Thanks for all of the time and effort to answer everyone's questions.
I apologize if this has already been asked, but how did you come to choose United and what was your training background? My father is a retired CO pilot and learned to fly through the USAF. After serving his 7 years he immediately left for an airline job. I would guess that more than 75% of his fellow USAF pilots did the same. Today, what percentage of pilots have a military flight education as a opposed to a private education? Thanks.
I had a military background. I flew for the military for 10 years, and then was hired by United, Continental and Fed Ex. I chose United and hope that it turns out to be the right choice when my career eventually ends. I flew military reserves for another 10 years and got my retirement with them as well. As far as where most pilots come from, I'm not sure the exact numbers, but I'd say it is a little more civilian vs military only because there are more civilian pilots applying versus military.
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These views are my own and do not represent the views of United Airlines or the ALPA.
That was in late 1996. My career over the past nearly twelve years has been much better where I am than what it would have been if I had interviewed and been hired at UAL.
I'm curious that you say that, since that's essentially my career at United. I interviewed in February of 1997 and started class in March. I'm not arguing with you, but what makes your career progression much better than what it would have been at UA?
As for me, I grew up in a United family and never really wanted to work for another airline. My father is a pilot for UA (currently ORD 777 Cap) and taught me to fly. He was an Air Force pilot and loved the flying in the Air Force, but hated the rest of it. Since what I really wanted to do was fly for the airlines, I concentrated on that and pursued a civilian route. Undergrad in Chem Engineering, then I was a flight instructor, charter pilot, night freight in Metroliners, then a Brasilia pilot for WestAir (then United Express). We still have a good mix of military and civilian pilots, but we may be starting to have more from the civilian side.
And to answer one other question - I think the 777 has far and away the best designed cockpit of any airplane I've flown. But the 787 will be nicer.
I know this will come as a shock to most people, but I prefer to be awake in the daytime and sleep at night... The best flights are between about 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
But seriously, what I really don't like are early morning flights. The 6 a.m. east coast departures are the worst for west coast based crews (1:30 a.m. wakeup). Of course, on the 777, almost every flight is a "redeye" (all-nighter is our word).
Many thanks to the pilots for their incredible patience and interesting and informative answers, and to the ft'ers for their great questions. Being 63 and seeing all the annoying things that are happening to my eyesight, reflexes, manual dexterity and cognitive powers, I can understand why nobody my age should fly a commercial airplane, nor should one ride with anyone who does.
I had a good question to ask a few minutes ago when I started this post, but now I can't remember what it was
Programs: UA-1k, HH Silver, Giving Tootsie Pops to UA employees, & now a retired hockey goalie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gumpfs
I know this will come as a shock to most people, but I prefer to be awake in the daytime and sleep at night... The best flights are between about 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
But seriously, what I really don't like are early morning flights. The 6 a.m. east coast departures are the worst for west coast based crews (1:30 a.m. wakeup). Of course, on the 777, almost every flight is a "redeye" (all-nighter is our word).
ok, so you're a morning (er, daytime) person... but where the 777 says i wanna be a redeye .....what is the most interesting, beautiful, bizarre thing (i.e. northern lights, space shuttle, ufo <sorry couldn't resist>, etc) that you have seen-and this doesn't happen to be looking up-perhaps something on the ground. 2 downward looking things i remember were flying over the grand canyon and the reflection/glow of the sun on the canyon walls made for some colors i hadn't seen since high (pun intended) school and flying stl-hnl as we were passing over lax. we flew over dodger stadium and it was so clear that you could see the first and base lines.
last call for anyone who wants a tootsie-pop today at sfo around noon as i'm off to the bi-coastal do.
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just my humble opinion but i used to try and stop hockey pucks so what do i know . Nighthawks fans are everywhere
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gumpfs
Undergrad in Chem Engineering
Hmm! I'm interested in a personality question. For the pilots posting here, what was your undergraduate degree in? And if you know what other pilots have gotten theirs in in your small talk while over the north Pacific, do you find that most pilots gravitated towards the maths and sciences or is there a roughly equal mix of BAs to BSes?
