SocialD

Woah, hope that's fake news. If true...have fun with the sex in prison! Sadly, the RUMINT appears to have been correct. Choked his wife and one of the kids after threatening one of the kids with a knife. https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-commander-arrest/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2rHg1JhqYYayGPFOzdEIxjXRb-krMCQ0OEZc0p-wWhrmG90vrdSqCEZDE_aem_PwOT72aP4x2wwD8QDmDK6Q

I'll echo the above. I'm a fortunate 2014 hire and so far in my career, I've made it to 55% as a 737 FO, 92% as a 330 FO, 8% as a 717 FO and now 20% as a 717 Captain. The best QOL and money I've made at the company is from the 717 (even as a FO), all of it attributed to my seniority in seat. I get all the vacations I want, the trips I want and days off I want. I have no problem making plans 9 months out because if it's not vacation, I'll get the days off no problem. Being senior in seat also allows me to have nearly complete control of my schedule. I've already dropped, swapped and traded my entire July schedule away. So right now I have nothing on my schedule and will just pick up easy/short turns (DTW-GRR-DTW being the holy grail) or trips that are one leg out at night with one leg home in the morning. I'm only able to do this because of being senior in seat (and live within an hour of base). Get senior and stay senior, even if it means staying a FO. Chase the QOL and this job is pretty dang incredible. I'm considering bidding back to 320FO because I'd be 5% in seat and hold a schedule of high time day turns. Day for day, high time turns as a 320FO pays better than 717Capt. Even without that, I'd probably make more in that seat anyway.

Hearing rumbles Delta is stopping classes for a while as well. It was bound to happen sooner or later. We have something like 20% more pilots than we did before rona, with close to the same flying hours. Couple that with the Boeing fiasco and Bus engine issues, it makes sense. You don't need pilots for planes you don't have, or can't fly. With ~500 retirements/yr, that will help mitigate any furloughs. Furlough is extremely expensive in both money and training turmoil. I'm not saying it's not the start of something bigger, but I don't think it's time to pull the fire alarm yet. I remember circa 2016ish, when we stopped classes for a short while, the guys came out of the woodwork to scream fire. I guess eventually they'll be right. That said, I flew with a FO recently who left AD a few months ago with no Guard gig. While I certainly respect the clean break, I cautioned him at being a recent hire with few backup plans. Plenty of AOC gigs out there that require little commitment, but provides a nice insurance policy. I didn't feel comfortable leaving until I was ~60% on the list. It turned out that I was much better than that, but I certainly wouldn't want to he sub-75% without a backup plan.

Too soon.

Real estate professional. Check that box and your deductions add up fast. A buddy is a 320 Captain with 30+ properties...his effective tax rate is eye watering.

If I remember correctly, the one that crashed at NFW was an AF guy as well. For his sake, hope it's not the same guy. 1 ejection per career is bad enough.

Such a garden spot with plenty of hotels and a location with super easy access. Makes sense they pick this ROW...

Springer Johnson is spot on! If the weather is nice tomorrow, I'll be stopping by the airport on my way from my airline trip, to go bounce around some local grass strips.

I bid reserve most of the year and drop days so as to only be available on 1 or 2 days stretches. It's just getting harder to drop days and the trips are generally shit as of late. So when I know I'll be used a lot on reserve (summer), I'd rather just pick my poison, or have the option to dump my trips and pick up broken up trips that are way better than bid packet trips. If you're talking when I was WB, I was junior 10% and got used quite a bit on reserve. I actually have less TAFB and more nights in my own bed on a NB than I did as a WB guy.

Everything becomes just a job, not everything is as cool as flying. I spent lots of time not flying in the military and nearly 100% of the time I did not enjoy those duties. However, the flying I got to do was so fun/rewarding that it offset the mundane non-flying tasks for most of my career. Eventually the sting of those non-flying duties, paired with being gone (TDYs/Deployments), ever changing tactics/systems, it no longer offset it for me. This is when I knew it was time to retire. Do I wish I could still go hop in the jet and fly a High Aspect BFM ride, you betcha...do I miss all the other BS, not a chance. I would 100% say go for it, I can't imagine you'd ever regret it.

Lots of rumors on this one, with no real solid evidence. It's going to suck for this girl if it turns out to be false, because her name has already been drug through the mud. Like the accused rapists that turned out to be innocent and just a victim of a scorned chick, it's really hard to unring that bell.

Looks like they voted to not allow any amendments to the FAA authorization bill, so it's done for now. Lol, I remember someone in DAL leadership saying we were now going to be a boutique airline of about 7,000 pilots. Last I checked, we're over 17,000. Obviously uncle sugar bailing us out helped that, but it's just more proof they really don't have a clue about how it will all end up. I certainly wouldn't expect the government to save us like they did during CV19. Take out all the Boeing/Airbus issues and I doubt we're stopping hiring like we're seeing right now. On the plus side, it sounds like age 67 is dead for now, so that will certainly soften the blow of any furloughs. As always, make sure you're in a seat that you're willing to be stagnated in for quite a while. Doors can close anytime.

