Federal Court Grants US Airways' Request For an Expedited Hearing On A Preliminary Injunction Agains

[Move2CLT]

Unqualified to answer. Sorry, I don't know how the DoD and US interact. Above my pay grade

A very thorough and tough audit.

 

[SparrowHawk]

A very thorough and tough audit.

OK and does it deal strictly with maintenance? I'm trying to educate myself as I had no idea the DoD was involved in commercial aviation or the context of their involvement. Any light you can shed is appreciated. Thank you

 

[Move2CLT]

It deals with every aspect of flight ops. And it is heavy on the maintenance program of the airline being audited.

EVERYTHING is scrutinized.

Before the DoD allows it's people to travel on an airline fir military business, etc. it has to be approved and it has to maintain that status through audits performed by inspectors sent in by the DoD. It's not a cursory inspection by any means. Procedures are checked, records are scrutinized, and ops are observed. They don't just come in and give you a nod after a day of walking around.

 

[BoeingBoy]

A new acronym for you SH - CRAF. It stands for Civil Reserve Aircraft Fleet (that's close enough anyway - it might be Air Fleet. Airlines can volunteer to have their aircraft/crews commandeered by the military with in times of need - like moving a unit to/from the Middle East. You've undoubtedly seen video of troops getting on/off a civilian airliner - it was common in the two Iraqi wars.

Anyway, all U.S. airlines with intercontinental equipment is in the CRAF program. Hence the DOD audits them. It's similar to a thorough FAA inspection. Checks maintenance, procedure compliance, jumpseat rides with crews, etc.

Jim

 

[SparrowHawk]

A new acronym for you SH - CRAF. It stands for Civil Reserve Aircraft Fleet (that's close enough anyway - it might be Air Fleet. Airlines can volunteer to have their aircraft/crews commandeered by the military with in times of need - like moving a unit to/from the Middle East. You've undoubtedly seen video of troops getting on/off a civilian airliner - it was common in the two Iraqi wars.

Anyway, all U.S. airlines with intercontinental equipment is in the CRAF program. Hence the DOD audits them. It's similar to a thorough FAA inspection. Checks maintenance, procedure compliance, jumpseat rides with crews, etc.

Jim

I actually know the CRAF acronym. What i did not know is the level of oversight/Scrutiny the DoD maintained.

 

[cactusboy53]

No, the sadness is rooted in the apathy of pilots both east and west to take control away from the AFO club. Donations on one side and union extortion under the guise of Agency Shop on the other are nothing more than the admission price to a battle waged by lawyers, rather than being fought (metaphorically, of course) by the pilots themselves through a new representation election.

Those unwilling to repudiate USAPA are giving it their tacit approval.

The "Best Money I've Ever Spent" braggadocio from both sides is galling. That same money could be invested in replacing USAPA and returned in the form of a pay increase.

I will agree with most. I stated that the 2 million spent was the best ever spent on litigation. That said, the west pilots were forced into doing so by actions of the east.

I'm "ON BOARD" for constructive changed of USAPA. If any of you reading are MIG's & wish to see change as well, please go to: www.reformusapa.com. Complete the three petitions and mail them to the address indicated ASAP.

Thank you.

 

[luvn737s]

Do you think any of the current east west problems could have been lessened had Parker chosen an entirely different name for the merged airline, rather than retaining USAirways? Do you think there is real value in the name USAPA and the legal judgments against it?

 

[SparrowHawk]

Do you think any of the current east west problems could have been lessened had Parker chosen an entirely different name for the merged airline, rather than retaining USAirways? Do you think there is real value in the name USAPA and the legal judgments against it?

I think ditching the name US Airways might have been a good idea. I will tell you this as I have first hand knowledge,

When US came out of BK1, US actively discussed changing the name to Piedmont due to the highly favorable reputation Piedmont had/has. The only reason the idea was scrapped was US felt it couldn't afford to re-brand the entire carrier.

I won't comment on USAPA.

 

[767one]

On write-ups you have something of a point - if they were followed up by maintenance repair" or MEL's one could say that they were valid. However, the company is also claiming that write-ups were delayed so as to cause delays. That is hard to prove for either side. I wouldn't be surprised if hub maintenance and/or maintenance control kept a log of the call-in times for write-ups. Something that would be found on walk-around but was called in 2 minutes before the door is supposed to be closed raises questions, for example.

You mentioned f/a items called to the captains attention. Most of those are cabin log items - reading light out, seat xx won't recline, etc - and don't need to be fixed at all, much less when they're found. That's the whole point of the cabin logbook, to record items that aren't "fix or mel". If maintenance saw a big uptick in those items appearing in the aircraft maint log it would also raise questions.

The taxi time is a different animal. If there is a sudden increase on one side of the operation, after considering factors that could have produced the change, one has to ask the obvious - were the previous taxi speeds to fast for safety or are the current slower taxi speeds due to something besides safety. As someone else said or implied, it a damned if you do damned if you don't situation for the individual pilot - slow down in the name of safety and you're admitting you were previously unsafe, say you were previously safely taxiing and you're admitting to a slowdown.

