Sao Paulo, Hotel Deville, Monday, 1996-01-29 21:00 local (Z-2)
I showed up in the lobby to depart from the hotel 15 minutes ago only to find that things had changed but I had not been apprised, so now I'm all dressed up with no place to go for another 45 minutes.
I'm on a freighter run and as usual on these runs things are chaotic. I called Tower to check for changes just before climbing on an airplane Friday morning in Eugene to jumpseat to Miami. They said no changes. I checked in when I got to Miami only to have them give me a 24 hour delay. I could have stayed home another day. We finally got out of Miami a day and one half late.
Some big changes are happening at Tower Air. The FAA is crawling all over the place. They always do after an accident. It seems some maintenance irregularities were found. Tower's solution was to fire the Director of Maintenance. Like Evergreen, Tower knows no loyalty. I'm sure they were quite happy with all the money the fired man saved them by cost cutting, but then when the FAA arrives on the scene, a sacrificial lamb has to be found.
They also fired the v.p. who watched over marketing and over the implementation of a new management information system, part of which was to be new software for crew scheduling. This is, in my view, a major setback. The gal who manages crew scheduling was very much opposed to implementing a fully computerized crew scheduing system, so firing that v.p. is a major victory for her, and probably means she will be able to avoid the loss of power that would have come with the new crew scheduling software.
In things that more directly affect me, they terminated three first officers and three flight engineers from the class in front of mine. They were coming up on the end of their one year probationary period. This time at least they gave them a couple of weeks warning. That's better than the last time when they gave only two days as I remember. They do allow those terminated to resign rather than be fired, a small but welcome favor.
The good thing about this is that I've moved up three notches on the seniority list; the bad is that I may be next. The rumor is that there are some first officer's and engineers from my class who are “in trouble”. Nobody knows who they are or, if they do, they're not saying.
I've tried to find out what the basis was for terminating the three officers from the previous class. As best I can tell, one of them was having difficulty flying and with his radio work (does that mean understanding foreign controllers?) and the other two were “political” terminations. So, we shall see what will happen. I understand they had talked to the guy having trouble with his flying, so he was given at least some small opportunity to improve before they terminated him. Apparently the political terminations were not warned beforehand, at least as far as I have been able to find out.
They're making twenty new captains. If I survive probation, that will bring me to within about fifteen of the captain's list. Thus, it would appear I would be considered for upgrade about the time I have been with the company two years. For the moment, it will mean that I will have a MUCH easier time bidding. I should be able to get the general type of trip I like. That translates to staying away from India and successfully chasing warm weather.
They going to scrap one of our freighters. It's a conversion from a passenger airplane, and the company that put in the cargo door has run afoul of the FAA. In a few months, the FAA will require that the door be greatly modified or substantial weight penalties will have to be observed on the airplane. The penalties are so great they make the airplane unusable economically. Unfortunately the cost of the modifications exceed the cost of a full conversion. So, we will loose another airplane. It's obvious though that more aircraft are in the pipeline or they wouldn't be hiring and making new captains.
Actually, I'm in favor of the FAA action in this instance. The cargo doors involved (called Gatex) have been nothing but trouble from the word go. Evergreen lost a DC-9 when one of their doors came open in flight (killed both crew members), and recently on a 747, eleven of the twelve locking pins holding the door in place disengaged during flight. The airplane immediately depressurized as the door cracked open a bit. The twelfth pin held. That was all that kept the door from opening. If the main cargo door on a 747 opens in flight, the immediate destruction of the aircraft is assured. Fortunately, that has never yet happened.
There's a nasty rumor out about the plans for this year's Hajj. It seems Saudi Arabia is flexing its considerable muscle. The rumor is that all our airplanes will have to be painted in Saudia colors and that the crews will be based in Jeddah for the entire duration of the Hajj. If that's the case, I hope I have enough seniority to stay away from it. If it was like last year, I was planning on bidding it and bringing C.J. over to Jakarta during the ten day break.
Well, off to the airport to commercial on a United flight nonstop to JFK.
Terry