Visualized: Airliners In the Sky
An oldie but a goodie. It's just simply amazing that I make up a few of those lines every now and then and coming soon, I'll be JFK to SAN too! Can't hardly wait!
Mint Yourself and Lay Flat!
I can't wait to welcome you aboard!
Flying Mint felt like being courted. Virgin’s Main Cabin Select felt like a waning long-term relationship — the attendants on my flight (as we know it’s luck of the draw) didn’t try as hard. That said, Mint is a newer contender. Let’s hope the romance lasts.
via NYTimes or for more info, head directly to JetBlue's Mint Page!
My Life at Work... in HD
The way it works here in the US is that rules disallow crewmembers from using an electronic device that is non-essential for duty while on the flight deck. Good thing another guy filmed it for me at his seat on his plane or his airline or made a compilation (read: it's not me) but a job has to be cool enough in order to be away from family right?
This is my life. (the music helps a lot too)
I still miss my family everyday I'm gone.
2014's Best and Worst Airlines
The Wall Street Journal released their metric of airline rankings that compares the major US carriers in categories such as "On-Time Performance", "Cancellations", "Complaints", "Involuntary Bumping", etc.
It's great to be part of the #4 airline and I'm hoping that while I'm here, I can help bump that up even more! Here's the 2015 and keeping the Blue side up!
On the other side of things, it's not really surprising to see United consistently near the bottom and never getting past #7 in any of the metrics used. It should also note that Major carriers don't necessarily include the performance of their regional partners into their own.
Avoiding Turbulence
Stronger computing power, improved satellite and radar technology and more sophisticated scientific models have all given airlines a more detailed understanding of flying conditions. This means they can better plan their operations before flights — for instance by canceling flights early and avoiding stranding passengers at airports. During flights, they can better navigate around storms and avoid turbulence.
Just so you know, we definitely try our best to analyze and determine the best flight path for our guests. You're welcome and thanks for flying with us.
Experience the Invisible Highway!
Narrated by Harrison Ford, watch and appreciate the excitement of flight all over again! A lot of people take it for granted with all the maintenance delays, weather, abysmal airport experience but when you think about it, you're flying the sky higher than Mt. Everest at a speed of around 500 MPH!!! Sit back and ponder that thought for a moment in what the human race has been able to achieve in only century of flight. http://youtu.be/WYAjtoHr0nw
AVIATION: THE INVISIBLE HIGHWAY is a story about how the airplane has changed the world. Filmed in 18 countries across all 7 continents, it renews our appreciation for one of the most extraordinary and awe-inspiring aspects of the modern world. The documentary is produced and directed by Brian J. Terwilliger (“One Six Right"), narrated by Harrison Ford, and features an original score by Academy Award-winning composer James Horner. It’s scheduled for a 2015 release.
If you need a refresher for the miracle of flight, watch Louis C.K. on 'Miracle of Flight'. If you haven't watched “One Six Right", then you should definitely check it out now!
Major Airlines Creating Their Own Pilot Shortages
This is one of the most comprehensive views on the current state of the airlines in the United States. Read the article in its entirety. I'm living it along with some of my best friends and it's getting rather ugly.
The nation's big airlines want you to know that there's a dreadful pilot shortage and they apologize profusely if their commuter-carrier partners cancel flights to your hometown airport due to the debilitating shortfall.
The nation's big airlines don't want you to know that their commuter carriers, which operate half of all the nation's commercial flights, often pay pilots so little that it's often financially wiser to drive a truck or flip fast-food burgers than fly a plane.
A first-year co-pilot at a commuter airline may earn as little as $19 per flying hour. After five years with a commuter airline, the average salary is just $40 an hour. For the lowest-paid pilots at a carrier such as Mesa Air Group, which operates flights for both United and US Airways, a 60-hour work week means an effective pay rate of just $8.50 an hour. That's barely above the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and below the more than 10 bucks President Barack Obama is making federal contractors pay their workers.
At American Airlines, senior management that came from US Airways to run AA netted $79 million in stock sales during the last month. At the same time, however, American pressed for another concessionary contract at American Eagle, its wholly owned commuter airline.
What Pilot Shortage?
Matthew C. Klein on Bloomberg sums it up in one awesome sentence.
If airlines want to replace their aging corps of experienced pilots and continue serving second- and third-tier cities, they are going to need to boost pay and raise ticket prices. Alternatively, they should ditch unprofitable routes. At least that strategy doesn't require making up stories about pilot shortages.
For further reading, check it out from an Insider's Perspective.
The Truth about Regional Airline Pilots' Pay Wages
I've written about this topic before but in light of the upcoming tentative agreement voting window closing today at 10 EST, why not post another about the real wages of the airline pilot. In fact, I wrote a few which you can find here. My Schedule / Rest and Regulations At my airline1, we are guaranteed 75 hours a month at rates of $43.59 an hour for first officer and $74.89 an hour for captain. My first year here, I made $19.02 an hour and didn't even break the poverty level for a family of 3 let alone barely rise above the family of two2. Not to mention that my loan took 70% of my paycheck too but yes, I did chose this profession3. I didn't know what I was in for either but ignorance was / is bliss.
