc, and the pilot is out two months or so. We might have hundreds and hundreds of pilot in training at one time, and that brings down the average. Add vacation and regular recurrent training, and the lowers the average too. Fins knows that usually everyone wants to be a line holder---so you know your schedule etc.... Well, almost every line has atleast 70-73 hours, and some near our cap at 75. Some reserves do bid to fly little---called a "low yellow"---but most reserves get called often. Also, Delta would not carry too many extra reserves on the larger planes, but rather put them at the smallest plane and stack them at the lowest paying equipment---so they are not wasting reserves on the larger planes. So, what I am trying to say is that "41" number is not accurate.
Well, thanks for the thread---especially ACE757. My wife couldn't believe it, and thought we could escape it on an island---but I proved her wrong. I just can't get enough of Flightinfo.
Bye Bye---General Lee
It's late here in ATL, and I will have to catch up tomorrow on what has been going on so I can give MY SPIN on things, but---I did want to refute atleast one thing FINS said---about Delta pilots averaging 41 hours of flying a month. I am sure he understands that Delta is a little less efficient compared to Southwest due to their single aircraft type. Those guys go to initial training once, then recurrents each year, and then an upgrade class probably. We, on the otherhand, have many types of planes, and our pilots constantly switch aircraft types--resulting in long 6 week schools. Then throw another two or three weeks to schedule IOE etc, and the pilot is out two months or so. We might have hundreds and hundreds of pilot in training at one time, and that brings down the average. Add vacation and regular recurrent training, and the lowers the average too. Fins knows that usually everyone wants to be a line holder---so you know your schedule etc.... Well, almost every line has atleast 70-73 hours, and some near our cap at 75. Some reserves do bid to fly little---called a "low yellow"---but most reserves get called often. Also, Delta would not carry too many extra reserves on the larger planes, but rather put them at the smallest plane and stack them at the lowest paying equipment---so they are not wasting reserves on the larger planes. So, what I am trying to say is that "41" number is not accurate.
Well, thanks for the thread---especially ACE757. My wife couldn't believe it, and thought we could escape it on an island---but I proved her wrong. I just can't get enough of Flightinfo.
Bye Bye---General Lee
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