It’s been another typical screw up. You’re just putting on your second sock before another 0-dark hundred departure when the hotel phone goes and the GE tells you that the incoming flight which you’re supposed to be flying back on a max crew duty day once it’s been turned hasn’t even landed yet. As it takes rather longer than a RyanAir 20 minute turnround to service our museum pieces, you and your hundred grunts are obviously not going to be able to get back as planned as you’ll be well out of CDT. Do you:
a. Phone Ar$ecoat Ops and say “Do what you’re paid for and give us a clue about a revised itinerary”
b. Say “They’re only grunts, they can sleep on the floor whilst we have another night out on the pi$$”.
c. Say “CDT is for weenies - we'll just press”
d. Come up with a cunning plan, get another chum to check it, then ring Ar$ecoat and get them to agree. Then get another ‘ching’ from the co-pilot, go out for a couple of beers and then leave the next day at a sensible time rather than the daft time Ar$ecoat originally planned.
Whereas you might go for option d, (hopefully), the difficulty comes in explaining yourself to the Chief Grunt when, contrary to what the movers had assured you, they haven’t been back to their barracks but have indeed had to sleep on the floor -and he thinks that you deliberately went for option b! Of course what should have happened is that Ar$ecoat Ops should have noted the departure message from the delayed ac, then issued a revised itinerary based upon a feasible departure time and their plethora of rules, not just dropped the problem on the captain 10 hours later when it was too late! Who, when rung them, still had the flight coming out on the original departure time before the delayed ac landed - clearly impossible! Option c., sorry Army chums, just is not acceptable - unless there are clear operational imperatives, all the crew agree to it and the extension is within the rules......
Ever since this happened to me, on that particular itinerary I took to working out the latest possible time when I could ring CartoonTown International to get an unfiltered estimate of the inbound ETA so that I could, if necessary, inform the crew of the delay before they started Crew Rest Period - and so that we could get our pax home with the minimum delay!
Ascoteers in the main work pretty hard to get the job done - even though you may not be aware of what goes on. But I sympathise with the mate who found the Akrotiri DF shop filled with flight crew when there were 100+ passengers on their way home from Iraq waiting to be served! Of course we used to be allowed to nip up the back stairs near the feeder and get a quick bottle that way - but Plod has stopped that.....
Last edited by BEagle; 30th May 2003 at 14:41.