International Operation

[ussnark]

Are you suggesting that US is using a sub-par version of a IT system. Surely you jest! 🙄

Good answer.

I don't care if they use unusable junk for IT, for after all, that is what "cactus" is slang for in Australia, unusable junk. Seems appropriate.

All I am saying is that Tempe doesn't even compensate for their junk to bring the operation up to what I would consider minimally safe, which results in the real operation overly compensating with needed distractions (but with a competently run management, unnecessary) which can be a safety issue by itself.

 

[ussnark]

We exist to line the pockets of a few.

I wish more pilots could see what is going on.

It is all about concentration of wealth (the basic definition of "free capitalism"), which involves "stealing" (with their own concurrence) money from their own employee's pockets. US and Amateur West management has made a successful business model of walking into employee meetings with their pockets turned inside out, and the employees falling for it, for years.

As long as the employees allow management to measure their success by bonus' and ATA meeting bragging rights, management will continues to fritter away billions of employee concessions on silly, non-aviation "investments".

Demanding accountability would go a long way to turning around this grounded tanker.

 

[autofixer]

I think most pilots do get it...at least in the East. The problem is they are unwilling to take action and do anything about it. It is my opinion, most pilots just want to skate the last couple of years of their "career" and then fade away quietly. The problem is, the goal keeps getting moved down the field and now they are having to live with what they have allowed to be sown for 5 more years.

 

[nycbusdriver]

It certainly can be a safety issue. I can think of a couple of reasons for failure that many would consider grossly unsafe.

The decision to put it in the "cabin safety log" vs cockpit logbook is to diagnose, in advance, the reason for "failure". For management to make that determination "in advance" is pathetic. For crew members to go along with that ceding of rational thought is, IMO, really bad.

Far better to let a qualified person who is charged with actually looking into the situation to make that determination.

Okay...this I really want to hear.

How can an inop oven be a safety issue?

 

[Glucose Intolerant]

Okay...this I really want to hear.

How can an inop oven be a safety issue?

After a 14 hour duty day and not being able to get off the aircraft (due to the "schedule" and over spastic gate agents WEST of Kansas city)....... No longer being able to cook food or bake cookies for the pilots......flight crew experienced a precipitous drop in their blood sugar...............


Or so the Flight attendant's CAN'T bake cookies in F/C .......after Tempe acquired a sizable quantity of E. coli tainted cookie dough (at the insistence of a marketing intern because it was CHEAP). Seems plausible.


Okay - I got nothing

 

[nycbusdriver]

After a 14 hour duty day and not being bale to get off the aircraft (due to the "schedule" and over spastic gate agents WEST of Kansas city)....... No longer being able to cook food or bake cookies for the pilots......flight crew experienced a precipitous drop in their blood sugar...............


Or so the Flight attendant's CAN'T bake cookies in F/C .......after Tempe acquired a sizable quantity of E. coli tainted cookie dough (at the insistence of a marketing intern because it was CHEAP). Seems plausible.


Okay - I got nothing

You're flying with the wrong captain. My crew gets a meal break no matter HOW LATE things are moving along. I just tell the agent that we're getting off the airplane to get food. Any problems, call my chief pilot. And the chief pilot has yet to refrain from backing me up; in fact, I have never been contacted over this decision. I've had self-important shift managers and gate supervisors try to get in my face. I usually end up laughing at them as we walk toward the food court. If they insist on a response, I tell them I DO NOT WORK FOR THEM, THEY ARE NOT MY BOSS and I don't care one whit what they have to say.

 

[ussnark]

How can an inop oven be a safety issue?

What caused it to become inoperative? a short? a water leak? Jammed blower? Inadequate cooling (yes, the marvelous cheapskates at tempe put new oven holders in that block airflow - it is a known issue).

If temporary, what if it begins working again and, this time, it fails like an experiment on mythbusters? The planes are old enough to have failed circuit breakers (assuming Alabama properly replaced them on the last overhaul).

Is that your job to diagnose, meaning assess the degree of anomalous behavior, for something like that?

Yes, perhaps I am too cautious, but the last few years have taught me not to expect rational results with this particular corporation (no experience with others). IMO, there is no reason to not put anything with fire potential in the cockpit logbook and expect at least a mx person look at it.

 

[beachboy]

NYCBUS- I might just like to fly with you yet. 😉 But then again I will call Inflight myself and put my name on the line before we go hungrey. Never hear anything from that either.

 

[hp_fa]

I had one really bad situation arise once as far as crew food.

We were scheduled to fly something like a DFW-LAS-SFO-PHX day and we should have had time to eat based on the schedule. However, it was not too long after 9/11 and it was the first day that TSA was really out in force. DFW also had really bad weather and we had some sort of MX arise once boarded. It was one of those days that everything was going wrong.

We were very late out of DFW and, with passengers boarded we had not been able to get off and didn't think it was a big deal early on. In LAS we were obviously late and they tried to quick turn us and had another delay with pax on board. We were getting hungry but hadn't brought it to the flight decks attention yet. Once we started heading to SFO we were very hungry (like nine hours since food) and brought it to the attention of the flight deck when we got a message that they were going to be pushing again for a fast departure from SFO. We told the guys that either we would get off for 15-20 minutes to get food or they could get us crew meals. When we got to SFO and literally as the door opened and before a single pax had disembarked they handed in three nice lunch sacks from one of the airport food shops. They said it was courtesy of SFO ops, refused our offer of payment and simply asked if we could keep plugging. We thanked them and boarded, eating as fast as we could once airborne. We were thrilled that someone had listened to our issue and addressed it in a meaningful way.

As I said, it was just one of those days all FA's dread and bad situations just kept getting worse. The manager at SFO really helped out and we did our part in return.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I had one really bad situation arise once as far as crew food.

It's interesting to see how good managers handle a situation to the satisfaction of everyone, and poor ones try browbeating and intimidation and end up losing the game.

 

[OldGuyinPA]

Very few good managers. They all live in fear from their regional bosses. Heaven forbid if they are given the authority to think and do outside of the proverbial box.

Happy hour...Doug

 

[SegmentKing]

I got in trouble *many times*, as a supervisor, for ordering food for our crews on quick turns in our station.

::: sigh :::

 

[nycbusdriver]

I got in trouble *many times*, as a supervisor, for ordering food for our crews on quick turns in our station.

::: sigh :::

Then take the delay for the crew to eat and assign the reason to the captain. That way you and your boss are happy, and the captain won't get any heat for it. The passengers might be upset, but simply explain it as the safety issue it is. Give them the choice of a safe arrival at their destination or.... (I won't get into any graphic description, but you get the gist.)

 

[hp_fa]

We didn't much care how the problem was resolved, we just knew that they would resolve it or we would resolve it by stepping off the aircraft as soon as the last passenger was off so that they could not begin board. We were looking for a solution, not a fight.

It was also a case of we were well documented on our day from hell well before we arrived SFO, so they could easily verify what the captain told them when he called in range. They probably knew the whole story well before that.

 

[ussnark]

We were looking for a solution, not a fight.

Things kinda wild westy back then? 🙄