I dunno....
Pakeha-Boy,
No, I am not 'one of them'.....I was simply guessing why all this is going on.
I've re-read the posts, and I still think that fuel is not the underlying issue. Can't comment on East/West or North/South or Black/White...
I retired from my airline job four years ago. Tens of thousands of hours, no accidents, incidents, or violations. Training instructor background.
Please don't attack me personally. I neither agree nor disagree with you. I was simply expressing my thoughts based on what I've heard, read, and read here in this thread...trying to piece together everything to determine the truth.
Assuming that my thoughts are correct...that is, an additional 20 minutes of fuel is not the real issue...why did management single out these eight guys? USAirways has got...what...over 5000 pilots...and only these eight have asked for additional fuel? There's got to be something more to the story.
And, why a checkride? Back in my union days, my contract specified that managment couldn't do that....(get upset with a pilot and give him an unscheduled checkride)
But, I can tell you, there are airlines in the world that give unscheduled line checks when they're upset with a guy. The guy usually fails...many times the reasons given are incorrect... The guys gets on his knees in the chief pilot's office...says he's sorry...takes another line check (without further training) and magically passes.
Right, wrong, or otherwise....just remember, this can happen to you. You cross the chief pilot some day for something...and you're suddenly a sub-standard pilot. I guess these days, it's not hard to find an instructor who is willing to participate in this nonsense....i.e. he/she hasn't the guts to stand up to the fleet manager and say this stuff is wrong.
My last post on this...going back to technical issues.
Fly Safe,
PantLoad