The Airplane Fanatic Thread

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

1 hour ago, DaysOff said:

Went non qualified as of midnight last night. Longest I've gone in almost 30 years without flying. The training center slots appear full of people doing courses from the displacement bids, so I don't know when I'll go up there and do 3 bounces.

We just had our currency extended by exemption something or other. My landing currency is up in July, but I’m now good until August 31st. 

[Your Mom 4982]

I didn't fly all of April, flew one 3-day trip in May.  Now back to a semi-regular schedule for the foreseeable future, Three 3-days for min guarantee.  Loads were 75-90 on every leg on the one I just finished.  Things picking up a little bit.  Of course, that's with half the fleet mothballed.  What I think are attractive early-out and leave packages have been offered.  Hoping that saves my job.  

Edited June 3, 2020 by Your Mom

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

You have the benefit of single sleet ops with limited international exposure and feed, and your customer base isn’t hunting for executive travel perks and lounges. 

The LCC’s/ULCC’s will be the canary in the coal mine imoho. Business/international travel will be last to come back, but rapidly once it does as people are starting to come to terms with the real world lethality and transmission contingencies of Covid. 

That cargo MOU won’t hurt either. Hopefully the furloughs at the big 3 will be short lived. Interestingly, AA may have the least by shear dent of retirement numbers even though they are singularly the worst off financially.  

[DaysOff 8220]

I do wonder what's going through Dougweiser's head. Buying people of the top of the list and replacing them with someone at the same pay grade seems counterintuitive when everyone is trying to stem money from leaving your bucket. It's why U says they're not spending money to make people go away when in cash hoarding mode.

Our safety management system declined extensions for landings and consolidations so June begins a backlog of people needing bounces.

I will say the legacy U contract does make displacement and furlough as painful as possible for the company. Outsourcing of training is prohibited and most of the narrow body instructors are in the furlough danger zone as instructors are capped at 9 year FO pay at best held position. Evaluators are all captains. They need to think hard how deep they want to cut and still have instructors available.

[Longhornmaniac8 255]

At the regional scum level, our July pairings put us at 50% block hours YOY. I was shocked to see that so quickly. Still very much in wait and see mode with respect to potential furloughs, but at just a shade under 75%, I think I'm going to be really close to the cutting line if they do.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

Who knows what Parker is doing? Crisis/BK operations are his wheelhouse so maybe he and his know what they are doing. 

Perhaps the buyouts are just shrinking the size of the bucket now as most of the debt service requirements are a few years off. 

28 minutes ago, Longhornmaniac8 said:

At the regional scum level, our July pairings put us at 50% block hours YOY. I was shocked to see that so quickly. Still very much in wait and see mode with respect to potential furloughs, but at just a shade under 75%, I think I'm going to be really close to the cutting line if they do.

Spoke to some Spirit guys and they’re looking at 50-60% ops in July. The Mouse, cruises and so on coming back online plus pent up demand will probably ignite the leisure market for awhile.  

[DaysOff 8220]

We're planning only a 75% reduction for July as opposed to the 90% down this month. Progress I guess. I'm also one of those idiots that would turn to the FO and say, "with all the retirements there's now way the airlines will furlough again, even another 911". Moron. 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

Well, exactly 0 people saw a pandemic leading to worldwide economic shutdown as a credible scenario. 

Btw, I checked and if you were scheduled to come in to get landing currency before the exemption was given then you will still come in and do them even though the FAA has extended grace to August 31. 

[DaysOff 8220]

Aaand another draconian displacement this morning kicking 1500+ pilots out of their seats. This from the same guy who said we'd be grabbing market share on the back side of this. Cuts way beyond what our peers are doing.

I survived the first two rounds, but I'm hanging on by a thread. Won't survive a third round. Eight years in the left seat probably gone. Poof. Beats bidding Home Depot. Full pay last day, no give backs ever. Public fuck you Scooter. Those AA boys warned us.

