DHL A300's

[ActungTommy]

So just reading between the lines of another thread, thing a bit quite with the A300's at the moment? Just asking because i am concidering a change. Thanks for any gen that might appear,

Happy New year to one and all.

[TWOTBAGS]

Considering that DHL just cancelled the January 5 course with two weeks notice and have left some guys that had quit their jobs to start with DHL with nothing…..

I do mean nothing, no job, no money, no start date, no nothing…. What a lovely Christmas present and a great start to 09 form DHL LEJ.

So maybe you should consider a different avenue, and it is true as my best mate was one that has been left out in the cold.

[ActungTommy]

thanks for the heads up, any more tails appriated.:eek:

[CaravanDriver]

At EAT they try to save money just as every company due to the economical situation. 2 A300 are grounded and will return to the lesser. This is the reason that all the contract pilots will not get a renewal of their contract and the ACL pilots that came with the ACL A300's will also leave the company. It is very said as we loose a lot of good, nice colleagues. This is probably the reason that the course of the guys you mentioned is canceled. I hope good times will return asap and hope it will not get that bad that they will start firing EAT pilots.
Also at the moment, and this for the first 2 weeks of the year about 7 aircrafts are not used due to the reduced business of every new year.

Regards

[mumsilein49]

@caravandriver
The 2 A300 you mentioned are parked since month, so it would have been very easy to inform those unlucky guys due to start their 300 course tomorrow before they terminated their contracts with their previous employers. But: This behaviour of EAT`s management is nothing new. If they need you they kiss your feet and if they don`t need you they kick your ass.:}

[Piper19]

Indeed 2 busses are out of the roster now, and the whole airline is flying a reduced shedule until somewhere mid January. Wouldn't surprise me if they keep flying this shedule longer. It worries me a bit because the week before christmas normally is the busiest of he year, not this year...

[DIRRIK]

Are the airbusses parked OO-DIB and OO-DIC leased from Air Contractors?
Grtz

[CaravanDriver]

Yep, DIB and DIC are from ACL, and just to correct: DIB was parked already a month ago, DIC only since a week.

@mumsilein49: I never claimed it was a nice move, could be better indeed.

[dixi188]

I see OO-DIC is still operating.
It's doing LEJ-LTN tonight.

[CaravanDriver]

And latest news is that OO-DIC wil stay till further notice.

[Black Knat]

And they are now short of captains/FOs & FEs again? GOOD FORWARD PLANNING!!!!!!

[dixi188]

OO-DID went to MST on Tuesday to be painted white and then going to the desert, according to maintenance.

[Mafferick]

I dont know how i must feel now ....

The AB's are great aircraft, great they can stil fly ... but loading is another question ...
we need most of the time 7 persons to push 1 AAX - AAC Container on the upperdeck ... The planes need a new rollerbed . OO-DLE is terrible and wont be loaded or unloaded anymore at brussels ....

cheers
mav

[freightdoggy dog]

Mafferick,

Poor maintainance and no Loadmaster will = sh!te rollertrays and ballmats.

Channex's DASA A300's were like a Philipino hand job, smooth and silky :D

However I remember that the DHL bins were the crappiest bits of tin in Europe.

Big Hi to all the "OLD" Channex F/E's and Ginger Beers at DHL....From FFD at the poolside in Dubai .

[Piper19]

well poor maintenance... I hope you have some evidence to that as I can tell you that mx at EAT is up to high standard. We never heard anyone complain about roller beds, so we assume them to be good between inspection intervals we give them. If not, just report it and it will be fixed. Of course, if communication goes wrong...

[johnnyDB]

There's only so much one can fix on a dinosaur.

[Dengue_Dude]

Considering how long the dinosaurs lasted - over a hundred and sixty million years!

Be careful what you wish for !!

[MrIkea]

The fact that those ball mats are so crappy lately is "the loaders own fault"... Seen the temp's & icing lately, they have been pooring enormous amounts of salt on the steps,
which sticks under their shoes and causes the poor things to get stuck...

