Plane Talking - Ben Sandilands on the money yet again!
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Earth!
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ummmm not really
Afraid not. No airline can absolve itself from legal responsibilities by outsourcing. The law is pretty plain on that.
Sandilands is perhaps getting better, although he still occassionally gets the technical specifics wrong. (Not surprising as he isn't a subject matter expert, etc). I remember him writing a piece on the JQ botched G/A saying that JQ had altered their AFM, when it fact it was the SOP that was altered. he didn't seem to understand the difference between flight manuals (ie FCOM vs AFM etc).
Sandilands is perhaps getting better, although he still occassionally gets the technical specifics wrong. (Not surprising as he isn't a subject matter expert, etc). I remember him writing a piece on the JQ botched G/A saying that JQ had altered their AFM, when it fact it was the SOP that was altered. he didn't seem to understand the difference between flight manuals (ie FCOM vs AFM etc).
Agree that we are at a turning point, especially re senate enquiry outcomes. If new regulation comes from a bill drafted around the evidence presented so far, we may all be able to sleep better, hopefully at night and not at flight levels.
The period of pressure-testing and then breeching regulations by LCC, seemingly allowed due to perceptions of special relationships, is over. CASA has been exposed napping in oversight of the majors and will no doubt act far more swiftly to cover the Minister's backside. Reporting protocols to ATSB have been exposed as inadequate. Safety departments will likely get regulated substance. Foreigners should not be working here without proper approvals and IR laws might get a boost. Lets hope that the big end of town decides not to fight to water down this bill behind closed doors.
The period of pressure-testing and then breeching regulations by LCC, seemingly allowed due to perceptions of special relationships, is over. CASA has been exposed napping in oversight of the majors and will no doubt act far more swiftly to cover the Minister's backside. Reporting protocols to ATSB have been exposed as inadequate. Safety departments will likely get regulated substance. Foreigners should not be working here without proper approvals and IR laws might get a boost. Lets hope that the big end of town decides not to fight to water down this bill behind closed doors.
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone is zero
Posts: 731
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Lets hope that the big end of town decides not to fight this bill behind closed doors.
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Australia
Posts: 128
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Great journalist
Ben performs an important role in our industry: untouchable journalism.
The Airlines advertising spend is huge; the editorial influence is clear. Their ability to pamper and manipulate politicians is well documented in PPRune – I'm referring to the shenanigans in the Chairman's Lounge: "chance" meetings, iPad gifts, upgrades denied to the rest of us and so forth.
Ben cuts to the chase, and although not many stories reach mainstream media, I hope some influential critical thinkers – such as Senator X – read Ben's blog, because it gives clear perspective.
There are a few members of PPRune hostile towards Ben but it seems obvious to me they are from the Dark Side pretending to be one of the lads.
The Airlines advertising spend is huge; the editorial influence is clear. Their ability to pamper and manipulate politicians is well documented in PPRune – I'm referring to the shenanigans in the Chairman's Lounge: "chance" meetings, iPad gifts, upgrades denied to the rest of us and so forth.
Ben cuts to the chase, and although not many stories reach mainstream media, I hope some influential critical thinkers – such as Senator X – read Ben's blog, because it gives clear perspective.
There are a few members of PPRune hostile towards Ben but it seems obvious to me they are from the Dark Side pretending to be one of the lads.
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: sydney
Age: 76
Posts: 260
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
How gullible are you ? This guy writes a few articles that suit your view point,he is a hero . Check what he wrote back in the early nineties and back in the CC dispute of the 80s. guess who he favoured then , oh of course the piper that paid the tune.
Sorry unionist? Who is paying Ben this time? The only side with the ability to do that is the airlines, and he is most certainly not on their side.
Maybe he sang a different tune in the past, but at the moment he is singing from our hymn book and while that is happening we should support him!
Maybe he sang a different tune in the past, but at the moment he is singing from our hymn book and while that is happening we should support him!
Unionist1974:
Trolling again. Why would an alleged engine mechanic know or care what Sandilands wrote back then about cabin crew?
Your disguise is wearing a little thin.
Check what he wrote back in the early nineties and back in the CC dispute of the 80s. guess who he favoured then , oh of course the piper that paid the tune.
Your disguise is wearing a little thin.
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Australia
Posts: 128
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I don't think it's a case of being gullible. I read the transcript of the Senate hearings, and Ben reported the stuff that mainstream media – with their hands in the airlines pockets – would dare not report. I don't know about the 90s, but the results are certainly there now.
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Adrift upon the tides of fate
Posts: 1,840
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I heard that Sandilands wrote for Hitler, eats babies and farts in church. Should make it so much easier to refute what he writes, shouldn't it unionist? I look forward to your crushing rebuttal; Qantas is well managed etc.
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: In the sky, mostly
Posts: 47
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
You should know by now if it's not the terrorists to blame, it is Gen Y 
Generation Z - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
*Wikipedia suggested name for the presently unnamed generation born from 2010 onwards.
