Back at it.

Yeah. That's right. Out of no where.

Heading into the summer schedule line pilots were being provided with 150% premium pay, extensions, and junior manning occurrences through much of May.

The seas were rough to say the least. Following the furlough of 136 pilots, 80 in February 2009 and an additional 56 in September 2009, the pilot group at Acey was highly demoralized. Stress was building amongst the pilot group as block hour growth was slowly returning ahead of marginal economic stability.

May brought about great news for the 136 furloughed pilots. Leadership had determined that they couldn't continue to run such a tight staffing forecast, jeopardizing high levels of completion factor and contract agreements with our mainline partners.

While many furloughed pilots expected minimal recalls this summer, very few expected to be back prior to the summer 2011 schedule - when solid economic growth and block hour increases were expected, coupled with increasing attrition numbers as retirements begin across the industry. Nevertheless, 40 pilots were officially recalled in early June.

Out of no where the company decided to recall all furloughed pilots through two further announcements of recalls. Officially, 14 pilots declined to come back to the company, yielding a significantly higher than average recall rate.

Nevertheless, I'm now back to flying planes for a living. I accepted recall and started requalification training on August 4th. Following a week and a half of systems and general operations class work, we entered into simulator training covering the usual items seen on an annual proficiency check.

Continuing my 100% first-time pass rate as a student, I started OE (Operational Experience) about a week ago.

OE consists of flying with a line check airmen. It serves to formally transfer the student from the training environment into the operational environment, dealing with all that comes with it. Operating outside the protected confines of the training environment and the cookie cutter training scenarios for a return to real-life operational experience. Dealing with ramp control, flow control delays, passenger interaction, aircraft swaps on short turns, reduced overnights, weather diversions and aeronautical decision making, etc.

Almost done with OE right now. Finished a four day trip with a little more than twenty-two hours of block time. Requal OE requires 25 hours of OE, so I have a two-day trip set up starting on Thursday to finish up OE and get released from training.

I'll leave you with one of the last photos I took before I started my furlough...coming out of cruise from Lexington to Atlanta.

Stress.

Promotion test tomorrow morning. Four and a half hour drive home afterward. I'll be sure to have some good news following the morning.

In other news, movement.

Delta Air Lines has indicated that they will begin hiring pilots this fall, in anticipation of increased block hours for the Summer 2011 season. Current expected new hire figures is set at 240 pilots, with the potential up to 300 new pilots. Some movement is better than no movement, with flow-through agreements in place at Compass and Mesaba, it'll be interesting to see how much movement occurs at other regional carriers and how many military pilots take retirement to fly for Delta.

Many around the Atlantic Southeast Airlines environment is hinting at a company rebranding initiative, to be displayed officially on May 21st. Speculation seems to be leading towards simply getting rid of the Airlines in the name.

The drama between Mesa and Delta also continues. Both legal parties have submitted proposed final judgments for the judge's review. Mesa contending Delta terminating the service agreement unlawfully, with Delta contending they terminated the service agreement lawfully.

You can read Mesa as well as Delta's final proposal below.

Delta's final proposal
Mesa's final proposal

Knock the dust off...

Has been the primary theme of my life over the past few months (if not longer).

Take this blog for example. Last posting was in January of 2009, prior to my furlough from the illustrious regional carrier based in Atlanta, owned by a company headquartered in the land of Salt Lake.

Since that time I spent a number of months on unemployment seeking stable employment, one outside sales job later, I found a good retail sales position with a leading telecommunications company. This position provided good benefits, healthy commission structure, and the joys of working inside while also offering the silliness that comes with dealing with people directly day-in-and-day-out. I have also managed to complete my undergraduate degree in political science from Troy University.

I have managed to keep in touch with a number of people I worked with while on active duty with the Air Force during this period as well. Toward November of last year I managed to find out about a comfortable Air Force Reserve position located once again in Sumter, SC - or more appropriately - Shaw AFB, SC. This position would provide living quarters, GA BAH, BAS, and daily per diem - and best of all - it was an E-5 (SSgt) billet position.

The requirement? Re-enlist in the Air Force Reserves for four years. And agree to forecast weather again. It being a weather forecasting position of course.

Towards the end of winter - around February 28th - I executed my opportunity to take advantage of the new position.

While the retail world has been enjoyable, it has largely become a pain in my side as I have grown extremely burnt out and am no longer motivated by the greed in which most sales people depend on to stay hungry for the sale. Knowing this, I had to aggressively determine what I should do over the next year.