Cleaning their shoes would definitely help! It's as stupid as it sounds :)

Maintenance isn't too bad lately, with a big thanks to all the contract company's... Especially seen the resources...

DIC is at the moment still flying (till the end of March?)

[Piper19]

I was on the ballmat problem yesterday, first time we got a maintenance request to check those ballmats. Engineering told us that balls were sticking on a new (!) ballmat so they wanted us to investigate that. Well, they did have rust on them and they were all sticking, so something is going wrong here. I still think the biggest problem about them is communication. Loaders are reporting this for ages (we know since yesterday...), maintenance cannot lubricate them, and the people in between these two groups are just laughing at their desks. Well, at least they don't know new balls from rusty ones.
We are forbidden to lubricate them on the spot because this collects dust, so it will only work for 3-4 days, but after that it will worsen. Also, we did lubricate them once, because the containers could not get in otherwise, and we got a delay because the pilots tought there was a dangerous goods spill on the ballmats.

DIB and DID are out. Painted white and stored. Strange because DIB and DIC are two different a/c equipment wise compared to the other airbusses. But I guess they know what they're doing.

[dixi188]

I sure that the operations side would like to get rid of the 2 non standard aircraft. ie: OO-DIB & OO-DIC.
However when the bean counters get at the numbers I expect they want to get rid of the two cheapest ones.
Shortest remaining lease time, Least penalty clause, Heavy maintenance due, will all come into the equation.

Heard a rumour that another A/C might be parked and OO-DIB re-instated.

As for ball mat problems, Channel Express engineers used to dismantle and clean the ball assemblies at the weekends in CGN. An ongoing program to ensure reliability.

Our man at LHR knows all about it. They made up some tools to avoid all the bending and kneeling.

[HAWK21M]

Can Greasing & sealing the ballmat be considered.
regds
MEL

[RampTramp]

Hawk, greasing is probably the worst thing you could do as all the crud then sticks to the balls & makes it worse after one load sequence. Also you can't seal the units completely as they need to rotate & go up & down to absorb shock/weight.

There has always been a problem in the winter with those ballmats but this year has been the worst and maintenance can't keep up, either with the amount of work or spares provision. One example was mat changed one weekend & reported as bu**ered by Wednesday!

RT

[Piper19]

Correct about the sealing and greasing as I said before. the changed mat you talk about is the same problem I described, and it was not a new mat. Letting maintenance change an old mat by another old one doen't solve the problem.

[Fish Head on Final]

Only way to solve this is to chance the ball unit.
and your pallet is going to fload..

[Black Knat]

So what's the latest on the A300s?

[CaravanDriver]

Latest news is bad news. 2 More A300 are stopped:\, 8 upgrades go back in the right seat:ugh:, 16 Fo will be fired together with 8 Fe:{.

[Black Knat]

Sadly it looks like they are going..going..almost gone. Bit surprised as they were good workhorses and not that expensive to run.

[hetfield]

BTW,

anyone who knows where the 5 LUFTIE A300-600 went (feb 09)?

thx

[eurotranspilot]

it is very sad news about lossing 2 more A300. I survied lossing my job, this time.

Do you know about any other plans to reduce the number of A300's?

My friend who is a F/O with DHK told me that OO-DLN and OO-DLP will be transferred to DHK as all the horse charters are being done by them this summer. He said they had also delayed taking the EAT pilots who are going onto the B767 until the third aircraft arrives. All this does not sound to good for the Boeing guys, lossing aircraft and having to many crews.

I hope there is no more bad news for EAT. Why do DHL keep attacking EAT and DHK seems to never be effected?

I just want to fly and do my job but it is difficult with all this bad news.