[DaysOff 8220]

We're planning only a 75% reduction for July as opposed to the 90% down this month. Progress I guess. I'm also one of those idiots that would turn to the FO and say, "with all the retirements there's now way the airlines will furlough again, even another 911". Moron. 

Although complaint now, on the United side the block hour ratios look back one year everyday. As the year goes on the Express side will be out of our scope compliance by doing more heavy lifting for the mother ship.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

1 hour ago, DaysOff said:

Those AA boys warned us.

I’ve always been fascinated by the cycle of retreads in aviation. 

[Assman 1830]

I have my first trip in 2 months this weekend.  I've pretty much forgotten everything so we'll see how this goes.

[Armybrat 41436]

A bit of WW2 history here... Hope y'all find it interesting.

An English friend's dad was an RAF Lancaster pilot during the war. He flew 27 bombing missions over nazi-occupied Europe before being assigned as an instructor.

On June 5, 1944 he went on a 5 day leave so he missed the D-Day "fun". No leaves were canceled for that date because the allies didn't want to tip the Germans off. He went back on flight duty June 10th.

Anyway, Flight Officer Harvey's Lancaster bomber did get hit by flak pretty bad on one mission, killing one crew member and wounding a couple of others. He did manage to bring his plane home and made a belly landing that the rest of them walked away from. He was 21 years old.

My friend said her dad got out of the RAF in 1953. He still flew around in gliders as a hobby until he was 80. 

Here is a page from his June 1944 log book:

[CycleTex87 3044]

Pretty cool.  Amazing how dry, mundane, matter of fact the logbook looks compared to what they were actually doing. 

[Chad Fuck 18166]

Every couple days he’s giving them hell. Pretty steady work there.

[RPM 26674]

Aye carumba!

[Armybrat 41436]

Cartel cargo pickup?

[Armybrat 41436]

12 hours ago, CycleTex87 said:

Pretty cool.  Amazing how dry, mundane, matter of fact the logbook looks compared to what they were actually doing. 

Nothing like Paris in the summertime.

[Homercles 10206]

On 6/11/2020 at 8:30 AM, RPM said:

Aye carumba!

Made me think of this, just in the opposite phase of flight 

 

[Longhornmaniac8 255]

Did anyone else see the U-2 flying over NW Austin this afternoon at like 1500 feet? Pretty freaking cool. Apparently a funeral flyover for a former U-2 pilot.

[Telegraph_it 3379]

On 6/4/2020 at 10:40 PM, Assman said:

I have my first trip in 2 months this weekend.  I've pretty much forgotten everything so we'll see how this goes.

[Telegraph_it 3379]

On 6/4/2020 at 2:25 PM, DaysOff said:

Aaand another draconian displacement this morning kicking 1500+ pilots out of their seats. This from the same guy who said we'd be grabbing market share on the back side of this. Cuts way beyond what our peers are doing.

I survived the first two rounds, but I'm hanging on by a thread. Won't survive a third round. Eight years in the left seat probably gone. Poof. Beats bidding Home Depot. Full pay last day, no give backs ever. Public fuck you Scooter. Those AA boys warned us.
 

Damn. A few years back I debated whether I should make flying more than a hobby. I decided to keep it a hobby and kind of regretted it until now. 

[StassneyHorn 6790]

Finally Solo’d today in New Braunfels. Had issues with landings for the longest time and never fully understanding how to break it down into two parts. Kept thinking of the flare and touchdown as one continuous motion and would never ride out until the “sinking” part and had hard landings for the longest time. When it wasn’t that, I wasn’t bringing the yoke back far enough. When it wasn’t that I was bouncing. First lesson with a different CFI and he cleared it up literally after watching me go to land after the second attempt. Wish I would’ve done it sooner to save money but the mental wall feels like it’s been knocked over.

No shirt cutting, wore our uniform shirt.

[Your Mom 4982]

Congrats man!  Sometimes just having someone else's explanation of the same topic makes all the difference.  

I soloed in 1995 and remember it like yesterday.  I just about crapped my pants when the window popped open unexpectedly turning base.     

