Blue Juice

BobDDuck

Island Bus Driver
As seen in my company email inbox today

All Flight Crew:
The latest shipment blue juice received by ********* has less blue dye in it. It is therefore not as dark as you maybe accustom to seeing. Other than the dye content there is no difference.
Thanks,
*******************
Director of Operations



 
I can't remember the company who makes that stuff but it supposedly works better and is a lot cheaper.
 
Now does it actually make it in to your lavs? In IAD we're so accustomed to them not touching the lav for 6 or 7 legs...then, it's nice and green/yellow juice, with a great odor to boot....
 
It's all the same - they're both full of $&#^. I could be referring to your director of ops as well, but I don't know the guy:).
 
Now does it actually make it in to your lavs? In IAD we're so accustomed to them not touching the lav for 6 or 7 legs...then, it's nice and green/yellow juice, with a great odor to boot....
Lemme guess...
You're with UAX and you have to deal with Air Wisconsin ground handling...?
 
Yep. I think I remember seeing some of your posts before...you work there, right?
Yeah...your best bet of getting a lav done there is by calling it in before taking off from IAD for your return leg. The two-three block should be enough time for a ramper to find an operational lav cart...maybe.
 
Yep. I think I remember seeing some of your posts before...you work there, right?
Worked. Yeah. I got out before they could fire me for following their own policies. I couldn't take the risk of being fired from an airline when I was only there for fun (a college grad could be making more money elsewhere - I only got $10.64). I figured ramp was fun at IDE, it should be fun anywhere. Wrong.

The real reason is that I was moving out to Arizona for flight school, but still. I've heard it's improved slightly from some, which is good, but I've also heard some stories that it's still pretty dismal.

Yeah...your best bet of getting a lav done there is by calling it in before taking off from IAD for your return leg. The two-three block should be enough time for a ramper to find an operational lav cart...maybe.
Exactly.
Maybe...
 
Yeah...your best bet of getting a lav done there is by calling it in before taking off from IAD for your return leg. The two-three block should be enough time for a ramper to find an operational lav cart...maybe.

Good to know. Thanks. There are a bunch of guys there that really work their ass off, and it shows...we get out early, have all our bags, and everything flows well. I was told by ops the other day that, and I quote, "there are no working lav carts on the entire airport."

Then are the others I'm not so sure about...how they got the job in the first place is beyond me. I sat at one of the Alpha gates and watched for 20 (twenty) as the commissary guy stood there, compared the writing on the soda can to the writing on the como-request form and back again. Back and forth like that for about 3 minutes, then he pulled 2 cans of soda, and went to the next line. Took 20+ mins to fill one como order.

And then the time when they ran over a chock with the pushback tug and somehow managed to get the tug stuck between the ground and the nosewheel of an airplane, we counted 16 rampers standing around just watching, taking pictures on their cell phones and talking, while 3 other flights were waiting to load and push.

Was told by a supervisor last week that something is changing up there come Nov 1, any idea what that is?

Worked. Yeah. I got out before they could fire me for following their own policies. I couldn't take the risk of being fired from an airline when I was only there for fun (a college grad could be making more money elsewhere - I only got $10.64). I figured ramp was fun at IDE, it should be fun anywhere. Wrong.

The real reason is that I was moving out to Arizona for flight school, but still. I've heard it's improved slightly from some, which is good, but I've also heard some stories that it's still pretty dismal.


Exactly.
Maybe...


I imagine working the ramp for IDE would have been fun (if they weren't trying to can you for doing your job).
 
Good to know. Thanks. There are a bunch of guys there that really work their ass off, and it shows...we get out early, have all our bags, and everything flows well. I was told by ops the other day that, and I quote, "there are no working lav carts on the entire airport."

Then are the others I'm not so sure about...how they got the job in the first place is beyond me. I sat at one of the Alpha gates and watched for 20 (twenty) as the commissary guy stood there, compared the writing on the soda can to the writing on the como-request form and back again. Back and forth like that for about 3 minutes, then he pulled 2 cans of soda, and went to the next line. Took 20+ mins to fill one como order.

And then the time when they ran over a chock with the pushback tug and somehow managed to get the tug stuck between the ground and the nosewheel of an airplane, we counted 16 rampers standing around just watching, taking pictures on their cell phones and talking, while 3 other flights were waiting to load and push.

Was told by a supervisor last week that something is changing up there come Nov 1, any idea what that is?




I imagine working the ramp for IDE would have been fun (if they weren't trying to can you for doing your job).

Yeah. It's always a scene when a ramper does something stupid out there. As bad as it is for everyone, I couldn't help but laugh, because I saw it coming every time. Just looking at the "skill" out on the ramp, it's hard to imagine anything going right. There are a few really good guys out there, though. There's a guy named Robert who's milling about, out there. He's a good lead. I quasi-trained him a couple times. He didn't need much training, though.

As for IDE, working for them was great. I never had an issue with them. They seemed to understand the concept of discretion. In a bind, certain issues may be skirted, if necessary precautions are taken.