Awesome! I retired last summer at just over 22 years (DSG) and I haven't missed it at all. The amount of free time I now have is unreal. Congrats and best of luck in your next chapter!

Late to the party. I got my initial FC1 (circa 2005) with a waiver for GERD. The waiver required an upper endoscopy every 3-5 years to keep tabs on my condition. Nearly every time required a dilatation and they'd take a biopsy. They actually ended up "retiring" my waiver even though I was "borderline" for eosinophilic esophagitis. We had a Guardsman Flight Doc who was a DO that was head of his department a local college hospital system. He was the DO who did my last 3 scopes. I was never actually diagnosed me with EE, but he said I'm headed that way. FWIW, he wasn't too concerned with a possible EE diagnosis. Hope it's a non-issue for you, but based on my experience, I'd thinks brwwg&b is probably on point.

Glad to hear! Just going off what my broker shared and what some of the locals at my airport are seeing. The broker said they just had to tell one of their long time customers that he's probably better off just self insuring at this point. He's 70 with no accidents. Hope yours continues to stay reasonable. I flew international before, but was displaced during rona. Chose 717 FO for seniority. Opted to stay on the 717 and upgrade rather than reinstate to the 330. I found that one time zone was way better for me than doing international. But I also live local and can often snag day turns where TAFB is less than pay. My last two day trips I was back in my house before 1300. To me, a layover is a layover...all I need is enough time for a quick run, maybe a beer and 8 hours of sleep, though I prefer to never layover if at all possible. Most of my domestic cities aren't any worse or better than the same 6-9 places I went international. AMS got boring after the 69th time I was there, nevermind I was constantly walking around with a headache. I think I could fly longer do this over ocean crossings all the time.

We'd have to see the entire picture and understand their motives. I also put nothing in my 401k because the company is funding it at a pretty substantial rate. However, I have multiple other income streams and don't have the expectation that I shouldn't have to fund any of my own retirement.

If you're talking about age 60 to 65, that isn't true. We only changed to 65 AFTER ICAO raised it to 65. They changed their age limit, circa 2006, based on data. Since you bring up the age increase, it's a good point to include. Those at the top knew about an upper the limit when they chose this career. They've already benefited from those leaving ahead of them AND they got 5 more years than they had planned. They also can continue to practice their craft, just not hauling the general public. I had to sit and listen to a senior WB FO lecture me about why I should support 67 because he "needs" it. Nothing to do with discrimination, he just said he was unable to save any money in his 401k because he "had to pay for college for 4 kids." My counter is you did not NEED to fully fund your kids college, you chose to do that. It's admirable, but a poor decision if you're choosing that over funding your own retirement. All he did was increase the likelihood that his kids will have to support him later in life. He could have funded part of college, while still saving...they'll make their own money. I told him I enlisted in the Guard to pay for college and offered contact information for my base recruiters. Others told me they didn't contribute to their 401k because they didn't think they should have to fund their own retirement. ...uhh wut?! If you don't think it's moral to have an age limit, then I can respect that. I disagree with it because we have all sorts of age limits for various reasons, of which most are value. But it's OK to disagree.

The status quo is 65, so the onus on data for such a change is on the pro change crowd. I was talking with my aircraft insurance broker yesterday and they said insurance premiums skyrocket in your mid to late 60s. Not sure what data they're using. Either way, I've never been a backer of the safety thing. Some are capable, some are not, same with those under 65. I'm with Ratner, I don't see anything wrong with the age limitation that everyone has known about, worked under, and benefited from their entire careers. We're all impacted by the same restriction. Nothing says we can no longer practice our craft, we just can't do it to haul the general public in the U.S.

The ones wanting status quo are not the ones drawing an arbitrary line. But ya, it's fun watching guys who got where they are by pilots retiring in front of them. Yet now that they're on top, they want to stay and suddenly it's unfair and discriminatory, but only because they didn't get their pension back.

I hear the same about the AAL 777 runway incursion at JFK. Lost the data because they then flew a leg to Europe. As long as it's not a video camera, which this isn't, then I don't see it as an issue.

We already have something like 6-9 hour CVRs, what is going to 25 going to change? I guess someone may hear my ramblings on how to best exploit the contract to get the most pay for the least amount of work.

Looks like Age 67 may be dead.

Classic example of 0200 at the bar vs the next morning regret.

Entrenched civilians we're the biggest pains in the ass to deal with in my career. Too many of them still quoting AFR 35-10 and CBPO. For you young punks, that's AFI 36-2903 and MPF respectively. There should be term limits for these guys as they as their contacts/references/etc... have a shelf life. One of the worst I dealt with was a logistics dude (who will probably die in his job) at Spang when we redeployed through there in 2018ish. Dude thought he carried the weight of the Base/CC (probably becuase the CC hated dealing with him and let him run amuck), and was one roadblock after another.

Hopefully a 63 or 64 year old willing to fall on his sword on his way out the door a little early. ...legends live forever!