[Homercles 10206]

I’ve heard ATC recordings about busting a Bravo but man this guy is belligerent about it like nothing I’ve seen...just floating along the approach path to McCarron?

 https://onemileatatime.com/atc-audio-negligent-pilot/
 

His Cessna is owned by ‘Wife Approved LLC’ lol

[markstanco 12804]

New SFAR for medical renewals:

[markstanco 12804]

I’ve heard ATC recordings about busting a Bravo but man this guy is belligerent about it like nothing I’ve seen...just floating along the approach path to McCarron?
 https://onemileatatime.com/atc-audio-negligent-pilot/
 
His Cessna is owned by ‘Wife Approved LLC’ lol

What a dumbass. He better not have anything else in the past because if so his license is gone.

Also, didn't know LV was class B.

[Armybrat 41436]

On 6/25/2020 at 6:53 PM, Homercles said:

I’ve heard ATC recordings about busting a Bravo but man this guy is belligerent about it like nothing I’ve seen...just floating along the approach path to McCarron?

 https://onemileatatime.com/atc-audio-negligent-pilot/
 

His Cessna is owned by ‘Wife Approved LLC’ lol

Bet that sumbitch doesn’t wear a mask either.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

3 hours ago, markstanco said:

What a dumbass. He better not have anything else in the past because if so his license is gone.

Also, didn't know LV was class B.

Oh yeah. Busy as hell there. Saw a Pilatus get confused and land on a runway of his choosing, one of the 25’s, proceed to get a chewing and a phone number to call. 

Normal procedure is to have most commercial traffic land 25L and most GA traffic proceed direct to the Stratosphere to join a left base to 19R. 

[markstanco 12804]

Oh yeah. Busy as hell there. Saw a Pilatus get confused and land on a runway of his choosing, one of the 25’s, proceed to get a chewing and a phone number to call. 
Normal procedure is to have most commercial traffic land 25L and most GA traffic proceed direct to the Stratosphere to join a left base to 19R. 

You ever had to write a letter to OKC?

I did once, 5ish years ago. Landing in tulsa and my radio went out so I hit 7600 on the box. Ended up diverting to Jenks since it was 11p and didn't want to get ran over by AA or FedEx.

Another time tower at KTXK saved my ass since I know him, I was getting 3 night landings in for currency and on the 2nd take off i went full aggy and rolled the line and took off with out clearance. As I was about to rotate he said "(tail number) cleared for 22" or whatever the active was.

I called him after I got done and thanked him. He still picks at me to this day (2 weekends ago) about it.

I can tell this cool story bra again if you wish.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

11 hours ago, markstanco said:

You ever had to write a letter to OKC?

I did once, 5ish years ago. Landing in tulsa and my radio went out so I hit 7600 on the box. Ended up diverting to Jenks since it was 11p and didn't want to get ran over by AA or FedEx.

Another time tower at KTXK saved my ass since I know him, I was getting 3 night landings in for currency and on the 2nd take off i went full aggy and rolled the line and took off with out clearance. As I was about to rotate he said "(tail number) cleared for 22" or whatever the active was.

I called him after I got done and thanked him. He still picks at me to this day (2 weekends ago) about it.

I can tell this cool story bra again if you wish.

Nope. I did have my bacon saved when I took off from DFW without clearance one morning at about 2 am on a freight run by the tower crew.

Had to sit through a field investigation once with the FAA, Cessna and Lycoming reps when they were not so subtlety implying that I screwed up when the engine stopped during stall training and we had to do an off airport landing. 

That came to an abrupt end when they pulled the plane out of the field and the engine wouldn’t idle after starting, and they found the majority of the training fleet had the same , though less severe, issue. 

The LAS incident was an owner operator that didn’t spend much time around big airports. I saw him at Signature because we landed right after him. He probably should have considered Henderson or North Las Vegas instead. 

Edited June 28, 2020 by Bobby_Batronic

[Armybrat 41436]

So, I hear the Boeing Max flew its certification tests yesterday. Wonder how long it’ll take to get approval?

I can imagine Airbus is lobbying to drag it out for overseas certification?

