Piedmont - Union says airline offered pilots 'free pass' on checkrides

[ualdriver]

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/03/07/979524/piedmont-denies-deal-to-uncover.html

Interesting story. How much of it is true, if anything?


Piedmont denies 'deal' to uncover whistle-blowers

Union says airline offered pilots 'free pass' on tests

by Tom Precious
News Albany Bureau
Updated: March 07, 2010,


ALBANY — Piedmont Airlines has offered its pilots a "free pass" on required, annual safety training that tests their flying skills in return for providing names of fellow pilots who anonymously raised concerns to The Buffalo News in January about an airline safety device, its pilot union has charged.

 

[OPECJet]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

 

[WSurf]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

True True...

 

[kf4amu]

I can definitely see him taking any negative attacks on the training dept personally (like the Buffalo news story re: Piedmont not having stick pusher training), so I can see him being human and expressing how much he would like to get rid of pilots who insulted his first born son, the PDT training dept. But he is known to exaggerate a lot of things to get his point across, so something in this case was obviously different.

He's a tough instructor but I think he's fair and goes to bat for pilots all the time. I actually look forward to, and enjoy having CQ with him because I know I will learn way more than just the FAA minimum required.

I sure hope he doesn't get screwed.

 

[zasca]

A couple of times amongst friendly pilots as a joke is one thing. Doing it repeatedly to every pilot he saw in that period equals harassment in my book. Tongue-in-cheek or not. His mouth gets in the way of his job way too much...

 

[Captzaahlie]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

The guy in question is a little emotional at times but I back everything Opecjet just said above.

 

[DASH8AV8R]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

I could not have said it better myself Dan. Very True.

 

[RobCat]

He might have said it, but I highly doubt he meant it. He's a pretty emotional kind of guy and might have taken the original Buffalo article personally.

I've taken many checkrides with that guy running the sim. I wouldn't hesitate to put my wife and son on an airplane flown by a crew he signed off.

This particular check airman catches a lot of crap, but will go down in flames on your behalf if you are right. I watched him threaten to resign on the spot because of the way another pilot was being treated. He was dead serious about it too and that sort of action from him carries a bit of weight. He has personally flown the last leg of a trip for me so I could make an earlier commuting flight. Most important, I never came out of the sim when he was running it and NOT learned something valuable.

I agree 100%. This guy would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.

 

[Quack]

ah jon boy...yeah got a mouth the size of the grand canyon and behind all his little quirks he's a good guy that would do anything to help out a line pilot...

 

[Booker]

Concur with the sentiments above. He was one of the couple who I actually respected in the training department.