diverdriver

Yah, and the price of gas is over 2 bucks a gallon. The cost of living in CA is outrageous. How can you say that getting 19.50 an hour isn't fair? How much do they pay in taxes for the privilige of living there?

LOL....your is possesive. You're is a contraction of YOU ARE. "not a personal attack unless you're a skygod....."

OOOooo...ooooooo! I know the first one. Ed Scott.

Actually, pilot/packer/rigger is probably your best combo. You can't realy do tandem/aff/video and fly at the same time but you can fly a load then pack all the rigs. It's what I did for extra pay in between IAD loads. Flew, then packed my ass off to get the next load ready. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

If he's refusing to fly ATRs period that's silly. But if he's refusing to fly into known freezing rain then he's right! Yet, that's exactly what some companies wanted pilots to do! Then Roselawn happened. There was a lot going on with that crash....anyway, getting side tracked. If a pilot refuses a flight then gets "fired" by the company our union will look at the situation and step in if the contract was violated. We DO get pilots their job back if we can. You'd be amazed the silly shit people get "fired" for. Sometimes I wonder if it's just for throwing their weight around and making us work on getting the job back so we have less time to work on other issues. But a pilot got fired for substance abuse. Did we the union step in? No. Hell no. Sorry to see it happen but no way we are going to go to bat for that. I have seen management abuse single employees. It was the elected employee representatives that could bring a sense of calm to the situation and get all sides talking. With no balance management could just run roughshod over the individual with no impunity. It's all about balance. Unions don't win every battle you know. We've fought and lost some issues too. People think unions are about secret meetings and handshakes and baseball bats. We're not all like that.

Pilot refuses to fly a plane that some mechanic manager has signed off as "safe". Fired? I don't think so. But that seems to be what you all are saying. There is absolutely NO reason a person should go on "strike". Well, there are plenty of reasons to stop working. ALL unions are not created equal. No, I don't believe the worker should be replaced. I believe the law says that the American worker has the right to unionize and if that contract with the company has come to the end then the workers have the right to seek "self help". Now, the workers could choose to continue to work during negotiations on the old contract. And there should be no sick outs or wildcat strikes. That diminishes your bargaining position in my opinion. But I don't believe they should be canned for not working when the contract runs out. That's why it is important for management AND labor to start negotiations well before the contract runs out. I just went through a near strike in 2001. We took it 20 minutes past the deadline. Airline negotiations are different as our contracts never really end. They become "ammendable" and we can't strike until a National Mediation Board member says we can go to a 30 day cooling off period at which time we can strike at the end. I think many here forget what unions brought about over the years. It's a check and balance. The companies want to beat down labor costs so they can get rich. People just want a fair wage to support their family on usually. If the upper managements guys are getting stinking rich on their backs why shouldn't they seek to share the wealth? They made the company go. Without labor a company is nothing really. It behooves all sides to play nice so that the company on a whole is successful and all can earn a comfortable living. Not all management is bad and not all unions are bad. But there are examples of both being bad. Tyco, Enron, United Airlines. They drilled their companies into the ground and 100s of thousands of workers lost their retirement funds and took pay cuts AND many lost their jobs. The fat cats at the top still got their MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BONUSES. That's fair? So yah, the 25 year employee that goes on strike should NOT get fired because he excercised his legal right to unionize and seek self help.

Handheld Radio = Backup A handheld radio saved my bacon once in IMC after a complete electrical failure. We got a Radar approach into MCI no problem. We lost the electrical half way down the VOR 3 at MKC with the tall buildings just to our side. Yipes! Yah, it might be rare but it's great to have if you're in a bind. But a more practical thing to get would be the handheld GPS. I use mine all the time. I have a Garmin GPS III Pilot. I recommend this as its price has come way down and it does a lot too. It doesn't have the largest screen but it does just fine. I used it to spot the World Record drops in 1998 at Ottawa and anyone who was on those attempts can attest to how accurate the spots were. It's a handy little tool and not big or bulky like some large screen GPSs. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

1024x768 on my Toshiba laptop. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

I have to take exception with this. I do NOT like the idea of jumpers convincing the pilot to do Zero Gs. Because what you usually get from the pilot is NEGATIVE Gs. In an Otter you can strike the tail very easily doing this. I have flown raft jumps and they NEVER needed Zero Gs to launch. Be careful what you ask for out there. You just might get too much of it. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

I don't doubt that Roger said that. It probably was at a time where there were a lot of pilots being considered. And to realisticly compete you had to have more time. I just didn't want people to think we ONLY hired 2,000 hour pilots then to find that we did in the past hire pilots with less than that. You know...PR thing. Gotta keep it above board. No worries dude. You were going on what you were told. But I feel it was situational right then. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

