Is it true?

Who uses watches for their alarm clock these days?!? I suspect most are using smart phones, which are GPS synched clocks. Don't give me the 1980's 'synch the watches BS,' that's a bunch of nonsense right there.

SHOW UP FOR THE VAN ON TIME!

Yeah... I get it. Be on time.

Are you telling me you've never ever in your career been at least one minute late for a van? Left your ID in the room? Been in a rush to get downstairs on time?
That's like saying you've never gotten a few knots off your airspeed or gotten a dot high on a papi.

Yeah, be on time. But leaving crew members behind for non operational reasons is silly.
 
The caliber of management at a regional vs a career place is extreme. Remember I had exposure to three distinct regional management groups. Even the supposedly MSP Avro Messiah Management from Mesaba sucked.

The management at my regional didn't fix any problems until they were forced to, by ALPA.

Vastly different at Spirit and where I am at now. I am sure the experience is the same comparing ASA and JetBlue...

From what I've heard there's simply no comparison between Colgan and ASA in that regard. In the "George and John" days, yes the airline was run exactly the same way. But most of my colleagues at ASA after the SkyWest purchase were at least attempting to improve things. I can count one hand the number of people in the office here were truly terrible people intent on screwing pilots.

But the big difference between a regional and a major airline is that the major airline isn't constantly at the mercy of any other carrier. It is incredibly difficult to run an airline when the schedules change at the whim of someone else, and at the last minute, etc. The list goes on.
 
I get your point though. I get to the lobby 10 minutes prior to van time. When others roll up exactly at the van time I find it annoying and unprofessional, but I wouldn't leave them without a phone call to the room to see what the dealio is. Meh, to each his own.

Well, then I guess I'm annoying and unprofessional. I can live with that, along with a few extra minutes of precious sleep in the morning. You want me in the lobby at 0550 or 0555, then schedule that time. Otherwise I'll see you pretty much precisely at van time.
 
I have two phones. One personal, one work. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why my work phone was precisely 3 minutes slow. I just updated to iOS 9.1, and the problem is solved.

Anyway, point is that phones aren't perfect either.

I get your point though. I get to the lobby 10 minutes prior to van time. When others roll up exactly at the van time I find it annoying and unprofessional, but I wouldn't leave them without a phone call to the room to see what the dealio is. Meh, to each his own.

Never said anything about not giving the room a call. But no answer, no call, no show...we're gone.

Be late if you (figurative you...not you PP) want, have at it, doesn't affect me one bit. But don't expect the van to be there when you make it to the lobby.

Ok, carry on...I'm well over this discussion.
 
Bro.

Part 117 saved my last trip.

I know you love complaining about it, but you can't imagine how big of a benefit it is down here at a non-mainline job.

Remember where you came from, just like that van driver this morning.

Your bro,


The Train.
Yeah, seriously.

Anyway, the thread was over here:

What's your excuse, knowingly applying to a non-ALPA carrier, Colgan?
Carry on.

tumblr_lmww3ypRtA1qcjzcm.gif
 
Never said anything about not giving the room a call. But no answer, no call, no show...we're gone.

Be late if you (figurative you...not you PP) want, have at it, doesn't affect me one bit. But don't expect the van to be there when you make it to the lobby.

Ok, carry on...I'm well over this discussion.

Does your hard stance allow room for the possibility of something going sideways the previous night with that crewmember? If someone doesn't show up on time, it could be something simple, or very serious. I think we owe it to each other to at least do a welfare check before leaving.

I agree that it's a dick move to just take off the way you describe...in the end, we gotta take care of each other in every way. No one else will.
 
I try to be downstairs 10-15 before van time. That gives me time to get a coffee and pay for anything I put on the room.
 
View attachment 33547

A standard issue Flavor Flav Clock eliminates showing up late down stairs.

I took an assessment of myself over the past week and I'm generally three to five minutes early.

If I gotta call you once, that's cool, but if you're making a repetitive habit of showing up a few minutes late, you know damned well that's not acceptable. :)
 
This whole "LEAVE THE LATE CREW MEMBER AT THE HOTEL AND LET THEM THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'VE DONE" is cute and all, but if you're at an outstation, and don't have enough FA's to board the airplane, that's going to be hard to explain to the boss.

