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Old 8th Feb 2004, 06:58
  #19 (permalink)  
Lucky Strike
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Hang on Danny,

TinyTim has a point.

Althouigh I don't work for them any more thankfully;

At one time all the chat re BACX was done via Pprune on either the BRAL thread on this website, when it existed, at the time moderated by 'bral' I think, or the Brymon link when it existed.

When BACX was formed of course those threads were amalgamated into the BACX thread. But then the Pprune thread seemed to get infiltrated by management types. I say seemed because their was massive distrust between management and pilots, so maybe it was paranoia. Anyway, BALPA started their own website that dealt with BALPA matters, but also included a rumours and news thread, moderated by various members of the Company Council.

Because we (at least I) felt free to express opinions once more, even under my own name rather than a user name, it soon became an exchange for frank veiwpoints once again. Just about about the point of a previous industrial relation downpoint, BALPA's website crashed, losing all postings previously made. When it was fixed, it was minus all the interesting stuff, like when a fat manager seconded from BA left an engine running on a rear engined aircraft and went to the HOTAC, only to be recalled to shut it down (memory fails, but it was something like that). I only mention this because absurdly, any minor infringment of procedure or SOP became a trial without jury or even a witch hunt and the outcome of the investigation was liable to be plastered all over the monthly newsletter in a writing style that inferred incompetence of those involved. One bloke was ASR'ed for crossing a stop line on a taxiway, under ATC instruction, by a member of the managment team who at the time was on a turnround on a different aircraft type. Think popular PPL flight guide for the name of the manager, there are a few different flight guides to guess at.

If I remember correctly, BALPA reckoned their website had been hacked, so they improved security and re-instated it, minus all the interesting stuff as I wrote previously. Now all this might be speculation, rumour, slander, whatever. But about the time BALPA's website took a hit, BACX were closing various bases. At the now closed outstation I was based at, we had one BALPA member who was also an ambitious trainer. All the confidential stuff from BALPA, all the contents of our BALPA noticeboard, all the minutes of our BALPA meetings got faxed off to the fleet manager; this sentence is not guesswork, I was a fellow BALPA member and also a trainer and was privy to some of the management goings on.

My recollection of those times is fading, current BACX pilots correct me if I'm wrong at any point in this posting. but all this speculation about how the original BACX thread disappeared may be a symptom of of the distrustful relationship between pilots and managment at BACX, but maybe this website was nobbled, and you shouldn't be dismissive of the possibility.
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