School house, side-sticks and normal law

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
Who has two thumbs but only needs one to fly the airplane? me! ;)
N803NW-Delta-Air-Lines-Airbus-A330-300_PlanespottersNet_090628.jpg
 
Great! You will never want to go back to a yoke. What tips of trips will this mean? FO or CA or FA? 8)

I really haven't looked that closely, but I'm still an FO!

Could have held -88/90 captain in NYC and within a few numbers for 320 captain in NYC. Probably fly the 330 until A320 captain hits my seniority and take that short course.
 
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I really haven't looked that closely, but I'm still an FO!

Could have held -88/90 captain in NYC and within a few numbers for 320 captain in NYC. Probably fly the 330 until A320 captain hits my seniority and take that short course.


That's hot. Base?
 
Congrats!

Just looking at the APC pay charts, that's a nice raise. Why the 330 over the 764? I assume trips will be similar to the ER?
 
Congrats!

Just looking at the APC pay charts, that's a nice raise. Why the 330 over the 764? I assume trips will be similar to the ER?

No openings on the -400. I figure my first captain seat is going to be the A320 in a couple years (merely a few numbers away) so might as well learn the systems and the Airbus design philosophy, leisurely, one long leg at a time.
 
Will you still see a lot of the people you flew with on the 57? Just seems like that would be a huge change to be flying with all new people again. But anyways congrats. Nicest airbus if there is such a thing ;)
 
Will you still see a lot of the people you flew with on the 57? Just seems like that would be a huge change to be flying with all new people again. But anyways congrats. Nicest airbus if there is such a thing ;)

Whole different company almost because of a base change and not a lot of 'south' guys bid the Airbus.

When we "southies" were hired, the philosophy was that we would never fly an airplane that did not give the pilots absolute 1000% overriding authority over control of the aircraft. So we were "raised" that highly-automated aircraft, like the Airbus, was Th' Devil. So after SOC (single operating certificate), not a lot of South guys jumped onboard Airbus equipment so it remains dominated by FNWA pilots. I think Jimflyfast was one of the first (if not THE first) Southies to make the jump into the Airbus 330 and, I'm sure, over a beer or six, he can tell lots of stories about what that was like.

Seems like a neat airplane and does more varied flying than the 767. I was hoping for SEA but I'll take what I can get for right now and try to slip into SEA when there's an opening. It's really my last hurrah before I grow the big alpastache back, put about 30 lbs on and graze in the left seat for the remainder of my career.

I figure I've flown the Boeing philosophy (727/737/757/767), the Douglas philosophy (MD-88/90) and soon the How do you saaaaaay, Air BOOS? so when I make the jump to captain, there won't be many surprises in learning both a new operational philosophy and the "oh •, what do you mean I have to make a decision?" world.

Plus the extra scratch from reduced commuting costs and a higher hourly rate means that I don't have to claim to be a hipster when I order a PBR. I can upgrade to a little New Belgium here and there.
 
And if there's a cockpit that's ideal for long haul, that's it. I think driving my car to the airport with the A/C running is louder than up front on the A-330, and that's on top of the spaciousness and tray tables and other stuff.
 
Interesting. Well hope you get the base your looking for. Also was the wait to become a captain on a 57/67 just too long and that why you went over to the Bus?
 
Interesting. Well hope you get the base your looking for. Also was the wait to become a captain on a 57/67 just too long and that why you went over to the Bus?

They knocked a bunch of guys out of the category so it wasn't on the short-term radar. I have a two year seat lock on the 330 right seat, which means I can't bid another FO seat for that period of time, but I'm still eligible to bid for any captain seat.

757/767 captain is relatively close to my seniority in NYC but the opportunity cost of waiting for an opening and seniority is higher than bidding a higher paying FO seat and waiting for a captain seat worth going to frees up.

The problem as a relatively high seniority FO is that the smaller narrow body captain upgrades (MD-88, 717) would effectively be a cut in pay compared to hourly rate, flexibility and ability to snatch premium flying as my W-2 for the last few years has been north of what I would have had sitting "senior" reserve as MD-88 captain.

It's all about the Benjamins and quality-of-life.
 
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