[Mr Angry from Purley]

eurotrans
Sad times indeed
Not heard the rumour about DHK doing horse charters, let alone 2 aircraft.
The flexibility within the network easily allows DHL to plonk EAT aircraft at the right place and right time so it makes no sense to me?
The Boeing guys will come in for the 3rd aircraft, why not? They are type rated so it doesn't take long this was always the idea. Not so for the A300 pilots who are coming earlier.
Attacking EAT and not DHK, just bad luck, bigger planes, different leases etc. DHK have suffered but not so significant/public compared to EAT (DHK is a different airline to EAT, out sourced Engineering etc)
Just got to keep head down and hope the grim reaper doesn't turn up :\

[CaravanDriver]

Yep, sounds as one of the many rumours that are spread. The same as the one I heard 2 weeks ago, just before the announcement of the 2 A300 going away, that DHL bought another 16 B757's from BA.
It is on the other hand told by people that went recently to AUH for maintenance that a total of 6 A300 are planned to go away depending on the economical situation. 4 Left already so if this info is correct 2 more might go.
Also the heavy maintenance will be transferred from AUH to Dresden.

Regards

[euroflyer]

The 2 aircraft configured for horse charters are OO-DLN and OO-DPJ.
I doubt very much your information is correct regarding the horse charters.
As far as I know EAT crews will join the 767 operations around September according to the last meeting.
Getting rid of 757s would make no economical sense due to long term lease contract etc..The A300 is another story of course.

[Mafferick]

Hello

OO-DID is parked at brussels and missing some big pieces like the left engine and so on .

what ? 16 ex-BA 757's ?? were did you hear that ???

ken

[despegue]

DHL wants actually to get rid of the B757 and replace them by the B737F.

[Piper19]

OO-DID in BRU gets a new engine in this week. It will go back to the leasing company flying for another company. It is held in flying condition despite what you think of loosing that engine earlier.
So what busses are gone now?
DID, DIC, DLY and? DIB?

About the BA 757, nothing heard about that. Openskies however, operating under BA, wanted a few of the ex-BA aircraft and this deal did not go further because BA saw a potential client who would buy a complete batch at once. It was in Flight magazine, correct me if I remember this wrong.

[MrIkea]

It's funny how everybody hears a different story...

Anyway here's mine,
757's from EAT to DHK looks unlikely but on the other hand does make sense in the economical point of view (lower costs at DHK and maybe now with the weak pound...)

2 more A300's are "confirmed" UNless this crisis picks up again... If you can believe maintenance (who always know more imho) , probably May...
To avoid collective dismissal laws in Belgium it's in their best interest to wait till EAT's new 'quartal' (whatever the correct English word might be...) Which is around that period...

Whatever way you see it , this is also a sneaky way to force people to be lej-based in order to climb up seniority list and all that...:yuk: (as they don't fire lej-based people)

And about those 737's , won't be operated by EAT or DHK but Swift or Bluebird...

[Mafferick]

i only know and seen that they took pieces out the DID to keep the DLW flying on the EMA-BRU-EMA line .

a boeing 737 is now flying on the VIT-BRU-VIT line .

when can we expect the 767s ? as i heard a pilot telling he was going for the training on it .
heard that the 767s wil fly on the BRU-LOS-BRU runs .

[RampTramp]

Latest info is that the 1st B767 will arrive in August & operate BRU/LOS/LEJ/BRU to replace current WO MD11. No firm dates on the next 2 but should be before end of the year.

RT

[Mafferick]

also heard yesterday that the flight JFK-BRU-EMA-JFK wil be stopped as from may , doesnt look good for my job ... when this plane leaves brussels then we have a mayor issue here !

ken

[Dengue_Dude]

Quote: as they don't fire lej-based people

The first 3 of us to go were ALL LEJ based - so that's BS for a start.

[Black Knat]

Depends if you are talking about the same thing. The facts are with EAT that A300 crews based in LEJ have not been made redundant whereas other A300 crews with greater seniority but non-LEJ based have been made redundant.
Edit: I should add I'm talking about pilots-I'm not sure what the basing was of the 8 FEs.

