baseball

Why are express RJ's parking at mainline gates? The entire ramp operation the other day was a cluster-puck.

I feel that management is trying to "mix in" the RJ's into the maiinline operation in order to change our opinions about their product and to integrate their brand. The long term play is to make mainline pilots more accepting of the RJ operation and therefore more apt to accept relaxation of scope.

I do feel that we have too many RJ's cluttering up the ramp. It's a mess.

baseball

This came up when Zullo was in scheduling Committee and Rick Muir was on negotiating committee. This concept only existed pre-merger at Continental. Management informed the union of their intentions, and the union went along with it. It also saves on 117 times, etc.

Hatesheavys

not arguing any of that, he got in a sh&tstorm over it. Fact is they start to measure onetime pressure vs issues like that. In fact a FSAP won’t protect you from early brake release, it’s an intentional violation of the FOM.

JoePatroni

Is the guy who decided safety is predicated on a verbal push clearance the same guy who decided everyone needs a vest?

baseball

Dispatch doesn't give us add fuel to help make up for delays that aren't baked into the cake. We gotta fly fast to overcome some silly ramp issue or some silly computer program that holds the flight. of course the flights are gonna be late. But I am not dropping the hammer down if I ain't got the gas to do it.

Grumble

How would calling for, and getting push clearance have prevented this?

If the ground handlers are in position and say a/c clear, they’re ready for brake release and capture, the current wording in the FOM is nothing more than a self imposed limitation in on time performance.

Poss

This policy was instituted during bankruptcy. Time was money during those days. Now, time is perception.

Regularguy

Why do you care about on time?

The only thing starting the flight clock/releasing brakes early does is Possibly add a few minutes of pay time. The airplane still won’t move until everything is clear, the cabin ready and you have received push clearance.

The whole “on time” issue could be resolved by changing a number of policies and schedule planning. However, you and I fly airplanes and not these areas, so as long as I’m ready with all preflight duties completed on time it’s their fault.

Web265

HOW DARE THEY!

That's some serious conspiracy theory thinking there....of course it doesn't mean it's wrong...

Take that flying back to mainline!

Now, where'd I park that RJ.....

baseball

If you look at the change in ACARS architecture that should show you what I mean. When CAL changed it it used to read: Out, Off, On, In.

The company had put out memos about the change. Their intent was to capture the wheel spin up time. At that time, and only that time was the company wanting to start the pilots pay time. So, you get push clearance, but due to congestion, or other factors airplane doesn't move, or doesn't move very fast and you don't "spin up the wheels" then you don't get paid.

Naturally, that didn't fly. I don't fully recall circumstances that led to CAL management relenting on that, but that changed to "crew time." What's that mean?

I think ALPA should simply go in and demand out, off, on, in in what ACARS records and transmits. I also noticed that upon releasing the brakes on my last two trips, my out time on the clock recorded as one minute later, and not the time I released brakes. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if this is a trend across the various fleets, or just a few one off events that I noticed.

How many other carriers out there record different ACARS times? and for what purpose?

Bigger picture: we don't control how the airline schedules, nor how they run their ramp, or assign gates. The RJ operation does have a big effect on both the quality of the product and it's overall reliability. I think we need to stay engaged on what the company is doing with our ACARS clocks and insure our pay isn't being manipulated. Make sure we follow SOP's to ensure safety of ground personnel. When push crew asks me to release brakes I do. If they don't ask, I ask them. Once I get clearance to release brakes then that's good enough for me.