satchip

My guess is not many travel transcontinental by train. The shortest trip via Amtrak NY-LA is 67 hours and goes through DC and Chicago. It's $387. The cheapest was $310 and only stops in Chitown. Go figure

Amtraks website touts increased ridership from DFW to Oak city. Over 80k riders last year. That trip takes 9 hours and costs $35. Most likely way below costs. BTW, it only takes 3hrs 23min according to google to drive from station to station. In my Honda that's less than half a tank of gas.

This is our future if the greenies get their way.

satchip

Any comments on the latest retirement? IN RE the all pilots letter?

capncrunch

Those damn greenies...Protecting the environment, pushing renewable energy, trying to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. They are stupid.

Cycle Pilot

Here it is.

RockyBoy

Yeah....those damn greenies. I hope Delta has to pay a couple billion more per year for carbon credits so we can have a clean environment to live in while we are all unemployed.

There is a fine line here, and there are very few people who have the sense to come to the middle on this subject. I'm still trying to figure out why I can't ride a bicycle in the forest but I can ride a horse which causes way more "damage" than a bicycle?

forgot to bid

I just saw the email, and I'd be curious to hear what those in the know have to say, but to me, a know nothing, the first thing that comes to mind is how many years did he spend in training?!?

Over his 28 year career, he flew as First Officer on the 727, 757, DC10, and 747-200. In 1987, [he] checked out as Captain on the 727 and later upgraded to Captain on the 757, A320, DC10, 747-200, 747-400, and A330. He also served as a Flight Instructor and Line Check Airman on the 727, 757 and DC10 (Senior Line Check Airman) before assuming the role of Chief Pilot -Honolulu in 1999.

shiznit

Some people just aren't satisfied unless they aren't satisfied.

Wow. First, they issue a phone poll to get pilot input. Then, they offer an online poll with more opportunity for pilot input. Do you need the MEC officers to come to your house personally and ask you what you want? Will that be enough to make you happy? Have you offered suggestions to the LEC/MEC/P2P/Communications Committee to come up with better ways to accurately gauge pilot sentiment?

I know this might come as a shock, but you can send your LEC reps email at any time and give input on anything you want? AND there is no limit on the number of words! (Do you also understand that if you write too much in a single webform, it reduces the efficacy your message?)

It is pretty clear that the MEC has directed the appropriate committees to start collecting more information about our wants/needs for the upcoming negotiations.

If a large majority of pilots complete the survey, they can get a valid results from the large sample size and we will see more activity of this nature. Very likely it will be much more targeted to specific subject matters, allowing better input from the pilots and better information to be gathered for use in negotiations. Free-text doesn't allow for nearly as accurate polling results, but knowing the areas that are important will enable specific polling in the "areas of emphasis" which can be then be tailored much better to reflect the things we think are important.

You want the MEC to listen to us; make sure 12000 pilots complete that survey.

Nosmo King

My first comment is that this is bad for the pilot group, especially fNW. GB is always very proactive in helping pilots in any situation. He ended up as the fNW pilot highest up the food chain post-merger.

I thought he would retire out of frustration, but this was about a year earlier than my guesstimate.

Some of his checkouts were done as part of being Chief Pilot in Honolulu.

I am proud to say that he maintained the finest HNL tradition of being a GREAT CP. It was almost like working for a different company based in HNL.

3 out of our 4 HNL CPs flew more line trips than the rest of the CPs combined during their respective tenures. I remember many times GB would jump on a flight from the west coast to HNL and tell the captain (who somehow almost always lived on the west coast) to go home, because he was flying this leg.

Great loss for the pilot group. Very sad to see him retire. Happy for his family.

forgot to bid

if I'm not mistaken, when it comes to wind turbines the coal and nuclear power plants that back them up have to cover 100% of the wind turbines output to the grid 100% of the time since they cannot fluctuate power at the plants and cannot risk a lack of power when the wind stops.

Wind turbines also have a nasty habit of not being able to provide enough power in the summer, icing up in the winter (guess 100 years of aviation and prop ice didn't sway the OEMs to put de-ice systems on the blades), slaughtering birds year round and making people who live near them go mad because of its horrific sound. Off of Martha's Vineyard they were deemed too ugly until a Senator recently passed and now they're on their way in.

Its a give and take.

As to independence from foreign oil, that'd be great, we can start by drilling closer to the shore where the oil is easier to get to then the artifical requirement to go way out into the deep waters of the gulf. Thats if of course indpendence from foreign oil is really the goal...

I'm going to look for a source for that 100% power 100% of the time...

PropNWA

My next door neighbor (a regular Mesaba line pilot) mentioned 6 months ago that all the Saabs were being parked by this summer. I assumed that was common knowledge over there. Maybe it's just the furlough part that's new. That's unfortunate if it's true.