A portrait of these hourly pay scales becomes even more pathetic when you consider that regional airline pilots, who are paid only from the time the airline leaves the gate to the time it arrives at the destination, only are on the clock on average about 21.5 hours per week.
For a first-year co-pilot at Republic Airlines, for example, that translates into gross weekly pay of a mere $495 per week.
For a pilot with 10 years’ experience at SkyWest, the weekly gross paycheck might be around $1,312.
But, then you have to consider that these wages don’t nearly reflect the hours that regional airline co-pilots and pilots have to put into the job.
Although they may only be on the clock 21.5 hours per week or 85 hours per month,” pilots typically are away from base, and from their families, about 240 to 300 hours per month (or about 60 to 75 hours a week),” according to the Airline Pilots Association.
For the lowest paid co-pilot on Mesa Airlines earning about $22 per hour, this imbalance works out to $6.80 an hour for a 60-hour work week.
Make sure you navigate over to skift for a full on perspective with pay scales and fancy charts too! Also for further reading, check out "The Truth About the Profession".
- On average, I personally safely fly 150 people a day four times a week. Just yesterday, this airline recorded over 2206 departures second to Southwest! ↩
- $17,170 for 3 / $13,690 for 2 via http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/07poverty.shtml/ ↩
- Just to clarify, I am a 7th year commercial airline pilot who recently made captain. The quality of life on a reserve schedule is a whole other topic. ↩
New Flight Time Duty and You, The Flying Public
Come this January 4th, your commercial airline pilot operating under Part 121, me, will be flying under newly implemented rest rules. Created two years ago and finally being put into play, these rest rules allow for a STRICT, non reducible, 10 hrs of rest with a mandatory 8 hrs for sleep opportunity. With today's rules, I sometimes can find myself down to 6 from a given overnight time of 8 hrs and that's a good night. Unfortunately, there have been less in rare instances but I never deemed myself unfit to fly. Have I called out fatigued before, yes. I wrote a small PDF document that I included in a post over four years ago and if you never checked it out, here the link again. I also did a "Part 2" which you should check out as well.
But anyways, here's a great post of how it'll affect you, the flying public. Who knows how it'll really play out, but airlines have been gearing up for this in the last few months. Some have even said that it could cost them more than $25 million annually!
So what does this mean to you? Well, don't go and travel on bad weather days especially in the afternoon. Fly in the mornings. In the afternoon or night on bad weather days at large airports, there will be flight crews all timed out being sent to hotels at airports they weren't supposed to be at in the first place and planes and passengers stuck there until morning or until they get another crew in place.
Here's a link to the actual new FAA Final Rule and ALPA comparative literature on the difference between the current and pending rest rules.
British Airways' new Awesome Billboard Points at Planes!
Now this is an awesome feat! Talk about British Airways one upping its marketing model! Wait, nevermind. It's taking it to new heights! Watch the video. I know of a perfect place for this too in San Diego!
Developed by Ogilvy 12th Floor, the ads use custom built surveillance technology which tracks the aircraft and interrupts the digital display just as it passes over the site, revealing the image of a child pointing at the plane overhead accompanied by its flight number and destination it’s arriving from.
http://youtu.be/GtJx_pZjvzc
Pooping on a Plane
This isn't about my personal story but I will admit, I've had instances and small wars with my bowels. In fact, I know of quite a few other pilots with similar stories that started off with a hot wing eating contest the night before a 10 hr day. I couldn't have written a better story with as much visual commentary so I leave it to you Mr. Financial Banker. An except from a Goldman Sachs most embarrassing private plane ride.
I manage to peel back the leather seat top to find a rather luxurious looking commode, with a nice cherry or walnut frame. It had obviously never been used, ever. Why this moment of clarity came to me, I do not know. Perhaps it was the realization that I was going to take this toilet's virginity with a fury and savagery that was an abomination to its delicate craftsmanship and quality. I imagined some poor Italian carpenter weeping over the violently soiled remains of his once beautiful creation. The lament lasted only a second as I was quickly back to concentrating on the tiny muscle that stood between me and molten hot lava.
I reach down and pull up the privacy screens, with only seconds to spare before I erupt. It's an alka-seltzer bomb, nothing but air and liquid spraying out in all directions – a Jackson Pollock masterpiece. The pressure is now reversed. I feel like I'm going to have a stroke, I push so hard to end the relief, the tormented sublime relief.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." My apologies do nothing to drown out the heinous noises that seem to carry on and reverberate throughout the small cabin indefinitely. If that's not bad enough, I have one more major problem. The privacy screen stops right around shoulder level. I am sitting there, a disembodied head, in the back of the plane, on a bucking bronco for a toilet, all while looking my colleagues, competitors, and clients directly in the eyes. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" briefly comes to mind.
^^^ hot lava!!! :) I died about there.
Virgin America Ups the Competition
Virgin America one upping the safety video category with this amazing and truly entertaining video directed by none other than Jon M. Chu http://youtu.be/DtyfiPIHsIg