Embarasssing ALPA Magazine Blunder

Yeah, I stay far away from there. I don't think I could join the clique one million posts in. Are they going for a record? I think it might be time for APC to get a Delta only forum. :p

That's my daily visit. We just had a SLC73NA join in last week... join the cult! You can't ask for anything more... all the most recent info, north/south banter, boobies, hot chicks, FA/cat jokes, and the one the only ACL65pilot.

They aren't going for a record... just why tear down the great pyramid or eiffel tower. :)

That place gets more visits from DL guys than the ALPA forums and has pretty much all the, well latest and greatest info as it comes out.
 
I fully agree on the fault he has. He deliberately lied. No question there.

To me, the writers for the article got negligent in a lazy sort of way. I agree with the bolded part above in the sense that they should've done some fact checking not in a "we don't believe him, we want to background check him"; but moreso in a "Ok, he's an F-16 pilot, it'd be neat to get more info on that such as what quals does he hold, how long has he been doing it, what does he do in his unit, how long has he been with his unit.....etc, etc". Just some simple background stuff that could enhance an article and may or may not even be used. But just that little bit of editorial work would've likely uncovered the extremely thin veil he had over this whole thing. And it likely could've saved editorial embarassment for ALPA, especially in light of the subject matter of the article.....Ethics Role Model.

THAT is all I'm saying. ALPA isn't at fault for anything in a deliberate manner, they just put a heck of a lot of faith in something and got burned. That could've been fairly easily avoided, IMHO. It's just interesting to me that some members can't seem to see the forest through the trees and ever admit that their organization ever makes any mistakes.

:yeahthat:

While watching the debate, I keep wondering why we would not want our union to do a better job of representing us? It would have taken an hour of an intern's time to cold call FDNY or the National Guard for extra details or quotes from supervisors. We as pilots are held to exacting standards, why shouldn't highly compensated journalists also be held to high standards?
 
There was a dude who wore flight gloves in his airliner? Haha. I didn't even wear them in fighters, since they take away severely from dexterity, plus we only really had to have them on for start/takeoff/landing anyway, if I remember the reg correctly.

Want some good laughs.....UAV guys. Wear flightsuits not because it's just a duty uniform, but some actually push the "well if the UAV control box (looks like a mini-storage unit) catches fire, the flightsuit will protect you..." Forget the fact that the escape door is 2 feet away from you.....if you have a fire that starts and spreads that quickly that you're depending on your flightsuit to protect you; then you were dead to begin with. Personally, I think they should be in Hawaiian shirts and shorts.



haha! I personally think that all UAV jobs should be guard or reserve jobs. Talk about a cush position!
 
There was a dude who wore flight gloves in his airliner? Haha.

Yes, unfortunately, yes there is. Weird guy. He was called "Three Cups" because he wanted the FA's to bring him three stacked cups so he could take the one in the middle because it had less germs. Of course, the FA's all knew this a licked the middle one anyway!

He also carried a ham radio because he was deathly afraid of going nordo. Not a hand held transceiver but, a full ham radio set. The bag he carried it in was huge.

Personally, I think they should be in Hawaiian shirts and shorts.

We actually tried lobbying for that at my first airline, Pace Airlines. It was small charter outfit flying 737's with a bunch of retired guys that just wanted to have fun.
 
Yes, unfortunately, yes there is. Weird guy. He was called "Three Cups" because he wanted the FA's to bring him three stacked cups so he could take the one in the middle because it had less germs. Of course, the FA's all knew this a licked the middle one anyway!

He also carried a ham radio because he was deathly afraid of going nordo. Not a hand held transceiver but, a full ham radio set. The bag he carried it in was huge.

And here I thought I had weirdos at the place I work at......this guy gives my guys a run for my money in that realm. :D
 
It wasn't Three Cups was it? No chance a military psyche board would let him any where near a fighter let alone a military flight line.

I do remember one FO who went through UPT soon after 9/11 when all of the furloughs went down. He ended up taking mil leave and saving one guy from being furloughed. If it is the same guy then he is a pretty decent dude. However, I hope his buddies rag on him for wearing gloves. It's kinda ghey.

No, not three cups. This guy was really nice and it was a good trip. I was never blessed enough to fly with 3 cups. I kind of wanted to do it once to be honest, just to see what it was like.
 
:yeahthat:

While watching the debate, I keep wondering why we would not want our union to do a better job of representing us? It would have taken an hour of an intern's time to cold call FDNY or the National Guard for extra details or quotes from supervisors. We as pilots are held to exacting standards, why shouldn't highly compensated journalists also be held to high standards?

