Flex 20
Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2002
- Posts
- 17
In light of the many scathing remarks directed at 9E and reluctance of a couple of my fellow flagshippers own up to what is in fact true, I offer the following opinions:
FLG3701 Crash - While the NTSB report has not been published and I technically do not know all the details, I know enough to admit that this crew (primarily the CA) likely fu#$ed up in many ways. Allegedly slow below our LRC schedule (250/.70M), slow below green line, slow below 200 KIAS, slow until the ignition activates (precursor to the shaker), get the shaker and finally the flameout and pusher, all while the low-speed cue had to be creeping right below the mach number. And while I deeply sympathize with the pilots' families, I am pi$$ed off for the way their irresponsible, ignorant, and selfish acts have cast a poor light on Pinnacle. To blame 9E mgmt is a cop out. Any self-respecting pilot knows his/her equipment, its limitations, inherent warning signs, and most importantly how to utilize all available resources (in this case the FMS PERF INIT cruise altitude check, and the Climb Tables) to safely complete a flight in any conditions, including not going. This crash, more than anything, is the reason my peers at NWA and XJ look at me in the terminal and wonder if I know my head from my a$$ in the CRJ. Do I blame them? Not entirely, but it sure sucks to be judged on someone else's mistakes.
Pilot ineptitude - We have some tools here. The 10% rule sometimes feels like 15% or 20%. I am often embarassed by the image this minority percentage of our group puts forth in public (although appearance does not indicate unsafe); and I have flown with 2 CA's whom with my family will not trust their lives. HOWEVER, I cannot say enough about the higher group percentage. Professional, competent, good people. It is this majority that makes me proud, despite recent occurences, to be associated with this pilot group. People forget we have 50-60 NWA furloughees and many CA's (most of them junior, myself included) that came over from other quality 121 operations. This is not a purebred redneck operation.
Low-time F/Os - Arguably every regional airline in this country has hired significant numbers of low-time (say <1000 hours) pilots via bridge programs, internships, training acadamies, etc. I was hired in 2001 by the largest US regional jet operator with <600 hours and they were hiring bunches of them! My second jet regional was doing the same. And now Pinnacle is doing it. I DO agree that the GIA program is different based on the money changing hands, but I do not feel like taking up that issue tonight. Each of the 3 incompetent First Officers I have flown with at 9E were GIA grads. So part of me wonders if they would have been hired without the GIA key; I will never know. I am not happy that I felt like a babysitter on these thankfully short trips. HOWEVER, the remaining 30 or so GIA grads were at worst competent, at best fantastic, with zero significant issues. Sooooo...are our GIA F/Os incompetent as a whole? Not unless you think the 10% rule should be the 2% rule.
Training - It is an understatement to say the training program as a whole needs to be and easily could be vastly improved. The new-hire and upgrade ground school is an absolute FAA-check-the-box joke. But does this program inherently produce uninformed and reckless pilots? No way. CPTs and sims, at least in my experience, are on par with what I experienced in previous 121 training. More sims would definitely be welcome. The company can and should do a better job of communicating policies, but every Captain has the tools at his disposal to make informed and safe decisions. Period. Our CRJ operations manual was written by pilots furloughed from DAL and NWA who were previous CRJ CA's. A few gray areas exist if you nitpick, but the structure is undoubtably in place to keep us safe at a minimum, very well informed at a maximum.
In short, 9E is not the model place to work and we have some idiot pilots and workrule issues. The recent actions of 2 alleged geniuses has brought these shortcomings to light.
But as I thumb through my logbook, there are countless guys and guys that I shared a cockpit with that I either don't remember (not a bad thing) or have great respect for.
Fire away.
FLG3701 Crash - While the NTSB report has not been published and I technically do not know all the details, I know enough to admit that this crew (primarily the CA) likely fu#$ed up in many ways. Allegedly slow below our LRC schedule (250/.70M), slow below green line, slow below 200 KIAS, slow until the ignition activates (precursor to the shaker), get the shaker and finally the flameout and pusher, all while the low-speed cue had to be creeping right below the mach number. And while I deeply sympathize with the pilots' families, I am pi$$ed off for the way their irresponsible, ignorant, and selfish acts have cast a poor light on Pinnacle. To blame 9E mgmt is a cop out. Any self-respecting pilot knows his/her equipment, its limitations, inherent warning signs, and most importantly how to utilize all available resources (in this case the FMS PERF INIT cruise altitude check, and the Climb Tables) to safely complete a flight in any conditions, including not going. This crash, more than anything, is the reason my peers at NWA and XJ look at me in the terminal and wonder if I know my head from my a$$ in the CRJ. Do I blame them? Not entirely, but it sure sucks to be judged on someone else's mistakes.
Pilot ineptitude - We have some tools here. The 10% rule sometimes feels like 15% or 20%. I am often embarassed by the image this minority percentage of our group puts forth in public (although appearance does not indicate unsafe); and I have flown with 2 CA's whom with my family will not trust their lives. HOWEVER, I cannot say enough about the higher group percentage. Professional, competent, good people. It is this majority that makes me proud, despite recent occurences, to be associated with this pilot group. People forget we have 50-60 NWA furloughees and many CA's (most of them junior, myself included) that came over from other quality 121 operations. This is not a purebred redneck operation.
Low-time F/Os - Arguably every regional airline in this country has hired significant numbers of low-time (say <1000 hours) pilots via bridge programs, internships, training acadamies, etc. I was hired in 2001 by the largest US regional jet operator with <600 hours and they were hiring bunches of them! My second jet regional was doing the same. And now Pinnacle is doing it. I DO agree that the GIA program is different based on the money changing hands, but I do not feel like taking up that issue tonight. Each of the 3 incompetent First Officers I have flown with at 9E were GIA grads. So part of me wonders if they would have been hired without the GIA key; I will never know. I am not happy that I felt like a babysitter on these thankfully short trips. HOWEVER, the remaining 30 or so GIA grads were at worst competent, at best fantastic, with zero significant issues. Sooooo...are our GIA F/Os incompetent as a whole? Not unless you think the 10% rule should be the 2% rule.
Training - It is an understatement to say the training program as a whole needs to be and easily could be vastly improved. The new-hire and upgrade ground school is an absolute FAA-check-the-box joke. But does this program inherently produce uninformed and reckless pilots? No way. CPTs and sims, at least in my experience, are on par with what I experienced in previous 121 training. More sims would definitely be welcome. The company can and should do a better job of communicating policies, but every Captain has the tools at his disposal to make informed and safe decisions. Period. Our CRJ operations manual was written by pilots furloughed from DAL and NWA who were previous CRJ CA's. A few gray areas exist if you nitpick, but the structure is undoubtably in place to keep us safe at a minimum, very well informed at a maximum.
In short, 9E is not the model place to work and we have some idiot pilots and workrule issues. The recent actions of 2 alleged geniuses has brought these shortcomings to light.
But as I thumb through my logbook, there are countless guys and guys that I shared a cockpit with that I either don't remember (not a bad thing) or have great respect for.
Fire away.