[boeing 707]

The 3 FE LEJ Based Fired the first week of Feb,were fired by Managment Mistake,but it is to late to recovery:*

[James T. Kirk]

The latest from the office is that they might return one A300 to service in May. Has anyone else heard that one? Anyone know how they'll crew it after dumping the crew?

[CaravanDriver]

Hmm, strange,I heard the opposite. 2 More A300 might be grounded as from may on if the economical situation is not getting better. That will bring us back to the level of about 3 years ago. Well lets wait and see.

[CaravanDriver]

Well, if they really going to get one back in service then I see a bigger plan behind it: First they fire 24 crew members due to 2 A300 going away. In the meantime the people coming at the bottom of the list in Bru ask for Lej base and a little bit later they return one A300 and ask the people that were fired to come back but Lej based:sad:. This is just a theory but watch out, still a cheap way of getting more people Lej based.:ugh:

[fergineer]

Dengue Dude, Sorry to hear that you have been let go by the company......are you still headuing off on your hols or have they been put on hold......regards
Fergi

[Dengue_Dude]

Sorry mate the world is FUBAR and it's obviously rippling down. Irony is I left previous company for EAT for job security. There must be a lesson there ... Somewhere!

[fergineer]

There will always be another time, I am not going anywhere..............hope it all turns out ok..............b4 you know it you will be back in the thick of it.

[eurotranspilot]

Lose 2 A300, one comes back. This is so confussing. All I want is to keep my job. Seems like B757 going to DHK was BS rumour put out by guys at DHK. You would think they would have more care for their fellow pilots in trouble.

Does anyone know about last months results?

I am thinking of going to the LEJ base at least for a couple of years, as I am getting closer to the door in BRU every day.

Lets hope the cargo numbers picked up in Feb otherwise I will make the LEJ move.

[euroflyer]

eurotranspilot

There are as many rumours coming from EAT and DHK, it is most of it speculation, always the case in aviation when things are not going very well..
A lej base would not be a bad move if you can accept the commuting and accomodation but don't take decisions like that too quickly as they could affect the rest of your career.. that would be my advice..

[MrIkea]

@ eurotranspilot...

I wouldn't take a decision like that too quickly... As far as we know we are relatively ok at the moment. According to most station managers loads are increasing again... And if you have a good look at the loads we carry these days on the A300 , they aren't too bad...

For now they even refused a f/o who wanted to go lej-based his decision... so my advice is wait and see. You could as mentioned before ruin the rest of your "career" with eat.

The fact that they only have 2 f/o's lej-based and aren't/having been recruiting activly lej-base says enough...

Anyway just my two cents :)

[Piper19]

So current situation, 4 busses on ground, 1 in repair for the damage on the wing, 4 more to go, rumour, but gonna have more info on this soon.

[MrIkea]

From the latest, 4 more to go seems VERY unlikely. 2 seems a more optimistic/pessimistic correct number.

By the end of may we will know more...

4 On the grond (1 in rosswel already) and as far as I know the damaged one has been fixed.

[Mafferick]

Hi all,

The move from brussels to liepzig took them into big losses .
what we hear at brussels is an integration of dhl into aerologic ....

lets wait and see ...

ken

[CaravanDriver]

The announcement is the result of the special workcouncil requested by the unions. They are asking some clarification concerning the current situation and to clear some rumours.

[Dengue_Dude]

Since I was already made redundant, I feel for you guys in EAT. It must be a really difficult time for everybody and morale plummets at times like this.

It is much easier for me as the 'deed is done' and the guesswork is over.

I've got another job, not flying but a professional post where my knowledge of aviation is valued.

My point is this, there is life AFTER redundancy, it's easy to be SO focussed on whether you are going to get 'hit', it is possible to forget that life goes on afterwards.

If EAT ring up when all this is over, the answer will be 'thanks, but no thanks'.

Good luck.