My hypothesis is that most pilots are concrete and procedure-minded thinkers and would be more into the sciences than the arts, but I have no data to back that up...
__________________ 2nd Alaskan Spring Break DO!
Where will you be 3/12-3/14? Alaska—touring airport ops and eating fresh fish on the bay!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aluminumdriver
I flew military reserves for another 10 years and got my retirement with them as well.
So how does that schedule mesh with your corporate flying? What are the reserve requirements and do you just need to do it during your time off or does UA allow additional time w/o penalty (which I imagine would be law/contract).
ok, so you're a morning (er, daytime) person... but where the 777 says i wanna be a redeye .....what is the most interesting, beautiful, bizarre thing (i.e. northern lights, space shuttle, ufo <sorry couldn't resist>, etc) that you have seen-
I'm definitely not a morning person, more of a late night person, but I prefer 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. for work.
I've seen all kinds of beautiful things, from incredible sunsets landing in SFO, to the terrain north of Alaska and glaciers in Greenland. Maybe the most interesting was witnessing a launch from Vandenberg (California) that was visible while we were at cruise over western Colorado.
A lot of military pilots have technical or engineering degrees, while the majority of the civilian pilots tend to get Business or some kind of flight training related degree (Aerospace Science or something). I'm fairly rare as a civilian background pilot with an engineering degree.
... As for me, I grew up in a United family and never really wanted to work for another airline. My father is a pilot for UA (currently ORD 777 Cap) and taught me to fly. ...
Gumpfs, have you ever flown with your dad on a UA flight? Or would that not be allowed.
I remember you from an IAD-EZE flight about 4 years ago I was in F, and introduced myself
Did you move back to the Bay area to get better lines?
Gumpfs, have you ever flown with your dad on a UA flight? Or would that not be allowed.
I remember you from an IAD-EZE flight about 4 years ago I was in F, and introduced myself
Did you move back to the Bay area to get better lines?
John
My father did my checkout on the A320 (4 day trip). We had planned to fly a nice trip together on the A320 before I left for 777 school (the first time), but the ID was scheduled to begin on September 13, 2001. The crew desk was very nice and rebuilt part of our ID so we could fly together, and we both deadheaded to DEN and flew DEN-PHL-SFO (layover in PHL) on September 14th.
We're planning to fly together again on the 777, but he's actually off on a medical issue right now (hoping to come back soon), and I'm waiting until he can hold FRA trips.
I remember meeting you, but it was probably closer to 5 years ago, since I haven't been on the 767 in IAD since November 2003 and wasn't flying EZE towards the end. Time flies!
I moved to DC because I speak German and wanted to fly more to Europe. After I got bumped back to the A320 and was having 32 hour DTW layovers, I decided to move back to SF and fly to Hawaii for a while on the 767. I much prefer the west coast to the east coast.
For example, on a SFO-OGG trip, we generally only have two alternates (usually SFO and Hilo, Hawaii). At the midpoint between the two....
So this raises the question, if you played, how well could you do at Halfway to Hawaii? (Really, this is about flight planning precision in general.) How precisely can you predict the winning time at takeoff? Or, are there regularly changes in routings or winds that you'd just end up in the mix of pax who were +/-5 minutes? (I had a flight this summer whose actual flight time was 30 minutes longer than announced at takeoff due to unexpected headwinds.) Do you have better information than is given to pax, know how to use it better, learn from many trips, or is there just enough real randomness in travel times that you can't predict much better than we can?
Can a plane like the BA 777 that just crashed at LHR fly again for commercial passenger use, or is it more likely it'll be used for parts and that's it?
I can't believe I read the whole thing!
but where the 777 says i wanna be a redeye 
