Originally Posted by slowplay

I wouldn't consider Yosemite right now. There's a fire burning in Madera that has the valley partially obscured, plus it has been an incredibly dry 3 years. It's best done when the valley is smoke free and the waterfalls are running heavily.

Yellowstone in August is pretty awesome for kids because of the amount of wildlife viewing available. Hayden Valley will still have lots of bison and elk that are easy to see. Up in the northeast corner of the park the grizzlies are moving pretty well. If they like this kind of stuff you can join horse tours near Roosevelt lodge, and there are plenty of waterfalls still moving adequately for a show. They'll get a kick out of the geysers (and their smell) as well.

If you have military affiliation make sure you bring ID. Most cards get you in for free. Also, if you're driving at dusk or just after dark, be careful. The deer play a game of "try to wreck the tourist cars" on the 2 lane park roads with limited sight distances. Might want to consider "walk away" protection for your rental car.

Originally Posted by 80ktsClamp

Just read that.... I like it!

Save the whales!

Originally Posted by sailingfun

I would love to see them stay but it goes against what the company put out to the MEC last week. The good news was they planned to increase the 777 and 330 time to offset the 4 whales. Also going to have 3 A330 IGW's on the property for the summer schedule instead of two. The numbers were compelling on a financial bases to park them and I suspect the rest of the fleet might get parked sooner rather then later.

Originally Posted by BlaneO

Is there a certain time period you have to be an employee (30 days?) before family members can start flying standby?

Originally Posted by DAL 88 Driver

I don't really disagree with you on that. I don't think DPA is going to ever get a vote, so I'd like to see us at least try to fix ALPA and get focused on restoring this profession instead of accepting a lower value as the standard. A monumental task for sure, but I'm not one to give up. A good start would be recalling Lee Moak after the stupid stuff he said in that Bloomberg article. Next step would be recalling my reps because they supported what he said.

Originally Posted by DAL 88 Driver

Not really. $100/hour pay cut in buying power @ 1000 hours of credit per year = $100K. $100/hour cut is just about exactly where the buying power of my current rate is. I'd say that's a pretty good average over each of the past 10 years. And that's not even accounting for loss of pension benefit and other significant cost increases like cost of medical. Of course, that's somewhat offset by profit sharing... which is a relatively small drop in the bucket compared to all of the above. So I'll bet $100K/pilot/year is probably not too far off.

And BTW, I'm not suggesting we be repaid for that. I consider the approx. $1 million I've contributed so far to Delta's recovery to be water under the bridge at this point. Pretty generous contribution, don't you think? All I'm suggesting is that things should be made right going forward. In light of the restructuring of our industry (which should facilitate more consistent profits and less dramatic cycles going forward) and the record profits our company is enjoying, I think I'm being extremely generous and more than reasonable.




No doubt we're the "prettiest put in an ugly litter." But I wouldn't put my money with the guys who have accepted bankruptcy as a reset, just because they came out on top of all the other losers.




I don't really disagree with you on that. I don't think DPA is going to ever get a vote, so I'd like to see us at least try to fix ALPA and get focused on restoring this profession instead of accepting a lower value as the standard. A monumental task for sure, but I'm not one to give up. A good start would be recalling Lee Moak after the stupid stuff he said in that Bloomberg article. Next step would be recalling my reps because they supported what he said.

Originally Posted by APCLurker

Thanks for the responses scambo, slowplay, 80, mesabah, daldude.

Had heard mention in the news of the fires near Yosemite and had done some research/called the park. They said "only" the south entrance road is closed. But good points on the smoke issue, as well as the drought and lack of waterfall action. Think we have ruled Yosemite out for this trip.

Trying to find lodging has been fun......

Added Rocky Mountain National park to the list as well.

Originally Posted by Hillbilly

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a certification drive and vote by pilots does not appear on a court docket anywhere. That was not a court case in which there was a lawsuit filed by Seham against ALPA in which he won. You haven't answered the question.

I also do not know the answer. Get back to us when you aren't restricted by your iPhone and have the chance to provide more details.