Herkflyr

The purpose is that is what the pilot group wanted, as petitioned to their LEC reps, as directed to the MEC Scheduling Committee during the Scheduling Optimization Team and as codified in the contract. It has been in the contractual language for months, and you are just now getting around to mulling it over?

Bottom line is that Vacation Any is a very GOOD thing--it gives more flexibility to more pilots. How is that bad? And please spare me the "it will cost jobs" line. It won't.

Or will YOU be the guy to tell a guy on the cusp of regular or reserve lines "Hey, you just used Vacation Any to get a regular line, but I think you should have just stayed with your fourth week of February crappy vacation AND gotten a reserve line to boot. Trust me, I know better than you what you should want. But hey, by not allowing you to get a regular line, we might hire a kid currently in middle school onto our seniority list (20 years from now) a month or two earlier than he otherwise would have. Isn't that great? Remember, I know better than you, what you should want."

Purple Drank

I agree. I was highly proficient hand-flying heavy 4-engine jets on raw data with no autothrottles when I was hired. Delta has implicitly discouraged hand-flying in every fleet I've been on, more so all the time. I don't consider myself to be proficient at this point. And most guys I fly with are even worse off than I am.

I am fully on board with training no FD/AP in the sim. I'd like to see it more! We should absolutely be adequately (re)trained in the sim first prior to Delta mandating it on the line--a mandate which appears to be forthcoming. Of course there's a cost to Delta associated with that. But they could have avoided that cost by being less obsessive about VNAV/AP-on procedures over the years. Now it's on them to pony up an extra hour or two (or more) in the sim if they expect us to do this on the line. It's the cost of doing business which they--not we--must foot.

If the company continues to push no-FD hand-flying without adequately retraining us, thereby expecting us to become proficient on our own dime on the line...that's a foul.

Xray678

I agree. There would have to be fences or you will destroy the career progression of the bottom half of the list, and put a serious speed bump in the way of the top half.

Ferd149

Bar is, as usual, correct. Remember, we have a status and category list. WB A, NB A, WB B, NB B. Their most senior "job" would be way down our list. I'm sure FTB or Clamp have the overall ratio for AK 737s vs our TOTAL narrowbody fleet. I would suggest it won't be pretty for them, assuming we don't let them wiggle too much as a welcome aboard thingie

I'm not saying that the bottom of the list won't be effected and I do think ALL of their post 2010 hires go below our junior guys, but I like our odds as the surviving carrier and the bigger mofo. Psssssttt I've been on the other side of that equation

80ktsClamp

I say again- when has DL implicitly discouraged hand flying?

I have seen nothing prohibiting you from hand flying except in IMC on an approach below 4000 RVR or an RNAV RNP. Please, provide specific examples.

And FYI- VNAV/managed works the same with the AP on as it does with the AP off, so that doesn't count.

Purple Drank

Has there been a push for AP/FD-off flying on the 744? 330? Or any others? If not...why is it confined to the 88 fleet?

Ferd149

Check......I love ya dearly man but you're not seeing the forest for the trees

One of the reasons I miss narrowbody flying is you have a combination of long and short trips that allow you to "fill up" to the max side of the LCW. I always flew to the low side cuz I'm lazy but thats another discussion.

So, in your example above, I'd be able to fly one less rotation to fill up . That rotation goes into open time needing another pilot, not a fewer pilot

I'll buy ya a beer and draw it out on a napkin..........honest, this is a good thing (says the guy who's used it)

Ferd

forgot to bid

lucky for Alaska we are also too, so they won't have to use the alpa merger policy of win over the acquiring non ALPA pilot group by throwing the ALPA pilots under the bus.

Purple Drank

I found that using VNAV without the FD and AP is like flying a raw data ILS. Have you found otherwise?

It's my perception that if I was to fly without the FD and AP on a checkride, even flawlessly, I would be heavily debriefed.

80ktsClamp

You're flying the brick or the donut and the course, so sure, it's kinda like flying an ILS... but flying a raw data ILS is easy. Shouldn't be a problem.

And note that you stated it is your perception, and it is completely flawed. Why would it be heavily debriefed? Did you violate a policy or procedure by doing so? Did you go outside of tolerances? If you didn't, and I've done it plenty of times as need be, it will be nothing less than a top grade out.