Good post Dune!
Zomp,
Why not write to CK.....You might be surprised to find out that you have an ally as far as DECs are concerned. The pressure for DECs has been coming from non-(ex)operators.
For Captains, the company believes that lots of hours equals a good Captain and that paying more money means you get a better one! I think its all a crock of sh*t so I tried to think of an appropriate analogy.
1 When buying a new toilet you don't get a bigger toilet coz if you do you'll fall through the seat into the sh*t.
2 You don't get an older toilet because it might be crap and anyway you'll have to change it sooner and therefore end up in the sh*t earlier.
3 If you spend more money on the toilet, you might get a bit of gold plating but no-one can see that anyway when its covered in sh*t.
So what are the options??
The answer could be staring you in the face. Rather than spending god knows how much to find out if a toilet in a house in, say Hong Kong, works; why not check out your own bathrooms first.
All you really want is a toilet that works. You might even find one or two that haven't been in the house for 3 years, but if they do the job they'll keep you out of the sh*t!!
You know what; you can even get an ISO 2000 award that says 'We invest in people!' EK likes awards.
The problem is that rather than managing the situation we seem to have cookie cutter rules. When the cookie cutter doesn't work they throw it away and get a new one.
Hours can be almost worthless as a measure of experience or capability. Using another analogy; our managers would have to sit around until an older, less capable guy but who had lots of hours sitting in the mailroom popped his clogs. Only then would he be able to jump up the tree. He'd complain and say 'but I have 3 degrees from Harvard and one from Stanford in Engineering'. Management would counter by telling him that the mailroom guy has 14 from Bombay, 3 from Croydon and one from Outer Mongolia in Underwater Carpet Weaving.
For the money, but more importantly time spent, on the initial batch of DECs they could have reviewed the files of all the First Officers in the company to see if any of them are suitable upgrade candidates irrespective of any numerical constraints. They might get lucky and it would buy them time, stave off a few DECs, regain some credibility but above all prevent them having to push the sh*t uphill. They could still do it, and probably would, if they were concerned about the company's best interests rather than saving face.
The analogy meister, apologies to Universities in Bombay, Croydon and Outer Mongolia, just off to the loo....quick get a hostie into the cockpit to look after the F/O.
Cerberus