Because he's not a journalist.
 
Because he's not a journalist.

While Jan Steenbilk's job title is 'Technical Editor', this article is posted as his piece. If you are going to publish a piece of writing, IMHO it is your responsibility to get the facts correct. Just curious, buy why defend Steenbilk, especially on a technicality?
 
Just curious, buy why defend Steenbilk, especially on a technicality?

I think the more important question is, why would you attack someone when you don't know him, don't have any information on the circumstances, and don't know anything about his job? Perhaps you should focus your anger on the person really at fault here: the liar.
 
While Jan Steenbilk's job title is 'Technical Editor', this article is posted as his piece. If you are going to publish a piece of writing, IMHO it is your responsibility to get the facts correct. Just curious, buy why defend Steenbilk, especially on a technicality?

While I agree that possibly some calls to "his" guard unit would have made for a more well rounded story (which would have found the leaks in it as well), I will make this point again and again:

There are thousands upon thousands of current military pilots that fly for the airlines. Anytime they interview one for an article should they have to provide documentation for everything in their history? That is retarded...

He probably thought he had a great story with a guy that young that had done so much with both his local and executive councils supporting him along with another outside guy. Besides... it's the ALPA magazine. I barely read the thing anymore- there's not much of value in there anymore except "we are alpa" over and over and over again.

Used to be some good safety articles and such...



And not to compare turd piles to turd piles to see which looks better... but look no further than the news media's coverage with ANYTHING aviation (the latest shining example the UAL 777) and see just what journalism means: Nothing more than putting a story out that hopefully enough people will buy and get you some good exposure.
 
I think the more important question is, why would you attack someone when you don't know him, don't have any information on the circumstances, and don't know anything about his job? Perhaps you should focus your anger on the person really at fault here: the liar.

Like I was saying before. The guy is a liar and at complete fault for his deliberate actions. As a separate issue, ALPA could've saved themselves some embarassment by working the article just a bit harder. Murphy's Law and all.
 
As a separate issue, ALPA could've saved themselves some embarassment by working the article just a bit harder. Murphy's Law and all.

I think you're putting a little too much emphasis on a magazine article. Remember, ALPA isn't a magazine publisher. It's a labor union. Publishing the magazine is a very tiny portion of what the people in the Communications Department do. They're far more focused on media outreach, internal pilot group communications, SPSC activities, etc. I don't expect Jan to spend a bunch of time on fact checking, especially since the story sounds plausible for an airline pilot. I know our Communications Specialist doesn't spend time fact checking articles for our MEC newsletter. If she did, she'd never have any time to do real work. When an airline pilot tells you he used to fly F-16s, that's not exactly a fanciful story that requires a bunch of research to verify. You just believe it, because it's true for so many pilots.
 
I think you're putting a little too much emphasis on a magazine article. Remember, ALPA isn't a magazine publisher. It's a labor union. Publishing the magazine is a very tiny portion of what the people in the Communications Department do. They're far more focused on media outreach, internal pilot group communications, SPSC activities, etc. I don't expect Jan to spend a bunch of time on fact checking, especially since the story sounds plausible for an airline pilot. I know our Communications Specialist doesn't spend time fact checking articles for our MEC newsletter. If she did, she'd never have any time to do real work. When an airline pilot tells you he used to fly F-16s, that's not exactly a fanciful story that requires a bunch of research to verify. You just believe it, because it's true for so many pilots.

In any normal circumstance, thats true. I just hope that there's no negative fallout for others due to this clown and any association with him. Talk about a cancer. The Milli Vanilli of AE
 
There are thousands upon thousands of current military pilots that fly for the airlines. Anytime they interview one for an article should they have to provide documentation for everything in their history? That is retarded...

Absolutely...and I'm betting there actually are a couple of guys that fly F-16s in the reserves, volunteer as fire fighters and work at an airline. It's unfortunately that this guy got so far while posing. As you say, I think anyone would have thought it a great story initially.

Besides... it's the ALPA magazine. I barely read the thing anymore- there's not much of value in there anymore except "we are alpa" over and over and over again.