Edited July 4, 2020 by Armybrat

[markstanco 12804]

Did my 3C medical today. The doc had me lay on the table and check for (i would guess) hernias. Never had that before. New directive?

[Homercles 10206]

Question for turbine pilots...landing recently on an E175, heard what sounded like ice flowing down towards the rear of the aircraft in the ventilation system.  It started on decent during what I assumed was flight idle and continued while taxiing.  
 

Would the ACM freeze up, maybe problem with the water separator?  I told an FA on the way out (no pilot to ask) as I was kinda wondering if that’d be an MEL issue due to moisture in there or just a nuisance?  Figured none of the flight crew would know about it and was trying to be a busy body aviation nerd.  

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

Well, I’ve never flown a 175, but the bus adds water back in after the water separator to add a little humidity to the air. Maybe the very likely full cold temp setting froze some of that add in post ACM. The packs supply air for the lowest temperature zone demand, which is as cold as possible right now, and then trim valves add in hot air to make each zone conditioned  

Thinking about it now I find that it’s not uncommon to get hit with the occasional ice crystal while on the ground.  I know you could pretty much make it snow on the flight deck in older Embraer products like the E-120. 

Edited July 15, 2020 by Bobby_Batronic

[Homercles 10206]

Ok that’s what I figured, flew an E175 in the other direction a few days before and didn’t hear that.  ACM packs amaze me in how cold they can get even in 110F+ degrees simply by expanding the air and being self-powered via bleed air.  Obviously wasn’t a safety issue or anything, but was loud enough that several people were commenting on it.  
 

On a side note the inbound leg to IAH saw the longest downwind ever on approach.  We were held on the ground at AUS for 15 minutes, my wife asked me wtf and I told her maybe they didn’t have a gate for us...’no way it’s for traffic right now there can’t be that many birds in the air’.  
 

Narrator:  It was due to congestion at IAH.  I asked the pilot after and he said they were sending us halfway to Louisiana for spacing on the downwind, and pulled out his phone to show me a pic he took of the MFD with TCAS display because it was so unusual to see something like 20 birds all lined up for 26R.  

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

Travel is picking back up, and I think ATC is running a lot of skeleton crews. For example, tower and ground are generally combined at DFW, and ground is handling all ramp calls at LAX. O’Hare is still O’Haring, but they run an interesting system where they put you in a conga line and don’t expect to hear from or call you unless your gate isn’t open. It’s kinda wild. 

[CycleTex87 3044]

So I hear about 25K furloughs at AMR, and half the workforce at UAL (or something gobsmacking like that) - How does that pan out long term?  

[DaysOff 8220]

30 percent at UAL got WARN letters, but I doubt furloughs go that deep. There will be furloughs though. They're committed to emerging 30 percent smaller especially due to the heavy international exposure. Delta as well. American throws shit at the wall, so who knows what their numbers mean.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

1 hour ago, DaysOff said:

30 percent at UAL got WARN letters, but I doubt furloughs go that deep. There will be furloughs though. They're committed to emerging 30 percent smaller especially due to the heavy international exposure. Delta as well. American throws shit at the wall, so who knows what their numbers mean.

The high retirement numbers may mean low actual furloughs if a bunch of short timers decide to go ahead and opt out early. AA was looking to shed 1000 a year anyway via retirement, and I think half the Delta seniority list was set to age out in the next five years. 

I agree, I think everyone will over-WARN and then adjust based on actual demand versus early outs and extended time off. 

Some good news in therapeutics and a possible vaccine release in October would make a world of difference as well. 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Bobby_Batronic

[DaysOff 8220]

Our early out is...out.

In line with the others. 50 hours a month for ages 62 and above. Everyone above age 63 guaranteed the out; 62-63 at company discretion based upon your category. Out includes 16% to b/c plan, medical, and a one time paid move including Hawaii for Guam guys. Pass travel improvements or 250k miles in your mileage plus account.

I'd be happy if half of those eligible took it. That'd be almost 600.

