Sheraton Aerogulf Hotel, Luxembourg, Tuesday, 1999-07-27 22:00 local (Z+2)
Well, now I'm getting pissed. But first, my apologies for sending an incomplete message last time around. Some how the last of it got removed—I think. And if I can think of what that last part was, I'll reiterate it, but on to that because of which I am pissed.
I hate it when they lie to me. The airplane didn't "break" in Africa. It simply ran up against the end of the hours limit and the extension to that limit, for an E check. An E check is the simplest of the mandatory maintenance checks that must be done periodically. That means that maintenance and operations knew—or should have known—when it would come due. Crew scheduling was probably never told and proceeded with the positioning as normal. It was probably true that the company tried to get the check done in Africa. South African Airways in Jo'burg can do, Cairo can do it, and I'm sure there are a couple of others. I don't know why it didn't get done there or one of the many places in Europe, but my guess is Nachtomi hasn't paid his bills and doesn't want to lay out the cash. The last time I was in Jo'burg, we had to write captain's checks for everything because we owed South African too much, and they had put us on a cash basis.
So, the airplane had to be pulled all the way back to JFK so Tower could do it themselves. The continuing delay has been that they simply have not had the time and parts availability at JFK. It's the old story, Tower just will not adequately staff or maintain an adequate supply of parts.
Anyway, I found out about this when I called this evening to see if Plan E—Plan D didn't happen—was really going to be. Their answer, it may happen but it will be late.
Plan E: deadhead Luxembourg to Sal Island, operate Sal Island to Curitiba, Brazil, layover 44 hours in Curitiba, operate Curitiba to Sal Island, layover 24 hours, commercial on South African to JFK. That second arrival in Sal Island will be on July 31. The commercial to JFK will take place on August 1 with an arrival at 23:30 local, so there is now no way I will be retired and laying in the sun in our parking lot on August 1.
And it's potentially more complicated than that. As fate would have it, this month, July, is my due month for both a yearly line check and for a six month simulator check. If I do not fly into August, no problem. However, both checks can be done in a grace month following the due month, and if I fly into the grace month, August, the checks MUST be done before the end of that month. In other words, if I land at Sal Island just one minute into August, one of two things must happen. Either I will have to take a sim check and a line check in August or the company will have to pay a fine for each hour or portion thereof that I flew in the grace month. The fine is $1000 per flight hour as I remember. The last time this happened to a retiring captain here, a few months ago, he refused to come back for his sim check—he was mad at the company—and they had to pay the fine, reportedly about 25 hours worth. The time before that the captain involved came back for the check, which is probably what I'll do if it comes to that. The check in such an instance is just a formality. They obviously won't bust you, so it's just a few hours of playing around in the sim. The whole business is ridiculous of course. The FAA should do away with the grace month make up requirement when a crew member has left the employ of the company, but then the FAA is not known for exercising the common sense required to come up with such a decision. Pardon my editorializing.
If I get out of here tomorrow, I will have spent five days waiting, a new record for delay in my time at Tower Air. Ironic that it should happen during my last trip with the company, but as C.J. said over the phone, it's just an exaggeration of what has been normal for the past four years.
Another irony. The previous time out from home I packed the study materials for learning Visual C++ but then had no time to use them as they kept me moving. This time out I decided to leave the study materials home and save my rotator cuffs, and so of course I wound up with a lot of time in which I could have been working on what I will be doing at home in August. Oh, well.
Everybody take care and enjoy summer. Curitiba is in the south of Brazil in the highlands. It's the middle of winter there and will be cold, but I will get to come back to summer, right? Please tell me I will.
Terry