Used to be some good safety articles and such...
I guess I haven't seen the better years - still occasionally a good safety article but it does seem like a lot of fluff lately!
And not to compare turd piles to turd piles to see which looks better... but look no further than the news media's coverage with ANYTHING aviation (the latest shining example the UAL 777) and see just what journalism means: Nothing more than putting a story out that hopefully enough people will buy and get you some good exposure.
Or even the recent coverage of this farce - according to one reporter, this is another black eye for regional pilots, just like that 'Colgan Jet' crash. :D
I think the more important question is, why would you attack someone when you don't know him, don't have any information on the circumstances, and don't know anything about his job? Perhaps you should focus your anger on the person really at fault here: the liar.
Like I was saying before. The guy is a liar and at complete fault for his deliberate actions. As a separate issue, ALPA could've saved themselves some embarassment by working the article just a bit harder. Murphy's Law and all.
:yeahthat: I don't know Jan but I think a technical editor who writes multiple articles for ALPA while being paid 6 figures to do so should have seen the red flags on this story. No anger, not looking for Steenblik's head to roll, but someone in ALPA needs to stand up and take responsibility for the error.
I think you're putting a little too much emphasis on a magazine article. Remember, ALPA isn't a magazine publisher. It's a labor union. Publishing the magazine is a very tiny portion of what the people in the Communications Department do. They're far more focused on media outreach, internal pilot group communications, SPSC activities, etc. I don't expect Jan to spend a bunch of time on fact checking, especially since the story sounds plausible for an airline pilot. I know our Communications Specialist doesn't spend time fact checking articles for our MEC newsletter. If she did, she'd never have any time to do real work. When an airline pilot tells you he used to fly F-16s, that's not exactly a fanciful story that requires a bunch of research to verify. You just believe it, because it's true for so many pilots.
This article was printed the national level, not by an MEC or LEC and worse, the national news media is now running with it. If the Communications Department is focused on media outreach, as you say, they just gave ALPA a nice black eye, both internally and externally. How unfortunately ironic to do a piece on the personification of professionalism and the ALPA Ethics Code, only to find out your subject is just the opposite!

Not trying to bust your nuts or throw ALPA under the bus, but I would like to see someone in ALPA leadership stand up and say 'Hey, this guy lied to us and we screwed up and missed it'.
 
Like I was saying before. The guy is a liar and at complete fault for his deliberate actions. As a separate issue, ALPA could've saved themselves some embarassment by working the article just a bit harder. Murphy's Law and all.



I just wish we could publicly crucify journalists for what they do to aviation articles every day.

"We got a T-test!!!"
 
That'd be grand!

Every time one writes "...stuck on the tarmac..." we could kick 'em squaw in the nuts.
 
Ya know, Jtrain609, you can rip people all you want. You and a couple of others are missing a fundamental problem here. This guy was supposed to be the poster child for all that is holy. He was supposed to be the first on many that were to make people believe in something.

Listen boss, let's see if we can't straighten you out. Jesus? He was holy. Abraham? Most likely holy. Muhammad? Holy. The Buddha? Holy too. Tim? He's a regional airline first officer. The fact that you're holding this guy up to the standard of being a god among men is the first problem. Nobody was doing that in the first place, it's only after the fact when people see an opportunity to go in for the kill that they do so. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic strategy, but it's wrong.

Did he cook up that idea on his own? No. It came directly from the National leadership. Whose myopia was so bad that all they saw was a guy who was SO good, that they would have a home run on the first pitch.

So what you're hinting at, without saying it, is that national induced him to lie. Nice work, but again; wrong.

They blew it, and instead of admitting they didn't do their job, they are dispatching their minnions to attack anyone who dares question the King's clothier.

Minions? Seriously dude what's with the religious overtones?

For this guy to get past the hand picked committee without serious vetting is unconscionable. Why? Because it took the program that was supposed to help rebuild the public trust and destroyed it. Why should the public, whose opinion and favor were being curried, trust them after the first person they trot out is this guy?

Public trust? This is an internal union rag, not Newsweek. Again, you're blowing things out of proportion, and frankly the only thing I'm railing against here is the lunacy of your position.

Because they said so? Because it's ALPA?

Your comment's to SIUav8r were out of line, inappropriate and violate the COE as well. The fact that he may not be in an ALPA cockpit means NOTHING. You owe him the respect that you so eagerly sought as a young aviator. In fact, you owe him more.

Whatever, skipper. SIUav8er is a fine young lad, and I'm certainly glad to see him flying around at my old stomping grounds; but the fact remains that he is paying zero dues to ALPA and is thus, unrepresented. Would I like to see ALPA on Amflight property? Sure! But today it isn't a reality.

Circling the wagons does not solve the problem. Standing up and admitting the error does. Firing a writer, or having staff put out an email is gutless. Now is the time for LEADERS to stand up, admit the mistake and OWN the problem. That would go a long way. THAT will never happen.

Sure thing, skipper.

