I hope we looked pretty on takeoff. This is a very clean airplane, both inside and out. It is also a very nice flying airplane. We ferried from Dakar to Barbados to Ft. Lauderdale to Dallas Love Field. I'm told, it is to be a prop in a made for TV movie (series pilot) staring Heather Locklear.
To clear up a few details: This airplane 3D-NEG was never in the Hajj Terminal this year (or any year probably). It is an ex-TWA -50 which was in Tucson last year afer coming back into service. In July 03 we ferried it to Cochabamba, Bolivia where it was supposed to go onto a Bolivian AOC and off NEA's Swaziland AOC. The deal fell through for reasons I can not discuss. The airplane was then ferried to Dakar for a possible outbound Hajj contract which never came to light, because -I'm told- of a problem with the Saudi PCA procedures having been changed this year and that change never making it to those who filed our paperwork. Thus, by the time the PCA was approved, it was too late.
I am also the FE who flew the other L-1011 -3D-NEC- for last years Hajj. I was not paid for that work because of NEA not getting their money from a tour operater in Cananda...it's a complicated situation. I've been routinely assured by NEA that my back pay is coming, I believe them. I have already been paid 1/3 of that money before I began flying NEG this year and most all the guys have been paid at least a few thousand dollars (if they did not intend to pay us, why would they give us anything). 3D-NEC is still impounded in Burkina Faso where we left it last year. It is my understanding that there may soon be some relief on that because NEA has thus-far proven their case (that the money owed there was supposed to come from the Canadian company).
This year, we were not being paid by NEA, but by Flightstar Group/Tristar Capital, the owners of the airplane. They basically leased the AOC from NEA in order to operate it. We have been paid in advance every 2 weeks without any serious problems, even though we were in Dakar. This includes paying the flight attendants per diem in cash USD (not an easy task in Senegal).
That's it in a nutshell. I'm optimistic that things will work out for NEA and Flightstar Group in the future. Just my humble opinion.
PS. If anyone knows the other FE, from last years hajj, please refer him to this post or have him contact NEA, I'm told there is money waiting for him too.
Last edited by L1011PFE; 18th March 2004 at 03:45.