Originally Posted by alfaromeo

No that is not my counter argument. Your analysis would be accurate if Delta flew one day per month. Here is my counter argument.

On a micro level you can look at it like this. Let's say Delta has to cover 20 rotations in a month. At first they are 8 hour legs and 16 roundtrip. If the ALV is 80, each pilot could fly 5 round trips a month, so you would need 4 pilots to cover each position. If you increase the block time by 25% to 10 hours each way, then each pilot could only cover 4 round trips and you would need 5 pilots to cover each positions. Not surprisingly a 25% increase in block hours equates to a 25% increase in pilots required.

How many aircraft does it take to fly the above examples. I don't care if it's 10 aircraft or 50. That is management's job to figure out. Pilots fly block hours. Our ALV is in hours, our TLV is in hours, our pickup limit is in hours. Not once do you see the aircraft count in any of those formulae.

On a macro level, if you churn through all the items in the Manning formula, you would come up with an average block hours/pilot/month. Let's say it's 60, that number is close but let's just use 60. From you example if you had 150 aircraft at 8.1 hours per leg you would generate 150 x 16.2 x 30 hours per month or 72,900 hours. At 60 hours per pilot that would be 1215 pilots per position. If you upped the block hours to 11.9 per leg you have 150 x 23.8 x 30 = 107,100 hours. At 60 hours per, you would have 1785 pilots. Not shockingly, a 47% increase in block hours equates to a 47% increase in pilots required.

You are confusing how many pilots it takes to fill up a month's schedule to how many are flying on one day. In your example, there would be an identical number of pilots flying on each day. However, in the higher block hour example, pilots would run out of hours in fewer days. Hence, a 777 pilot might get 80 hours in 9 days and a 717 pilot might take 14 but they both fly 80 hours.

In all of these examples, management must decide how many aircraft it takes to fly their schedule. Block hours = pilot jobs. Period.

Originally Posted by johnso29

On a local level, I don't like ALV+15 for NB guys. I think it should've been WB reserves only. I'd also like to see the ADG exemption for late reports/early arrivals go away.

Originally Posted by johnso29

On a National level the $36,000 oil portrait is stupid. I'm happy the DTW resolution to change the policy made it to the top. LM thinks it's stupid too. Which is why one of him hasn't been made. He just wanted a digital pic blown up.

Originally Posted by johnso29

There's a quick few.

Originally Posted by scambo1

How do you get exploded head off the computer screen.

I know, I'll wipe it off with Denny's chick's dress. I just have to get TYG's nose out of the way.

Originally Posted by DAL73n

I haven't seen too much about the announcement of the Surface 2 as our new electronic flight kit. The Surface RT (original Surface) was a failure as a consumer device and Microsoft had to take a $900 million writeup and dropped the price by 30%. The Surface 2 uses the same basic chassis BUT it is still ARM (not x86) based and has a very limited number of applications. Most tech pundits think it is Dead on Arrival sales wise due to it's price ($449) competing directly with the iPad. Although Microsoft has ample resources to continue building and selling this there are new x86 compatible small Windows tablets that will run all the new touchscreen (Metro) applications AND still run regular Windows Software (Office, Quicken, Chrome, iTunes, etc.) and ASUS is putting one out for $349 (32 GB storage) WITH keyboard or $399 (64 GB storage). The $449 Surface 2 does not come with a keyboard at that price and the keyboard options are all over $100. I pray that Delta got a killer price for this and the flight attendant's Lumia phones. It's hard to believe they went through a separate certification process when the rest of the EFB are all iPad based. We will see.

Originally Posted by Carl Spackler

Your statement was: "ALPA has its wrongs." I asked you to name one. You give two contract items that you don't like. Thats not an ALPA "wrong."

Originally Posted by Carl Spackler

As you say, there are no oil paintings anymore, so that's not an ALPA wrong either.

Originally Posted by flyallnite

This is more about some VP at Microsoft getting a bonus than it is about line pilots being issued a quality, proven, and useful device that will be supported by the manufacturer. I can't wait to see how useless this thing will be.