DFO Update

[cxorcist]

Is our DFO British or French? That cheese he wrote in the first paragraph of the 8 Feb update almost made me :yuk:. Was that for real or was he trying to be funny? I'm used to the wine about the airline's financial underperformance, but this cheese really takes the cake. Does he really have nothing to say that cannot be found in the company-wide update? Perhaps this is indicative of his leadership - all fluff, no substance. One would think he learnt in grammar school like the rest of us that if you don't have anything meaningful to say, don't say anything at all.

[Progress Wanchai]

I actually found it refreshingly honest to admit if you're a snake you'd fit in well at FOP's

[Steve the Pirate]

I'm used to the wine about the airline's financial underperformance, but this cheese really takes the cake

Maybe he was thinking of a wine and cheese party? :)

As it happens, some fine cheeses come from both the UK and France but whether a Stilton is better than a Camembert is clearly a matter of personal taste. Naturally, either would be preferable to Kraft's 'Easy Cheese', which tends to be, er, all fluff and no substance.

On your last point:

if you don't have anything meaningful to say, don't say anything at all

Wise counsel indeed. :E

STP

[AnAmusedReader]

Really? Didn't your grammar school teach you the difference between 'wine' and 'whine'? Some grammar schools did for the rest of us.

[cxorcist]

Amused Reader,

For me, wine and cheese goes together a lot better than your whine and cheese. Did you educate beyond grammar school where one might assume you've seen word play like this before? Thanks for the spelling lesson though. I suppose that would be a 3 on my ERAS from an omniscient (spell) checker like you.

STP had no problem picking up on it, why do you suppose you did?

[Frogman1484]

Boring…yawn!

[buggaluggs]

Or, divert when needed.....;)

[geh065]

Don't bother with extra fuel. Why would you? If they want you to divert because you took their fuel then do so.

[bm330]

Sitting in Shenzen after a 2 1/2 hr flight from Beijing is a little different than at the end of an 18 hr day from JFK. Refuel and go is not an option on a ULH flight and sitting for 5 or 6 hrs waiting for new crew to show up to ferry you 10 mins down the road is not acceptable. Carry the fuel or fix the ATC.

[broadband circuit]

Carry the fuel or fix the ATC.

Understandable sentiment bm330, but the sad truth is that nothing will change until we cause pain and headaches for the bean counters.

Clearly, the many hour delay waiting for a 10 min ferry causes you much more pain than carrying the fuel, but what causes more pain for the accountants? Is it the occasional cost of a ULH diversion, or the cost of the extra fuel?

Not being a bean counter, I don't know the answer to that. My semi-educated guess (reinforced by the DFO's comments) would be the extra fuel on a ULH. On a regional, a diversion would probably be more of a headache (read "cost") than the extra fuel. Medium haul (Aust/M.E./India), who knows.

I suggest you adopt the "punish the bean counter" fuel policy.

[Captain Dart]

I've said this on another thread, but operating into HKG during the summer is getting to be a worry. The inaccurate forecasts, traffic-choked 'weather gaps' and the occasional really bad day when all the alternates fill up or are under the same weather system are holes in the classic cheese from Switzerland.

There was an incident last summer of multiple TCAS RA's when ATC 'lost it' in bad weather, also supposedly a 'turn back' to the reciprocal runway by a low-on-fuel wide-bodied airliner. If these are not 'heads up' incidents, I don't know what are. Another Asian summer is coming. We are not idiots, and we 'play the game' with the fuel uplift when conditions are benign. But otherwise we will NOT be pressured on fuel decisions by office wallahs or shiny-bottomed management pilots.

Perhaps the DFO should be concentrating a little more on his own department's basings administration and compliance with the law, rather than his pilots' 'fuel awareness'. A little bird tells me that the money that they will be paying in fines to the French government would otherwise pay for an awful lot of fuel...

[Pucka]

Experience..experience and experience..that's where airmanship and the best decision processes come from..you don't get that sitting on your arse in kitty land...

[Arfur Dent]

Well said Captain Dart. The whole essence in a nutshell. Perfect if you'd just mentioned the word TAX as well!:ok:

[bogie30]

CP 777 has repeatedly assured us that taking flight planned fuel corrected for ZFW changes will have no consequences should a diversion ensue. However he has also asked that we drop the fuel if we can but without the same diversion assurances. Why would I ever take less than FPF if there is a chance of D & G for dropping the fuel?

[China Flyer]

It's obvious, isn't it, Bogie?

And yet people continue to work on G days, and continue to take less than CFP...