Mid December Comair Interviews

[jstars135]

Has anyone who interviewed in mid-December with Comair heard anything yet? They said 8 to 10 days and its now 2 weeks. I know the wx and various other things may be delaying things, but I'm just curious.

 

[General Lee]

All that info is currently stored in their "computers", and it will be available in 3-6 weeks.......As soon as they find out where all their pilots are located, after some went AWOL during the XMAS storm.......



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[chperplt]

Too funny General.. Always the comic!

Jstars

They say 8-10 days, but it usually takes longer. Don't worry...

 

[srjorion]

Same boat..

I interviewed then and haven't heard anything either. Patiently waiting....

 

[General Lee]

chperplt,


You know I was just joking with that. That computer problem was NOT your fault, and krap happens. But, I would like to hear more about those awol pilots. I know that nobody wants to be stranded for 5 days without communication, but I find 5 days to be a tad bit long. I wasn't stuck that long, so I don't really know the story. Interesting, though.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[chperplt]

General

I know you were joking because it could just as easily happen to Delta. Last time a computer glitch hit you guys it only lasted for half a day and was limited to ATL I believe. Anything can happen to anyone at any time..

I sure hope our CPs don't find out who went AWOL. They don't seem to have any problems trimming the fat when someone does something like that.

 

[V-1]

chperplt,


You know I was just joking with that. That computer problem was NOT your fault, and krap happens. But, I would like to hear more about those awol pilots. I know that nobody wants to be stranded for 5 days without communication, but I find 5 days to be a tad bit long. I wasn't stuck that long, so I don't really know the story. Interesting, though.


Bye Bye--General Lee

Unlike mainline, Comair serves some pretty remote areas with extremely limited airline service. Some of those cities only have 2-3 Comair flights per day. All it takes is for a crew to fly in for an overnight and the originating crew to take their airplane...then they're stuck there because a storm hits Cincinnati (Comair's only domicile), all he11 breaks loose after the beads from the abacus crew scheduling uses start rolling around the floor, and every flight to their location is cancelled for three days. Then, after management realizes the only way to put the abacus back together is to get everyone to quit chasing the beads around, they shut the airline down completely for two days.

I don't believe there were that many awol flight crewmembers...though it may appear so at first glance. When the train started coming off the tracks, scheduling started assigning trips to crewmembers in the computer...then didn't bother to call those crewmembers to notify them of the assignment (even if the crewmembers were sitting at home). Guess what...you're now AWOL.

I am aware of at least two crews that were stranded in one of the exotic destinations Comair serves...one crew had been there five days, the other had been there six days, before they were finally got an airplane and were finally allowed (almost twelve hours after that airplane arrived) to ferry back to Cincinnati with the crew who brought that airplane in.

 

[JetPilot_Mike]

I am aware of at least two crews that were stranded in one of the exotic destinations Comair serves...one crew had been there five days, the other had been there six days, before they were finally got an airplane and were finally allowed (almost twelve hours after that airplane arrived) to ferry back to Cincinnati with the crew who brought that airplane in.

Man, I hope they found a good bar.

 

[Broke in CVG]

People aren't going awol... they're loosing them!

The problem was that crew scheduling was either not answering their phones, it was busy, or they would pick up and then hang up immediately.... for three days straight!!! I was stuck for three days. We had Xmas diner at the Shell station and mailed a postcard to Comair. We had three crews and two planes.

Dear Crew Scheduling,
We are in XXXXX. Please get us home.
Merry Christmas

On day two they called my house and my girlfriend told them we were in at the hotel. On day three we got a call from a Capt volunteer who was going down the list of all our overnight hotels one by one asking them for any Comair crewmembers. Later that afternoon scheduling called back with the flight assignment back.

It's still taking hours, literarly, to get ahold of scheduling. They deadhead you to an outstation without a FO or FA. Give you a trip that has you FAA duty timing out the minute you get back with 25 min turns all day and thus zero margin of error. And then they assigned you to a dead head for a flight were the indbound has allready canceled. When I asked them if they wanted us to work the outbound in the morning since we had a plane and crew, they said no and assigned a DH to a later flight. I told them I was going to bed and unpluging the phone, is that their final answer? Yep. Guess what when I got up and plugged in the phone their were two messages to get to the airport and work the flight ASAP (three ours late).

Now when ever crew schedling calls, I am just going to pick it up and hang it up over and over!!!! What comes around goes around.

 

[V-1]

I'm glad scheduling finally called you with a plan.

As for the post card, we haven't gotten mail at our CVG area home since last Wednesday. I don't know if they've received it yet.

 

[skyslug]

I just got mail today! After a week...all I got were 2 pieces of mail! And one of them wasn't mine...

As for the supposed "AWOL" crew members. Many were told by the CP's or their Supervisors to go home after asked if they could. However I think things were so chaoitc that none of these messages got to scheduling therefore scheduling didn't really know where some folks were.

I don't believe anyone knowlingly bolted without telling someone (sked, CP, Supervisor, etc) and getting permission at first.

 

[srjorion]

Finally!

I just received the congratulations letter in the mail. I hope everyone else waiting gets their good news today as well.

 

[Looking4Traffic]

Congrats srjorian on the news.


Re: AWOL, there's plenty of stories - here's just one example:

I was told on the 23rd (after everything I was flying was cancelled on the 22nd) to deadhead on Delta's 19:05 to Manchester so that I could work the 6:00 a.m. Comair flight back to CVG. Here's the unofficial record of my three calls with scheduling:

(1) at 15:00 when scheduling first called: "Are you sure you want me to go to Manchester? The morning flight will be late to accommodate my 8:00 hour rest requirement and there won't be any equipment to fly in Manchester so it will be cancelled anyway." Reply: "Yes, we want you to go to Manchester."

(2) at 18:30 when I realized that the other two required crew members were not at the Delta deadhead flight: "Are you sure you want me to go to Manchester? The other crew members won't be there and the Comair flight that would bring the airplane into Manchester has been cancelled." Reply: "Yes, we want you to go to Manchester."

(3) at 22:00, after the Delta deadhead flight had been delayed for three hours: "Are you sure you want me to go to Manchester? With eight hours of rest, that flight won't be leaving until the afternoon, even if we had the required crew and airplane present, which we won't." Reply: "Why are you going to Manchester? Would you mind running back to concourse C? We were just about to cancel a Little Rock flight because we don't have a first officer."
Charlie Foxtrot