[fergineer]

Glad to hear that you have found employment Dengue its not too hard to get out of the flying game......the mney is a lot less but its a pleasure to know what you are doing in the days to come instead of the lack of that in the flying world. 6 years outsided now, new country and less stress.......loving every minute of it too.

[mumsilein49]

First big announcement today: The CEO got sacked.
Second big announcement today will be after the works council meeting.
Most probably further cutbacks of airlift capacity and signific:ooh:ant job cuts.:eek:

[hvydriver]

Sorry to display ignorance here, but which CEO are you referring to?

[mumsilein49]

CEO of EAT in Brussels:}

[Managed Descent]

That's now about 60 people gone and this company is still not compliant with EU FTLs. Wonder what the competition thinks about that?

[boingdrvr]

Sorry, but I'm going to express some more ignorance from the states. What do you mean by "EU FTL's"

Which side of the DHL house are these dismissals coming from, EAT or DHLUK ? When you say "dismissal", are you saying they are fired with no rights to recall as in "furloughed" as we understand it here in the states?

Thanks in advance,
boingdrvr

[wheelbarrow]

Yes boingdrvr, that is how it usually happens over here in Euroland You get 'made redundant', are given a very small severance package and retain no rights to further employment with tyhe company when things improve. At the moment the cuts are from EAT.
The EU introduced a new Flight Time Limitation scheme in July last year. EAT have not implemented them, using various delaying tactics. These will result in more crews being required to operate the schedules, so it is highly dubious that they are laying crews off while not being compliant with EU law!
Hope this answers your queries.

[hvydriver]

WB, truly sorry to hear that the DPWN plague has reached even Europe. If the stronghold of DHL isn't safe, then nothing is. I hope it works out for all of you. Good luck!

[boingdrvr]

Thanks Wheelbarrow.

I see what you and other posters mean by DHL's non-compliance. Here in the States "non-compliance" is "business as usual" for DHL.

I hope things turn around for you guys and DHL realizes that they are just spitting in the wind. On this side of the pond we gave up holding our breaths waiting for that to happen a while back.

Cheers.

[ZiverAir]

Hellooooooo
might be time to do something. No ????????????

[wheelbarrow]

What is your suggestion?

Any other suggestions on a self addressed postcard to:

EAT
Brussels Airport
Zaventum

[despegue]

Strike for your rights!
What sissies are you guys?!?!

[dixi188]

Anyone see todays webcast?

Any new info?

I missed it, got the time wrong.

[A300BOY]

Director of Ops said not much progress between the crew reps and the management made but discussions on going. Union want to enter negotiation phase now to give more time to get a deal for affected staff members but company are not receptive to this idea.

[despegue]

For God's sake why doesn't the Union call a strike?! At least all affected EAT pilots should get the chance to move to DHL-Air UK.
Get negotiations going to fly the LEJ-IST with an OO- registered A300 instead of having to use MNG. (TNT also uses its own equipment)

[white44]

The Essex Autothrottle

Whatever happened to the EssexAutothrottle?

This was a brilliant piece of kit fitted to the last A/C I flew for a living.

It was voice activated, and had a wide range of functions, not all of which were always fully appreciated by pilots.

Technology moved on however, and I guess the supposed advantages of computers made this kit uneconomic. However it saved engines and airframes from abuse in ways that computers never could, but the bean counters would never have figured that out.
http://static.pprune.org/images/statusicon/user_online.gif http://static.pprune.org/images/buttons/report.gif (http://www.pprune.org/report.php?p=4880429) http://static.pprune.org/images/misc/progress.gif http://static.pprune.org/images/buttons/edit.gif (http://www.pprune.org/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=4880429)

[ZiverAir]

Adress it to Beca instead and join. The more we are the srongest we will be.

[dilmon]

Another airbus will be removed from the fleet.
4 iso 3 as earlier enounced.
Bad news doesn't stop.

[dixi188]

Down to 10 A/C.
Rumours of 6 by Christmas.