JumpCaptain
I love tacos!
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2006
- Posts
- 183
I'm on my 3rd regional and suffice it to say, I have seen a lot of Ops at a lot of airports. NOWHERE is worse than United Ops at the A gates in IAD!!!
I have to laugh when I hear some guys complain about ATL (delta) or LGA (USair). Been there, done that. No comparison! I think I have seen it all at that place.
-Once, we had a deffered APU. Dispatch called ahead to tell them we needed ground power. I called in range. I called on the ground. As we pull up to the gate I can see the big red tag on the broken ground power receptical. Of course we have to leave one engine burning, so after a minute the rampers start yelling at us in Farsi and pointing at the engine as though we somehow had forgotten to turn it off. Then they pull a stairway up right in front of our running engine. Took me almost an hour to explain to ops what the problem was and to get them to tug us to another gate.
-Another time we were getting ready to close up when the ramper brings the paperwork up and says, "Captain, when I was loading the bags, I though Raul was counting and when Raul was loading the bags, he thought I was counting. So, we don't know how many bags. Is this okay?" Then he hands us a Load Report with a question mark in the baggage column.
-Another time, we get to the plane and tell Ops over the radio that we're ready to board. Ops says, "ok". Five minutes later a ramper comes out and asks if we're ready to board. We say, "yes". Five minutes later another ramper comes up and asks if we're ready to board. Again we say, "Yes, we've already told two other people. Please send the passengers!". Another five minutes pass and finally an angry supervisor comes out and says, "What's the deal here guys!!? Why aren't you ready to board!!?".
Sorry to drag on, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could honestly type another ten pages on all the stupidity I have seen at that place. The biggest problem there is that nobody talks to anybody else, so If you call Ops and ask for something, they will tell you, "Copy!" and then do nothing about it. They might as well say, "Go F- yourself", but I don't think there english is good enough.
I have to laugh when I hear some guys complain about ATL (delta) or LGA (USair). Been there, done that. No comparison! I think I have seen it all at that place.
-Once, we had a deffered APU. Dispatch called ahead to tell them we needed ground power. I called in range. I called on the ground. As we pull up to the gate I can see the big red tag on the broken ground power receptical. Of course we have to leave one engine burning, so after a minute the rampers start yelling at us in Farsi and pointing at the engine as though we somehow had forgotten to turn it off. Then they pull a stairway up right in front of our running engine. Took me almost an hour to explain to ops what the problem was and to get them to tug us to another gate.
-Another time we were getting ready to close up when the ramper brings the paperwork up and says, "Captain, when I was loading the bags, I though Raul was counting and when Raul was loading the bags, he thought I was counting. So, we don't know how many bags. Is this okay?" Then he hands us a Load Report with a question mark in the baggage column.
-Another time, we get to the plane and tell Ops over the radio that we're ready to board. Ops says, "ok". Five minutes later a ramper comes out and asks if we're ready to board. We say, "yes". Five minutes later another ramper comes up and asks if we're ready to board. Again we say, "Yes, we've already told two other people. Please send the passengers!". Another five minutes pass and finally an angry supervisor comes out and says, "What's the deal here guys!!? Why aren't you ready to board!!?".
Sorry to drag on, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could honestly type another ten pages on all the stupidity I have seen at that place. The biggest problem there is that nobody talks to anybody else, so If you call Ops and ask for something, they will tell you, "Copy!" and then do nothing about it. They might as well say, "Go F- yourself", but I don't think there english is good enough.
