Here's my question for now- how do you guys feel about visits to the cockpit before the flight? I know some days you're busier than others, which makes it tough, but what's your general view of a passenger sticking their head in the cockpit to say "hi" before the flight?
Assuming we're not too busy, I don't mind at all. Most pilots don't and of course it depends on the personality of the flight crew, which you'll be able to evaluate within the first 30 seconds of conversation with them. UAL sometimes provides us with airplane cards and wings for the kids. If I have time, I usually ask if the parents have a camera and we'll sit the kids in our seats with our hats so that they can take a picture if they want. I'll let passengers sit in the seat*, too, if they're interested. But if it's a flight where you can tell we're all rushing around and trying to turn the airplane for the next flight, it's kind of hard for us to take visitors, unfortunately.
*Before you get any crazy ideas, that's on the ground with everything shut down........sorry!
There is another thread going on discussing passengers giving some sort of goodies to the FAs and crew, e.g. chocolates. The views are interesting, with the FAs indicating they appreciate the gesture, and the passengers mixed on whether its appropriate or not.
What are your thoughts on this? Is it an appreciated gesture? Are there guidelines for what you can accept (packaged, sealed, etc) or is this just left to the individuals common sense?
1. For the more tenured pilots, have you seen the quality of ATC and FAA deteriorate in the past few years per all the latest news about near misses? Will new technology really help prevent this, or, as I presume, will the AA and UA prime-time schedules have to be trimmed? Is there any teeth to this story, or, is it hype? What do you see on the front lines that we don't see that can help with this?
2. What airport has the best quality controllers? I've heard ORD is tops hands down. God forbid, who's the worst?
3. Do you really think we can hear that first in-flight announcement when we're still climbing? The PA systems are terrible, and nothing you say is audible, ever. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.
4. Can you comment mid-flight at night? "Those on the left side of the aircraft have an excellent view of downtown Albequerque". You know precisely where we are, and on long flights most of us have a general idea but really aren't ever 100% sure. I'd hazard more of us would like to know where we are.
5. How many ALPA union people are responsible for negotiating your contracts? Now, how many UA management are involved? Finally, how many elite mileage plus customers does UA have?
6. What do you think should be done to reinstate air travel as a luxury good and not a commodity? Is this even possible at this point?
Thanks in advance.....
1. The quality of the PEOPLE in the front line ATC system I deal with is simply TOP NOTCH. These people do a fantastic job moving airplanes around. Just listen to Channel 9 when you fly into or out of ORD, for example, and you'll know exactly what I mean. TOP NOTCH.
I'm not familiar with any statistical data that shows an increase in near misses. And actually, they should be called "near hits" and not "near misses" if you think about it, but I digress Anecdotally, I haven't seen any increases in near misses. Maybe there's an ATC person on here that can comment.
Certainly technology will help improve safety and the flow of traffic. As you are reading in the press, our system is old and needs updating. According to the air traffic controllers, they're understaffed, too. We need a 21st century air traffic control system to accommodate the large increases in air traffic that we have seen lately, and it appears the FAA is finally strating to fund a new system. We also need new airports, more runways, and larger terminals, but of course if an airport authority or municipality tries to make these type of capacity enhancing improvements, the "not in my backyard" people come out and put the brakes on such efforts. I guess it's for all of us to decide the balance between cost, their environment, and the future growth of our aviaiton infrastructure.
2. I don't know who's the best and who's the worst. Maybe the best controllers can't shine because the environment they work in is antiquated and doesn't allow high performance to manifest itself, for example. As a pilot who flies into out of ORD quite frequently, my hat is off to the ORD ATC people. But there are certainly many, many great ATC people working for the FAA.
3. I didn't realize that it was such a problem. I usually try to listen to myself on the PA so that I can modulate the volume of my voice as I speak depending upon the conditions, but I assumed that most of the time we were pretty audible. If you're on a particularly bad airplane, let the flight attendants know so that we can address the issue.
4. Yes, we can but I'm often hesitant to do so. If it's at night, I have to weigh the desires of those that want to sleep, vs. those that don't want to listen to me on the PA while they work vs. those who might be interested in what we're passing in flight. The compromise I usually come to is to make an announcement on our flight's progress about mid-flight. I usually describe where we are, what can be seen out the windows (if anything), and how much time we have left. Again, what you hear simply depends upon the personality of the pilot whose responsibility for that flight is making PA announcements.
thank you waterfalls123 for your wonderful offer and i vote to make this a sticky.
i have 3 simple questions (and you may decline answering the first 2 if you like )
where are you based?
what do you drive?
have you become one of my tootsie-pop victims yet?
edited to add: oops-never mind question 2. must be too much rain in my face today as i didn't see your earlier post.
down boy
1. Chicago
2. Do you mean at work or at home? 737 at work, and being a car guy, a high performance American-made sports sedan at home...........and hopefully a Chevy Volt soon if they ever make the thing.
3. Nope, haven't had the pleasure.
There is another thread going on discussing passengers giving some sort of goodies to the FAs and crew, e.g. chocolates. The views are interesting, with the FAs indicating they appreciate the gesture, and the passengers mixed on whether its appropriate or not.
What are your thoughts on this? Is it an appreciated gesture? Are there guidelines for what you can accept (packaged, sealed, etc) or is this just left to the individuals common sense?