Look around you. Delta pilots are talking about leaving. So are UAL pilots. They have a multitude of reasons, but the underlying issue is lack of LEADERSHIP.

Leaving ALPA for...wait...let me guess...IBT? Don't you think that your position betrays your analysis?

If one is to assume your bio information is correct; you have no business lecturing people about their worth if they are ALPA members or not. You have the wings, so do many others. Many people here have decades of ALPA experience at many carriers, for managements you've only read about in history books. We have many strikes and many uniforms in our closets. Some have more hours on picket lines than you have in your logbook. We stood for your generation and people like SIUav8r so that you'd have something to step into. You have no right to lecture on those subjects.

Sure thing.

For the benefit of you and you other friends here who have decided to try and blame others, I'll offer you this to consider.

Many years ago I made a great friend when I was a young kid pumping avgas. Bill was a United Captain. His career began in radials and ended as a 777 Check Captain. His shoelaces had more experience than most people.

I was on his jumpseat coming home on day by chance before he retired. The F/O, with his four years of experience, was intent on not only regaling me with his vast knowledge of the airplane, but all about ALPA. His knowledge of the Eastern strike filled volumes. After about 30 minutes, my friend looked at the kid and offered him a blunt suggestion. It went something like this:

"You need to quit talking, quit pushing buttons, sit on your hands, shut up and listen. Not only do you not have a clue about what you're doing with this plane, you're talking to someone who was an ALPA rep at Eastern and has forgotten more than you'll ever know."

There are a lot of people here who not only have been there and have the T shirt...they own the T shirt company.

Do yourself a favor. There are a lot of smart people out there at non ALPA carriers and affiliated with other unions...APA, IPA, SWAPA and yes, IBT. Take the time to get your facts straight.

It will serve you well in your career.

The person, and the attitude, that you're holding up is the antithesis of professionalism that you are attempting to lecture about. You don't care about professionalism from what I can see; you care about being in charge.

As for me, I won't be asking you "how high" anytime soon.

Have a good one.

EDIT: Oh and BTW, I don't have a career; I have a furlough. I could take being on the street the same way you did, and be pissed at the world and direct my venom at ALPA, or I could move on and do something constructive with my time, and with my life. Right now, I'm choosing to use my time wisely instead of being angry at ALPA for my job being gone.
 
: Oh and BTW, I don't have a career; I have a furlough. I could take being on the street the same way you did, and be pissed at the world and direct my venom at ALPA, or I could move on and do something constructive with my time, and with my life. Right now, I'm choosing to use my time wisely instead of being angry at ALPA for my job being gone.

Wow...religion, venom, and you even got the IBT in there! (any idea where Hoffa's buried? We could make BADZILLIONS!!!)

Seriously, having been furloughed is the pits. Been there more times than I care to think. Whichever way you chose to go, sincere best wishes.

You seem to have bought into the line that I hate ALPA. I have tremendous admiration for the hard working staff of ALPA. They bust their asses for the pilots they represent. I spent over 28 years watching people come in; we got older, married had kids and now grandkids...and we remain friends.

What kills me is how they and as a result, you and the pilots end up getting treated by leadership that is more focused on maintaining personal empires. Too many promises made that were broken. Times that called for standing up to the pilots and speaking the hard truths and demanding that hard work begin to find answers...has not happened.

This can't be laid on the doorstep of 9/11...or the economy...the staffers have been saying this for years. No one wanted to listen because it meant letting go of the sacred cows of the past. Look around at other businesses that refused to change. What happened?

This isn't about the IBT as you wish it was. That's an easy red herring offered up to shift the focus off the hard questions. FWIW, they stood up, took ownership of the problems, kicked the offernders out and are reforming. So it can be done.

DAL in the IBT? Why? The question is what does ALPA offer DALPA that they can't do on their own? They have the mass, the revenues and the ability to stand on their own. They also have to face the problem of being the biggest unit out there...will the pockets be as deep as they need when it comes time for them to ask? Flowery resolutions of support don't mean crap. Money does. If DALPA went independant and went to Capitol Hill with SWAPA, APA, IPA, IBT and others as a coalition...you think they're going to have doors slammed in their faces?

ALPA needs to be a strong, vibrant union. It needs to evolve from the past. Slick slogans and blow up rats haven't done any good. Neither has leadership at the top, who has buried it's head in the sand. Or BOD members who haven't stood at the microphone and demanded better leadership for their members.

And my friend Bill? You haven't a clue. He truly lived the COE...just like men of the likes of Dick Merrill. We need more like them.

Look
 
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