Chief pilot: "So instead of waiting an extra 30 seconds for the FA, you decided to teach them a lesson, told the van driver to leave, and boarded 30 minutes late? Step into my office..."
 
What if the crew member is lying there dead in their room? Seriously, it's happened. The rest of the crew is in a better place to problem solve and deal with the situation if they take the time to call the room, and give the person a few minutes to show up... If no response to a phone call and the person is still not in the lobby, a visit to the room with hotel management is probably called for. Knocking, then forced entry if no response. Then there's a whole lotta phone calls to be made...

Habitual tardiness, not okay. But when the person doesn't show up for van time, and that's not like them... there may be something very wrong. Don't just take off!

I know a TWA sim instructor whose students showed up to the van to the sim in the morning and the instructor was nowhere to be found. Didn't show, didn't answer his room phone, management entry into the room showed the guy hadn't even slept there that night. Turns out the guy had gone for a walk and was in JAIL for solicitation of prostitution. (Charges later dropped because the female undercover agent entrapped him but that's a whole other story.)
 
Last edited:
What if the crew member is lying there dead in their room? Seriously, it's happened. The rest of the crew is in a better place to problem solve and deal with the situation if they take the time to call the room, and give the person a few minutes to show up... If no response to a phone call and the person is still not in the lobby, a visit to the room with hotel management is probably called for. Knocking, then forced entry if no response. Then there's a whole lotta phone calls to be made...

Habitual tardiness, not okay. But when the person doesn't show up for van time, and that's not like them... there may be something very wrong. Don't just take off!

I know a TWA sim instructor whose students showed up to the van to the sim in the morning and the instructor was nowhere to be found. Didn't show, didn't answer his room phone, management entry into the room showed the pilot hadn't even slept there that night. Turns out the guy had gone for a walk and was in JAIL for solicitation of prostitution. (Charges later dropped because the female undercover agent entrapped him but that's a whole other story.)

Apparently someone at my last job was nearly dead in their hotel room and didn't show on time. I didn't get the details but I'd imagine that I would feel quite bad if I had left someone at the hotel to "teach them a lesson" only to find later that they had been discovered deceased by housekeeping. Fortunately in this poor buggers case the other crew member bothered to figure out what his "deal" was. Which in turn saved his life.

Again this was an operation that as a policy had rental cars for each crew. So showing up 2 minutes late didn't really inconvenience anyone. If it happened more than once and it was a bother I'd think that someone would deserve the "hey bro, try showing up on time, it will help us get there before the PAX do."

Unlike the airlines if the passengers show and there is no crew it is all kinds of hell for everyone. However, after reading the nearly disturbing opinions of some I think I'll show up 5 minutes early for the hotel van. If I am ever at an operation that requires the crew use a hotel van for transportation.
 
I took an assessment of myself over the past week and I'm generally three to five minutes early.

If I gotta call you once, that's cool, but if you're making a repetitive habit of showing up a few minutes late, you know damned well that's not acceptable. :)
But, like, what is time? Man.

But seriously, I don't think anyone is saying being habitually late is OK. But sometimes those tacos from that sketch taco stand wasn't such a good idea...
 
This whole "LEAVE THE LATE CREW MEMBER AT THE HOTEL AND LET THEM THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'VE DONE" is cute and all, but if you're at an outstation, and don't have enough FA's to board the airplane, that's going to be hard to explain to the boss.

Chief pilot: "So instead of waiting an extra 30 seconds for the FA, you decided to teach them a lesson, told the van driver to leave, and boarded 30 minutes late? Step into my office..."

Exactly... It's often out of spite. Our mutual former employer had a senior Captain die on an overnight very recently.
 
This whole "LEAVE THE LATE CREW MEMBER AT THE HOTEL AND LET THEM THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'VE DONE" is cute and all, but if you're at an outstation, and don't have enough FA's to board the airplane, that's going to be hard to explain to the boss.

Chief pilot: "So instead of waiting an extra 30 seconds for the FA, you decided to teach them a lesson, told the van driver to leave, and boarded 30 minutes late? Step into my office..."
Had that exact thing happen at ASA. FA was late, captain wanted to leave. Problem was, it was a :20 minute van ride to airport, so, if we left the FA, it would be an hour before she got to the airport.
 
Back
Top