We have corporate guidelines, just like any other company, when it comes to accepting gifts. Personally, I won't eat or drink anything that a passenger gives me, simply for safety reasons. I'll accept it politely as I don't want to be rude, but I won't consume it. It's a shame it's come to this, isn't it? The gesture, of course, is appreciated but certainly not necessary from my point of view as a pilot.
Programs: UA-1k, HH Silver, Giving Tootsie Pops to UA employees, & now a retired hockey goalie
Posts: 10,128
Quote:
Originally Posted by waterfalls123
.......4. Yes, we can but I'm often hesitant to do so. If it's at night, I have to weigh the desires of those that want to sleep, vs. those that don't want to listen to me on the PA while they work vs. those who might be interested in what we're passing in flight. The compromise I usually come to is to make an announcement on our flight's progress about mid-flight. I usually describe where we are, what can be seen out the windows (if anything), and how much time we have left. Again, what you hear simply depends upon the personality of the pilot whose responsibility for that flight is making PA announcements.
i completely understand but just a thought based on what transpired in this thread where i had the pleasure of having capt. goodfellow fly me home. it was way (and i do me way ) cool and this way no-one gets disturbed.
__________________
just my humble opinion but i used to try and stop hockey pucks so what do i know . Nighthawks fans are everywhere
Although, hard to believe you haven't seen any near "hit" (you owe George Carlin a shout out) stories in the news lately. Bad news sells papers, in case you haven't heard.
Just a thought (IMO), we should probably keep this related to UA specific pilot questions (and not general avaition piloting questions).... might keep this thread from becoming:
1. A gazillion posts long
2. Thrown into OMNI or Travel Buzz
Again just MO.
__________________
Lots of people go to school for 7 years......
Location: 90 miles W, 4000 ft up from DEN, and RDU
Programs: CO Plat, UA1K(in recovery), AS MVPG, DL Gold, HHonors Dia, SPG Plat, LANPass nadie
Posts: 2,158
First a big thank you to all the pilots who have come onto FT. Whatever your perspective, it's great for us regular passengers to hear your points of view. Thank you for opening this channel of communication.
It's obvious many (if not most or even all) pilots would like Tilton & The Pirates out of management. As would most of us passengers.
It's also obvious that UA is looking for airline consolidation, whether by being acquired, acquiring another, or being broken up.
What do the pilots want to happen to UA?
* Stay independent with new management?
* Acquire another airline? If so, which one?
* Be acquired by another airline? If so, which one?
* Be split up?
* None of the above?
Love to hear your perspectives on this. Both in general, and on specific possibilities like the oft-mentioned CO/UA or DL/UA rumors.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC - United 1K, HHonors Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,873
Great thread.
FYI, there is a book, Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel, by Patrick Smith, a pilot, that explains a lot of the nuts and bolts of flying modern aircraft.
Location: ------------------ 50% Bangkok Thailand .... 50% Chicago .................... United 1K and Million-miler .... LP Member
Posts: 1,063
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkXS
It's obvious many (if not most or even all) pilots would like Tilton & The Pirates out of management. As would most of us passengers.
It's also obvious that UA is looking for airline consolidation, whether by being acquired, acquiring another, or being broken up.
First of all, this is a really great thread, thanks pilots!!!
I have a suggestion ... would it be possible to restrict discussion in this thread to aircraft-related questions and not pilots vs. management. Other threads have gotten wrecked over this issue, as pilots have strong feelings about management and others have strong feelings the other way. I'd hate to see this awesome thread get swallowed up by a discussion about pilots views on management and everyones responses. If that happens, it WILL get heated in here!
Programs: 1K (I know, my screen name is outdated), Marriott Plat, *Wood Plat, Five Star, Amex Plat
Posts: 1,358
"Bobby, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"
The auto pilot doesn't actually inflate like it did in "Airplane" does it? If it does I sure hope they don't put the inflation valve just below the waste line.
All kidding aside, I appreciate your input and the time you have taken to post here.
* Stay independent with new management?
* Acquire another airline? If so, which one?
* Be acquired by another airline? If so, which one?
* Be split up?
* None of the above?
Love to hear your perspectives on this. Both in general, and on specific possibilities like the oft-mentioned CO/UA or DL/UA rumors.
What's the preferred scenario for you? Thanks!
I can answer for myself. We have 7000+ pilots with at least that many opinions so they'll have to answer with their own opinions. I think if Jet A prices continue to rise and/or the U.S. economy starts to slow down, I think there will be consolidation. There's too much overhead/overlap that could be eliminated as a cost saving measure to ignore if the industry starts to become unprofitable again. I don't think it takes a CFA to figure that out.
UAL being split up would probably be the worst case scenario for the pilots. In that situation, our career expectations could largely be destroyed, so that risk is something we would not want to take. Our management team knows that as well, but I'm concerned that they don't care and plan accordingly.
If there's going to be consolidation, obviously we want to be on the acquiring side of the equation as there's the belief, real or otherwise, that the acquiring carrier would have the "upper hand" when it comes to merging employee seniority lists. I suspect that if we merged with Delta or Continental that neither side would have an upper hand no matter who acquired who, but that's conjecture on my part. A merger with Continental or Delta is a guess as well.
and i vote to make this a sticky.
)
