Flying with the best pilot!

Nice story. Seems like a nice guy with good intentions. This helps bring up the publics image of pilots and crews in general. :)

Unfortunately, maybe's he's been too busy entertaining the passengers to notice that his fellow coworkers and pilot's as a whole took paycuts a few years back. He might have wanted to bring that to the reporter's attention while they were presenting his story about buying food and using his personel cellphone to call customer's. Now joe flying public is going to expect the same level of treatment. :sarcasm:
 
He was making the rounds on the morning talk shows. He got an entire article devoted to him in the WSJ.

It's great that he's getting some recognition for his "customer first" attitude. Captain Denny Flannagan is hardly alone in his treatment. There are a lot of pilots who do the same thing day after day. In fact, we had a ERJ with a major company do a low-level tour of Nantucket Island a few months ago... the crew probably wanted to give the passengers a good view of the island before they departed the area.

Then there are those who stopped caring a long time ago... 'nuff said about them.
 
I saw the same thing on the world new tonight. Seems like a really good guy who takes a lot of pride in his profession.
 
I read some horror stories about having him in your jumpseat on the "other" forum. He gets reimbursed for the food, BTW.
 
3green said:
Nice story. Seems like a nice guy with good intentions. This helps bring up the publics image of pilots and crews in general. :)

Unfortunately, maybe's he's been too busy entertaining the passengers to notice that his fellow coworkers and pilot's as a whole took paycuts a few years back. He might have wanted to bring that to the reporter's attention while they were presenting his story about buying food and using his personel cellphone to call customer's. Now joe flying public is going to expect the same level of treatment. :sarcasm:
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Or maybe he is just one of those fellows who focuses on the positive, and enjoys what he has, rather than focus on the negative, and obsess about what he doesn't have.

It sucks that these guys lost pay, but at some point you have to put it behind you and get on with life.
 
At least he gets reimbursed for the food. In that case, I'd be ordering food all the time for my crew and pass. LOL :p

On another note, read the "other forum" on this capt. Looks like some of the regional guys over there that had him jumpseat weren't thrilled about some of the things that went down on their flights.
 
EDUC8-or said:
I read some horror stories about having him in your jumpseat on the "other" forum. He gets reimbursed for the food, BTW.
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3green said:
At least he gets reimbursed for the food. In that case, I'd be ordering food all the time for my crew and pass. LOL :p

On another note, read the "other forum" on this capt. Looks like some of the regional guys over there that had him jumpseat weren't thrilled about some of the things that went down on their flights.
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Come on people.....you can't post this stuff w/out at least vague details. Hearsay or not, can you substantiate this? Curious minds want to know.
 
I wonder if he puts as much effort into helping regional, or even major airline pilot groups secure a better contract. . .

To each his own.
 
3green said:
At least he gets reimbursed for the food. In that case, I'd be ordering food all the time for my crew and pass. LOL :p

On another note, read the "other forum" on this capt. Looks like some of the regional guys over there that had him jumpseat weren't thrilled about some of the things that went down on their flights.
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Are we talking APC or FI?
 
I have met Denny Flanagan and he is the real deal - genuine! I met him last year at a hotel bar where we both were staying. When he found out that I was a travel agent and that many of my clients fly United out of SFO, he went upstairs to his room and retrieved some gifts for me, including a very nice coffee table book called the History of Flight, as well as a CD mix of great flying songs by Sinatra. He thanked me for putting people on his airplanes and told me that he often gives out the same gifts to his crew if he notices exemplary service.

A very nice classy Irish gentleman!
 
Not sure if was proper etiquette to mention another forum on JC. Mods feel free to edit/delete my post if it is. Check out FI under majors...

3green
 
3green said:
Not sure if was proper etiquette to mention another forum on JC. Mods feel free to edit/delete my post if it is. Check out FI under majors...

3green
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Well I went over there to read it but it wouldn't let me access the forum, and I'm not paying $10 to register.

I have no idea what they're saying, but when I met Denny Flanagan last year, he seemed like a genuine nice person, and I'm pretty adept at sniffing out a phony.
 
The only thing I read on FI was this:

Majors--someone who knew him said his wife is ill and he is a great guy and a real family man. All the rest of the banter was just opinions about his actions and whether or not they fall within the duties of a pilot.

Regionals--two posts who didn't know if he was the one, but it "sounded" like him, had negative reviews of his behavior. One said he called his chief pilot to instruct him to authorize the purchase of pizza for passengers.The other said he told the captain (he was jumpseating) what he should be announcing to passengers on the PA. But neither knew whether this was the person in question.

Perhaps there are more threads that I haven't read...
 
HRDiva said:
The only thing I read on FI was this:

Majors--someone who knew him said his wife is ill and he is a great guy and a real family man. All the rest of the banter was just opinions about his actions and whether or not they fall within the duties of a pilot.

Regionals--two posts who didn't know if he was the one, but it "sounded" like him, had negative reviews of his behavior. One said he called his chief pilot to instruct him to authorize the purchase of pizza for passengers.The other said he told the captain (he was jumpseating) what he should be announcing to passengers on the PA. But neither knew whether this was the person in question.

Perhaps there are more threads that I haven't read...
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Thanks for the recap Diva. :) From what I could tell from my conversation with Denny Flanagan, he indeed seemed like a dedicated family man. We talked a lot about his family, and service to others. I have another friend who flies for United and he knows Denny as well. He also told me that Captain Flanagan's wife was ill. He really seemed like a great guy. He's also a former Navy pilot. :)
 
HRDiva pretty much summarized the threads.

link removed

Pretty much just some first hand accounts from FO's that thought he had jumpseated with them and how he told them to do their jobs.
 
HRDiva said:
Regionals--two posts who didn't know if he was the one, but it "sounded" like him, had negative reviews of his behavior. One said he called his chief pilot to instruct him to authorize the purchase of pizza for passengers.The other said he told the captain (he was jumpseating) what he should be announcing to passengers on the PA. But neither knew whether this was the person in question.

Perhaps there are more threads that I haven't read...
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I'm not sure how you got "sounded" like him, maybe where one CA said he potentially had him in his jump. Potentially because there was a seat in the back so he didn't have to ride up front. The other poster was an FO and remembers him vividly. They seemed certain it was him.

Your details about telling one CA he should order pizza during a delay and another how/when to make a PA are correct. Also, according to the FA on the pizza flight Capt F gave out his personal cell phone number and e-mail address to everyone on the airplane. After the other flight he was apologizing to passengers for lack of information (PA's) during the flight and handing out his business card.

I'm all for going above and beyond and try to do so when I'm out flying the line. Capt F sounds like a great guy, but he's overstepping his boundaries here. The only time I would EVER speak up about how someone is operating their aircraft while I'm a guest is if I saw something that would affect the safety of flight or if they asked me for my opinion on something.
 
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