Most interesting part is a program for involuntarily furloughed dudes to keep their benefits for the furlough duration if they come back for AQP continual qual sims every 9 months in hopes of a rapid bounce back after a vaccine.

[Assman 1830]

14 hours ago, Homercles said:

Ok that’s what I figured, flew an E175 in the other direction a few days before and didn’t hear that.  ACM packs amaze me in how cold they can get even in 110F+ degrees simply by expanding the air and being self-powered via bleed air.  Obviously wasn’t a safety issue or anything, but was loud enough that several people were commenting on it.  
 

On a side note the inbound leg to IAH saw the longest downwind ever on approach.  We were held on the ground at AUS for 15 minutes, my wife asked me wtf and I told her maybe they didn’t have a gate for us...’no way it’s for traffic right now there can’t be that many birds in the air’.  
 

Narrator:  It was due to congestion at IAH.  I asked the pilot after and he said they were sending us halfway to Louisiana for spacing on the downwind, and pulled out his phone to show me a pic he took of the MFD with TCAS display because it was so unusual to see something like 20 birds all lined up for 26R.  

This is surprising because I've gotten direct to the FAF at HOU almost every time I've flown there in the past 3 months due to the lack of traffic at IAH. 

[Homercles 10206]

9 hours ago, Assman said:

This is surprising because I've gotten direct to the FAF at HOU almost every time I've flown there in the past 3 months due to the lack of traffic at IAH. 

Growing up on USAF/USAFE bases cemented my aviation nerd and dad’s career (retired O6) opened a lot of doors for me to do stuff like virtually kill my family as they watched me trying to join up with a KC-135 in the B2 sim at Whiteman...and now sites like PPRuNe/A.net let me read about stuff to my hearts content...so if given an excuse I like to respectfully ask a quick question or make a ‘butter!’ compliment to the crew on my way out.  
 

I always worry that I’m bugging them so I try to make it super quick.  No such worries this time, the guy whipped out his phone to show me the MFD pic he took because he was shocked at the traffic on a non-holiday, Friday morning.  As BB noted, probably lack of ATC to coordinate more than one runway for arrivals...the pilot even commented before departure that he’d performed the slowest taxi of all time as we were on a ground stop at AUS.  
 

Kinda sucked because the pilot seemed chatty but between the 15m on the ground and the long downwind for spacing, we had to hustle to E so no time to talk more.  With the new boarding process I knew we’d be called early but was curious how he liked the E175 funky yoke.  
 

Did you do UPT in the T6?  You fly a J right?  Always wondered what it was like learning with steam gauges then actually having a legit FMS/modern autopilot 

Edited July 17, 2020 by Homercles

[Assman 1830]

The T-6 is all glass, no steam.  But there was no FMS/auto pilot/HUD/co-pilot/etc so there was still a learning curve. 

[Homercles 10206]

2 minutes ago, Assman said:

The T-6 is all glass, no steam.  But there was no FMS/auto pilot/HUD/co-pilot/etc so there was still a learning curve. 

Sorry didn’t clarify there...meant Tweets vs Texans.  

[Assman 1830]

5 minutes ago, Homercles said:

Sorry didn’t clarify there...meant Tweets vs Texans.  

I never flew the Tweet.  I went thought UPT in 2008.  Our oldest T-6 on the ramp was a '99 model. 

[elfenix 34775]

BA is retiring the Queen immediately:

https://onemileatatime.com/british-airways-retiring-747-effective-immediately/

[Chad Fuck 18166]

BA is retiring the Queen immediately:

https://onemileatatime.com/british-airways-retiring-747-effective-immediately/

No surprises there.

[Ths71 472]

30 percent at UAL got WARN letters, but I doubt furloughs go that deep. There will be furloughs though. They're committed to emerging 30 percent smaller especially due to the heavy international exposure. Delta as well. American throws shit at the wall, so who knows what their numbers mean.

Brother-in-law took the ETO option at SWA.


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[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

5 hours ago, Ths71 said:

Brother-in-law took the ETO option at SWA.


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Approximately 1/4 took some form of leave or early out.