I don't know if you're familiar with the amount of data collected by the company as required by the DOT. You or anyone else can download the data showing the taxi-out and taxi-in times for every flight every day plus a lot more - air time, fuel burn, what time block-out/in occurred, etc.

Jim
You bring up valid points. I can only tell you what goes on from my perspective. I have not changed the way I do my job at all and have not noticed any change in the way others operate. I will admit that my point of view is from PHL to DUB with some PHL-PHX and PHL-CLT. While I have not had many flights with 5 or 6 mels I have had a number of mels that really open the door for Mr. Murphy such as generators, fuel pumps, fuel transfer problems. My last trip through CLT I did notice that the operation seemed to be a bit slow at that particular time not because airplanes were moving slowly but because their seemed to be more traffic than the ramp, taxiways' and airport in general could handle. I think I have only operated 2 flights on time this month so far but if the aircraft is in the hangar or inbound at sched. departure time it is impossible to be on time. The flights I flew to PHX this month and last month 2 out of 3 times had an aircraft on our gate until 20 min after sched. arrival time which makes it hard to be on time. The one time I was going to be on time departing PHX after doors were closed the jetway came back and the entrance door was opened and a mechanic came to the flight deck to tell us they found out the cap was missing from the lav service panel. From the number of calls I listen to on company mtc and ops freqs I know that these things are not just happening to the flights that I'm on.


Bob
'

 

[necigrad]

Do you think any of the current east west problems could have been lessened had Parker chosen an entirely different name for the merged airline, rather than retaining USAirways?

When we merged and Parker explained why US Airways was picked over America West he said that they surveyed name recognition and found good and bad associations about equal, but that US Airways was recognized in more locations. My immediate thought was that more people thought US Airways sucked more then America West. Personally I think AWA had slightly less baggage with its name, but they should have gone with something else. That might have toned down a bit of the animosity between the workgroups at the time of the merger as well.

 

[Claxon]

When we merged and Parker explained why US Airways was picked over America West he said that they surveyed name recognition and found good and bad associations about equal, but that US Airways was recognized in more locations. My immediate thought was that more people thought US Airways sucked more then America West. Personally I think AWA had slightly less baggage with its name, but they should have gone with something else. That might have toned down a bit of the animosity between the workgroups at the time of the merger as well.

What difference would it have made? The cheap paint job would have quickly have worn off revealing the underlying turd combination of both loser airlines. Parker is incapable of running an airline and the comparisons with both losers would start immediately.

 

[Res Judicata]

What difference would it have made? The cheap paint job would have quickly have worn off revealing the underlying turd combination of both loser airlines. Parker is incapable of running an airline and the comparisons with both losers would start immediately.

Parker has led US Air into record profitability. You guys always emphatically claim he can't run a airline. You look like idiots every time you say that. Nobody gives a damn that you're pissed off Sumardson, least of all the shareholders.

 

[No Land Green]

Parasites "follow" the don't "lead" or "led" as stated above.

The industry will not allow Parker to run any of the Big Three......

 

[BoeingBoy]

Jim
You bring up valid points. I can only tell you what goes on from my perspective.

And I appreciate your perspective. As I said a few days (or longer) ago, I don't claim or believe that every East pilot is involved in some kind of slow down. But the magnitude of the changes Lee reports would indicate more than 10-12 are involved (forgetting the fascinating discussion of statistical methodology that was way over my head). A couple of hundred, though, would be plenty to cause the effects Lee reports.

To me, from just reading Lee's report, the weakest claim the company has is the maintenance write-ups - especially the claim of doing it at the last minute to cause a delay. Perhaps the company has specific evidence not contained in Lee's report but as I replied to someone it would seem that if maintenance fixed or MELed whatever the write-up concerned it would prove the validity of the write-up, at least to maintenance. But calling out a mechanic for a reading light (a hypothetical example) at the last minute would cause a delay since a mechanic would have to sign it off even if that sign-off was "deferred".

The thing that struck me about Lee's data is the rather large change that occurred simultaneously is several different metrics. Airport congestion can increase but not normally jumping one day. Write-ups increase as a fleet ages (or a fleet type develops a unique problem) but not on one day. Taxiways deteriorate but it doesn't happen overnight - someone mentioned the "pot hole" at the edge of 5/23 and a taxiway but that's been there for years, not appearing overnight). Etc.

In short, I think USAPA has an uphill battle on it's hands. I read their filing last night and their defense seems to largely be based on legal technicalities - some law that may or may not apply according to the crew room lawyers here, the company being guilty of shenanigans too (although not proven in the NYC suit), and other things like that.

But we shall see how it turns out...

Jim

 

[BoeingBoy]

The industry will not allow Parker to run any of the Big Three......

I don't know if US will merge with anyone or not, but "the industry" won't have any say in who runs an airline. The people with the money will.

Jim