The enlistment in the reserve unit does not require one to go on active duty orders, but the opportunity did exist and as such I'll be working out of South Carolina for the next year. During this time we (wife and I) will be aggressively trying to get our financial house is better order for some future plans we want to move forward on - principally purchasing land and building a house.

Beyond this blog, knocking the dust off of my meteorological skills will be quite entertaining. Only time will tell if I can still hack it.

Speaking of hacking it, after what has felt like a lifetime, I have been able to get back out and play some golf. Ashley has taken quite the liking to the game over the past few years. With her growing enthusiasm for the game, I decided now was a good time to get her some sticks of her own. We've been playing every few weeks now and she is getting a good grasp on the game and enjoying it as far as I can tell.

Over the next few months you'll begin to follow my journey while I'm back on active duty, playing golf, and potentially returning to general aviation flying.

All the best...

New Year, New President, No more job.

Happy New Year.

New President - finally we can rid ourselves of the clown that is George W. Bush.

And well. . .yeah, it's been a pretty quiet front here over at ASA. History has been made, and I'm part of it.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines has determined that they do not need the services of the 80 most junior pilots on the seniority list. In an effort to stream line costs and reduce overhead the company is furloughing those 80 pilots. From the top, I'm 41 spots down.

I have very little faith that any good will come from this within the next year and potentially two or three years.

Now is an opportunity for me to seek out other aviation ventures, raise a son, grow a family, and complete my undergraduate degree in Political Science which will hopefully set me up for law school at some point in my adult life.

The tough pill to swallow is now the realization that when a recall comes, at least if it is a year to three years down the road returning right back to short call reserve and the prospect of sitting reserve for another two years due to the lack of any sufficient movement and being at the back side of a hiring wave that will eventually leave me high and dry before I'm 30 years old. I have some very strict goals that must be met for me to be 100% professionally satisfied with my aviation career. In this time of disappointment, those strict goals are slowly eroding and any optimistic view of my future is quickly evaporating.

Cheers to all the other unemployed professional pilots out there right now. All I really wanted for 2009 was only one W2 form for my 2009 Taxes. Guess that's out. I expect to have three, if not four. 1 from ASA, 1 from Unemployment Insurance, 1 from Job A, and 1 from Job B.

Thanksgiving adventure to Lawton, Okla.

I spent a majority of Thanksgiving in Lawton Oklahoma. And boy lemme tell you how much fun I had!

Not.

I do have to say though that I must commend the station staff for putting up with me, my captain, and the two mechanics we brought in to fix a busted plane. They were patient, and were great team players - staying much later than they would have regularly, 3 hours past "getting off time."

Nevertheless, the plane that was broken in Lawton had a bleed air duct system issue, which is essentially a no-go item as it significantly limits our aircraft's capability to fly in icing conditions. Icing is bad. And it's very bad when your anti-ice systems are not able to work. Otherwise, when operational, it is, for the most part a non-event so long as the accumulation is not to such an extent that limits our anti-icing systems to remove the ice.

So, with the bleed air issue, we also had a deferred APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) - which usually isn't an issue if the station has ground power and air. You see, we use the APU to provide electrical power to the airplane so that we don't run out the battery and we also use it to provide air flow to the engines so we can start them.

But, the station's ground power unit (GPU) was inop, and they made an attempt to start the plane off of the battery with a bottle of air that ended up not working. Now that the bottle was empty and they had no other source of air (remember the APU was dead), the plane is essentially stuck there.

Now that you have the back story. . .

We get into Lawton late in the morning. Took an empty plane out there so that the crew that had brought the busted plane in could take the passengers from Lawton to Atlanta on Thanksgiving. As soon as we get there the mechanics hop out and get to work. Unfortunately everything they tried didn't work. No way they were going to be able to get the APU to work, even after another plane came in and they made a quick exchange of parts from the known operational plane to our known broken plane. Nothing.

When push came to shove, about 5 hours had passed. Finally we came to the conclusion that if they wanted the plane to fly back to Atlanta today (Thanksgiving) that we would need perform what we call a "jump-start" of the busted plane's engines.

We have a procedure that allows us to start the airplane off of external air and the airplanes battery. The tricky part is that we are only limited to being on battery power for 5 minutes.

Anyway - we get a hose and hooked it up to the other plane, and hook it up to our plane. One of the mechanics starts the other plane up and generates some air flow. This air flow then moves through the hose, into our plane. This air flow then allows us to inject fuel into our engines to get them started. And - surprisingly, it worked. ;)

Here's a photo of our umbilical cord to the other plane. The busted plane is the one on the right.