I'd say that is fair pay for a 182 pilot. It ain't great but it is NOT free. Yah, building time means you won't make much but you can certainly afford getting to and from work and can buy or are given food during the day. Getting into Turbine pilot pay it can vary widely. You can get a base salary plus. Or, you can have a salary per year like I did. Or you can get paid per load with a minimum load count. There's many, many ways that can all be done. I hesitate to post exact pay ammounts as I don't want someone being paid well to get pressure to have the salary cut on account of what others are paid. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Eh Hemm...sorry dude. But I started there with 1,400 hours total time. Minimums for hiring there have been 1,000 total with 100 multi-engine and I know pilots who started there with that much. Those times are pretty much insurance requirements. Now Roger DID send me to Flight Safety in Toronto for simulator training when I had about 100 hours in the plane. That is above and beyond what most DZs do. I know of a group of jump pilots in the North East that do a very rigorous recurrent training every year about this time. They sit in class reviewing systems and performance. They do actual inflight training with an empty airplane. It's done in house but it's quality stuff. Will it prevent all accidents? No. But it is much better than doing nothing. And that's what most DZs do for their pilots' recurrent training. Nothing. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

I do not think that could be accurately possible. The time which you currently see as your "registered" date is only since the last major revision of this website. There are many of us who were posting two versions before this one came to be; long before the date which currently shows up. I doubt there is any way to retrieve the original dates. That said, the "dropzone.com born-on date" wouldn't really add much value in my opinion. The amount of time a person posts on dropzone.com has no bearing whatsoever with their ability to jump out of an airplane without killing themselves, nor should it make any difference in whether or not you choose to take advice from someone on this site. Just my opinion. Chuck So this is the THIRD MATRIX? Oh, is the story over yet?

Did you read all the posts? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1018771#1018771

Eh, go ahead. We already know you're a geek. And also, I know they weren't using water to put out the fuel fire. I just like saying Dy-hydra Oxide instead of saying "water".

If there's only one FA on board (which it sounds like this was the case) then he might not be able to get the flight crews attention to call authorities. Also, being new (which it sound like this was the case) he might be hesitant to have someone arrested while still on probation. Sucks, but that's the likely scenario. It's not till you been around a few years and get jaded that you stop putting up with crap like this. I had two passengers fight on one of my flights and I had cops waiting at the gate to take them away in hand cuffs. I almost diverted but it would have been the same amount of time to go on to destination as to put down where I thought I could go. That's a bit different situation than being at destination with the door off and just wanting to get rid of them. They aren't gonna be able to do much to you. Now if he had shoved or brushed up the FA as he left I would have had him arrested as that is assault. Doesn't matter what part of the flight it happens.

Actually I don't know if that's the case. I know the terrorists put the plane into a dive to keep the passengers from regaining control. The plane started out above 30K but don't know where the dive started from. It's quite possible they went way over redline. I dunno. It's a very likely scenario rather than a "our boys shot him down" theory. When the AA Airbus crashed soon after 9/11 the engines came off that plane too. After the vertical stabilizer snapped the aircraft vibrated violently enough to get the engines to depart their mounts. And that wasn't even high speed. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Holy cow! That seems like an incredibly stupid thing to say in this post 9/11 world. I'm actually surprised they didn't call the police. --Art If they say it they probably aren't going to do it. He's just look for the "herd" to support him. Obvioulsly when he didn't get what he was looking for he shut up. I know the frustration. The general public does not understand the rules we live under for keeping THEM safe. Yah, like we like being the body shield between you and spinning props or other moving vehicles in the loading/bording area. It's what we're paid to do. Nice job WrongWay.

That isn't an entirely accurate statement, Chris. There was at least one LET 410 that was being used to fly contract missions for the Army on Fort Bragg; it crashed on a blown MPU (message pick-up) contract flight for my last unit. Unless I am mistaken, that contract plane generally operated out of Smithfield, NC. Chuck Military aircraft do not necessarily conform to civilian regulations. They can do whatever they want. They can fly whatever they want. But when civilians are involved they have to be at least FAA "Normal Category" certified to carry passengers. I remember years ago at Quincy they brought in the "Sky Truck" and everyone onboard was a "potential buyer" to get around the regulation. But it certainly isn't something that flys regularly in the US. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

ROFLMAO!!!

Yes, they are using that new chemical. Very errosive. Dy-hydra Oxide.

Overspeed structural failure. No missile necessary.

There's no oxygen that early in the morning. That's why we sleep!

The Lets we had were all single crew. So not really an issue. Bryn Oh, ok. Wheeeeww... Man I thought I had heard it was a single pilot plane but got confused. Some ops may choose to fly it with two pilots but it seems that only one is required.

It requires 2 pilots? Oh man I didn't know that actually. That blows. Yah, when you start hiring 2 pilots to do one pilot's job you don't make any money flying that plane with jumpers.