Batavia
The few days I have been around the operation itself, have been relatively problem free. I will continue to post if I seen anything that is extraordinary, either good or bad. Most companies I have worked for have aircraft that carry MEL items. Some are better than others, but since I spent time at Eastern in the days leading up to the strike, I saw more than my fair share of bad mx problems. Routinely we went without apu's, had inop packs, or wx radar, and a slew of other problems. I know what bad mx looks like, having had to deal with it day in and day out during the days of Frank Lorenzo (it still kills me to mention his name, after what he did to a once proud airline).
The biggest problem here (as in many other places), appears to be with the APU's. We had one MEL'ed the other day on one of my observation flights, but the other AC was in good shape for being 15+ years old. Looking through the logbooks, it appears that MEL's are fixed in good time, so while Cruiseclimb's contact may have seen problems in the past (and I do not doubt that, especially if he is on the 737-200 fleet), safety and mx appear to be priorities now.
As I have said before, I will not take an airplane that I consider to be unsafe to fly. I haven't done it in the past under threat of discipline, and I will not do it now. I would rather be without a job than to end up a smoking hole in the ground. And if there is an incident, even if not caused by the MEL item, then it will be my license on the line. Unsafe, I don't take it: no ifs, ands, or buts.
Other than the DGCA license validation process which is extremely slow, everything else has been as promised here. I will try and answer all the pms and any other questions posted here, and give updates as I go.
I have gotten a few PMs about the type of 300/400 we have here. The fleet is split pretty evenly between anolog (with an FMC) and EFIS, with the 400's all being EFIS and at least two of the 300's. The simulator used for the PC's and evals though is anolog, so that will give you an idea of what you will need to know for the eval.
Keep the blue side up,
Hooger
Last edited by Hogger60; 17th Oct 2009 at 04:24.
Reason: Added information