Mr Bloggs said
"Captains are the worst. How many still fly the freighter? If I were a Freighter Pilot, I would definitely be pissed off if I seen a mainline Capt. flying the freighter or an F/O that did not have to. Taking away my pay rise. If anyone deserves a payrise the freighter guys do."
That has got to be the biggest crock of sh@t I have read for years. TAKE AWAY MY PAY RISE What a lot of rubbish!! The Freighter Captains get commands in 2 years...Why? because they seriously bypass the seniority system by about 7-8 years, they willingly do it and are not forced to. If they wanted to they could wait and join the passenger fleet after 3 years and have all of the pay and conditions that goes hand in hand with the Pax COS. Those that accept the early commands, know they are doing it for less than PAX FO pay!! and hardly hold the moral high ground in the "who's screwing who" stakes.
In fact the Freighter crew joining the airline and accepting the poor pay has for years cheesed me off, it delayed my command 5 years, took away 5 years of command pay and increments and, not only have we not had a pay rise for 13 or so years we have had pay cuts!. Why because some guys accept the fast commands for crappy pay! and then have the audacity to complain about it and blame the PAX guys.....un blooody believable!!!
If I see a PAX crew member flying a freighter it makes me warm and fuzzy because it confirms to me that Cathay can afford to pay A scale to fly the freighter (and to all of their Capts). There is something like 30 PAX Capts rostered for full freighter rosters this month plus many with freighter flights. The airline is not bleeding to death because of it.
Basically ASL. Cathay Freighters, has been a complete disaster, it has done a complete 360 and ended up with PAX pilots propping it up because as the pilots told CX in 94 ish when it was "invented" it was just going to be training system for 747 endorsements for folks who would take the early command and run. Regretably it has also turned pilot against pilot, just as was predicted when ASL started. I would love to know the total cost of all of the endorsments of those who have failed or resigned over the years, the costs of running separate management teams, all the ill feeling etc etc if it was worth it financially?. Cathays reputation has not exactly been enhanced because of the freighter debacle.
I certainly would have no guilt about flying the freighter if I were on the 744, A scalers flew the freighters 18 years ago and as I said CX can still afford to, and are paying A scale rates to keep the freighters flying right now.
One thing for sure....I am glad I don't have to sort out the mess that Capt O created.
CHEESED CYRIL
Last edited by CYRILJGROOVE; 25th July 2007 at 10:44.