Anyway - we get the plane started and finally get out of town.

I must say that he absolute worst part of this job is having to do these maintenance flights. I mean, I don't really mind doing them. But it's a laughing matter how the company makes an effort to schedule the plane that is busted for a revenue flight without it even being fixed. Just funny.

The Amazing Life of Pilots Part 1

I'm not so sure if I really understand some of the things we - as pilots - do to ourselves.

A majority of the disdain that pilots, and specifically Airline pilots have is with their leaders and management figures. This disdain can carry over into a pilot's union leaders as well. This disdain can also carry over into other pilots at the same company that a pilot works at. This disdain also transfers over to pilots at other companies. But it's a different type of disdain and anger.

The golden rule does not exist in the professional pilot community. Now, clearly there are exceptions. When like minded pilots gather or work together then clearly they will treat each other in an equitable manner. Also, for the most part, when two pilots who tend to hate each other outside of the cockpit are working together behind that closed cockpit door - standardization and professionalism is the scene. They act and work in harmonious rhythm, protecting each other from violation and ultimately providing a safe avenue for transportation.

There are different levels of hatred and anger as well. I haven't yet perfected a system for recognizing and organizing these levels - but perhaps over my approaching 16 hour overnight in Killeen Texas I can develop one.

Anyway - continuing. . .

Pilot's are a very possessive breed. We are possessive of our women, all of them. Possessive of our meals and drinks, all of them. Possessive of our careers, and possessive of the flying our company is doing.

In the regional industry it is a regular occurrence for Regional A to lose flying to Regional B. Losing probably isn't the right term, but it's the best term that explains the situation. These two companies both provide lift for another company - Mainline A. Mainline A is tired of paying a certain price for Regional A's services, and send out an request for proposal - an RFP. This RFP essentially is the start of a bidding war. Companies that want to provide lift for Mainline A will bid for the flying that is within the RFP.

Now, some companies have certain standards that they like to meet. Such as, never bidding on flying that will not make money. Other companies simply strive for market share, no matter what the cost, and ultimately no matter what that means for the future if they bid low, win the contract, and operate the contract only to find out that they can't do it at the price they bid. Well, now they're stuck and ultimately in poor financial shape.

So how does this all tie into pilots? Pilots at Regional A, who were flying the rights for Mainline A are not being put into a competitive position with the pilots of Regional B who are bidding for the flying that Regional A's pilots are currently flying.

This tension builds until ultimately the contract is awarded. Clearly if the contract is awarded to company A, the tensions will subside. If the contract is awarded to Company B, the tensions build. . .and they build fast.

Take this situation, add in about 4 Mainline companies, and about 20-25 regionals. The situation is compounded on an almost dream like scale. The competition is ready to gnaw off the legs of those who are currently doing flying for the Mainline partner who requested new bids. While the current contract holder is making ways to bid on the new contract, while reducing their internal costs so that they can provide a competitive bid so that they can hopefully secure their future with the mainline partner in question.

Now you through pilots into the mix. Like I said, we're a very possessive bunch. We protect our wives like it's no body's business. We make sure the girls in the back are taken care of and now drunk passenger is causing any problems. We make sure our coffees are hot, or we send them back. We make sure the plane is ready for service, or we don't go. We live a standardized life, and grow accustom to certain things - such as our professional growth and career stability.

The first sign of career instability or anything that would negatively impact one's professional growth the whole show starts to slow down. We get angry, tensions build, we want answers, we begin to doubt our management teams, we begin to doubt our union leaders, and we ultimately begin to doubt our futures.

Throw in multiple pilot groups, and we begin to doubt each other. We begin to accuse each other for problems that none of us control or even contribute to.

This type of behavior further erodes any attempts and any successful attempts of the past to unify the profession under the same guidelines or goals. It's a ridiculous and vicious cycle that not many people are able to get over and beyond.

This pretty much concludes Part 1 of the Amazing Life of Pilots. Part 2 will focus on some other silly topic that makes us look like little children. Stay tune!

For the love of the game.

Why else would I wake up at 4:15? Come on, really? Complaining is far too easy.

Can't miss an opportunity to catch one's reflection in an inanimate object.

Obviously I awoke at 4:15am to go to work. Nothing more, nothing less. Not to fly around in the sky for the love of the game. Nope, just to get a pay check to provide for my family like any other working-class citizen.

Nothing special to see here. Move on. . .