It was Air Wisconsin that sucked. The RGOM says one thing, they say another, another guy says something else. I was pushing a plane out one time and the capt said "tower says tail west" so I put the tail to the west. Coming in from the pushback, the other ramp lead yelled at me for breaking the rules. I told him tower said tail west, so I put it tail west. He got upset and called a Sup. The Sup, naturally, got upset about it. I explained that ground said tail west, so I put it tail west and he said something along the lines of 'they don't matter, listen to us.' To which I replied something along the lines of ground control is of higher magnitude than Wis control. He still didn't agree and wouldn't budge, so I just said it wouldn't happen again to get him out of my face. I, of course, listened to ground over Wis in the future, though.

The rest of the time, it was generally something to do with headset use. The RGOM (at least at the time) stated pushbacks without headsets are approved at the pilot's discretion, with a briefing between the operator and pilot. Since they rarely had headsets available for me, I just went without one and had a briefing each time. Of course, a supervisor was there to chew on me after a push or two. At one point, the problem was so bad that I went ahead and brought in my own DClarks so I could at least hear the pilots and not get yelled at.

I was just trying to make things work with what they gave me, while still minding safety and rules, but that wasn't good enough, I guess. They found my "Formal Apology," at one point, too. Figured out who Matt and Kyle were, found me on the ramp, took me inside and chewed on me for a while. That was fun and filled with irrationality.




As for the change next week, I imagine it might have something to do with a contract given to a company willing to service Air Wis' GSE, but I could be completely off. I'm just guessing that based on what changes could actually make an impact out there, and that when I left, we still didn't have a contract for GSE repair, to my knowledge (TUG was taking care of it, case-by-case...I think).
 
I was told by ops the other day that, and I quote, "there are no working lav carts on the entire airport."

Then are the others I'm not so sure about...how they got the job in the first place is beyond me. I sat at one of the Alpha gates and watched for 20 (twenty) as the commissary guy stood there, compared the writing on the soda can to the writing on the como-request form and back again. Back and forth like that for about 3 minutes, then he pulled 2 cans of soda, and went to the next line. Took 20+ mins to fill one como order.

And then the time when they ran over a chock with the pushback tug and somehow managed to get the tug stuck between the ground and the nosewheel of an airplane, we counted 16 rampers standing around just watching, taking pictures on their cell phones and talking, while 3 other flights were waiting to load and push.
Yeah all of that sounds quite familiar.

Was told by a supervisor last week that something is changing up there come Nov 1, any idea what that is?

I can't help you with that, I left for school back in August. But they did make a couple of "big" changes that were supposed to improve things but never did. Hopefully this Nov 1 thing will actually improve things.

I was thinking of return after I graduate in December, but the more I write about them, the less my chances are of being rehired. Apparently they scan this forum and do not like any negative comments whether they are true or not.
 
Apparently they scan this forum and do not like any negative comments whether they are true or not.
That's for sure...
Apparently taking criticism, evaluating the merit of the argument and taking action on the point in question (not the employee making the point) isn't something they do well.
 
And then the time when they ran over a chock with the pushback tug and somehow managed to get the tug stuck between the ground and the nosewheel of an airplane, we counted 16 rampers standing around just watching, taking pictures on their cell phones and talking, while 3 other flights were waiting to load and push.

Those 16 were probably mainline United employees who would always congregate to see what Air Wisconsin ####ed up this time. I know I did and have pictures to show for it. Which their management instructed to remove from the internet which I replied with a NO.
 
And then the time when they ran over a chock with the pushback tug and somehow managed to get the tug stuck between the ground and the nosewheel of an airplane, we counted 16 rampers standing around just watching, taking pictures on their cell phones and talking, while 3 other flights were waiting to load and push.

Those 16 were probably mainline United employees who would always congregate to see what Air Wisconsin ####ed up this time. I know I did and have pictures to show for it. Which their management instructed to remove from the internet which I replied with a NO.
Hey! You got the internets! Good times...

Yeah. That was the same 'management' that gave me such a hard time all the time...

Oh well.
 
And then the time when they ran over a chock with the pushback tug and somehow managed to get the tug stuck between the ground and the nosewheel of an airplane, we counted 16 rampers standing around just watching, taking pictures on their cell phones and talking, while 3 other flights were waiting to load and push.

This might actually be a different incident

Those 16 were probably mainline United employees who would always congregate to see what Air Wisconsin ####ed up this time. I know I did and have pictures to show for it. Which their management instructed to remove from the internet which I replied with a NO.

Whatever is the case, here are the pictures that you are talking about.

AWAC has always been horrible on the CS side but now since they have taken over the ramp its twice as bad. Same people new uniform. I am mainline United and its a disgrace to have these idiots wear the same uniform as us. We just sit back and laugh at them. It's like a comedy routine. Take a look at these pics:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=34973807&l=fa26b&id=68100491

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=34968955&l=a99ad&id=68100491


Two Accidents In Two Days!
 
Yup...different incident, but I'm impressed how they got the tug positioned in that one photo. They rammed a Mesa bird the other day with a belt loader... I think they're trying to take us out plane by plane...
 
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