Why would anyone have supported the CC during their various disputes and strikes in the 1980s? CC managed to get support from many of the ground staff unions over the issue of Staff Labour only to resume work after a couple of days strike and turn their collective backs on the ground staff who were out for quite a few weeks. The FSAA (or whatever it wath called) deserved censure then, while history has not revealed anything to change this view. Unless one is a Revisionist.
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: MELBOURNE
Age: 54
Posts: 23
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The last Cabin Crew Strike internationally was in 1981 over the introduction of the 747-SP aircraft and i believe it was about inadequate crew rest onboard and fatigue management issues but i stand to be corrected.
All of the Union officials that were involved in that dispute have gone the way of the dodo. To suggest that the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons is a little rich.
current crew have fought battles over offshoring of crew since 1997 and have reached an agreement to at least CAP the number of overseas crew to 25%.
You can't even have an agreement under the current laws that contains such a cap so it relies on the hand shake deal which the company has honoured.
If the law changes i am sure that Cabin crew would love to have the cap placed into an enforceable agreement but that's only likely to happen if a deal suits both parties.
Unions can no longer work together with any form of action as secondary boycotts are illegal and unions that even threaten to take action in support of another union can be sued including officials and members taking part.
Time to wake up guys the world has changed.
remember the time when all the unions used to work together under the ACTU and do one EBA together...it wasn't cabin crew that broke up that solidarity it was the TWU who were the first to walk away from collective strength and do their own deal....cabin crew have been going it alone for years
All of the Union officials that were involved in that dispute have gone the way of the dodo. To suggest that the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons is a little rich.
current crew have fought battles over offshoring of crew since 1997 and have reached an agreement to at least CAP the number of overseas crew to 25%.
You can't even have an agreement under the current laws that contains such a cap so it relies on the hand shake deal which the company has honoured.
If the law changes i am sure that Cabin crew would love to have the cap placed into an enforceable agreement but that's only likely to happen if a deal suits both parties.
Unions can no longer work together with any form of action as secondary boycotts are illegal and unions that even threaten to take action in support of another union can be sued including officials and members taking part.
Time to wake up guys the world has changed.
remember the time when all the unions used to work together under the ACTU and do one EBA together...it wasn't cabin crew that broke up that solidarity it was the TWU who were the first to walk away from collective strength and do their own deal....cabin crew have been going it alone for years
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Alabama, then Wyoming, then Idaho and now staying with Kharon on Styx houseboat
Age: 61
Posts: 1,437
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Why would anyone have supported the CC during their various disputes and strikes in the 1980s? CC managed to get support from many of the ground staff unions over the issue of Staff Labour only to resume work after a couple of days strike and turn their collective backs on the ground staff who were out for quite a few weeks. The FSAA (or whatever it wath called) deserved censure then, while history has not revealed anything to change this view. Unless one is a Revisionist.
Management normally gets the unions it deserves.
I have no wish to revisit the highly unionised days of the past. I have plenty of my own stories of mind bogglingly vicious and counter productive union behaviour.
However I also remember some pretty vicious and counter productive management behaviours....
The earliest was queuing in the rain with my punch card waiting to clock off while the managers drove past us and out the gates of the Ammo factory at Footscray every night.
Then there was the unionised @#%$ that cost me a trip to one of the Kangaroo exercises simply because the paint shop wouldn't accept some aircraft sheet metal for painting if it was delivered by hand...it had to be delivered by "the transport section" which added Two days to a fifty yard journey and a twenty minute job at CAC.
I have no wish to revisit the highly unionised days of the past. I have plenty of my own stories of mind bogglingly vicious and counter productive union behaviour.
However I also remember some pretty vicious and counter productive management behaviours....
The earliest was queuing in the rain with my punch card waiting to clock off while the managers drove past us and out the gates of the Ammo factory at Footscray every night.
Then there was the unionised @#%$ that cost me a trip to one of the Kangaroo exercises simply because the paint shop wouldn't accept some aircraft sheet metal for painting if it was delivered by hand...it had to be delivered by "the transport section" which added Two days to a fifty yard journey and a twenty minute job at CAC.
Sandilands is perhaps getting better, although he still occasionally gets the technical specifics wrong. (Not surprising as he isn't a subject matter expert, etc). I remember him writing a piece on the JQ botched G/A saying that JQ had altered their AFM, when it fact it was the SOP that was altered. he didn't seem to understand the difference between flight manuals (ie FCOM vs AFM etc).
Ben does understand the difference, including the legal FACT that, if the FCOM differs from the AFM with regard to a procedure, the FCOM is wrong, see CAR 138 and CASR 21-35.
The AFM prevails, period, has done since mid-1998, when CASRs 21-35 went into place. Lots of people in CASA and the industry "professionals" are very slow learners, with many pre 1998 FCOMs (or equivalent) remaining unamended to this day.
If you want to vary procedures from the AFM (ie; in the FCOM) you need the approval of the Type Certificate holder, and, effectively, the NAA of the state of certification.
Increasingly, CASA is pushing out paperwork to emphasize this legal situation, brought forcibly to its attention by Ben Sandilands and the Senate inquiry.
Tootle pip!!
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Earth!
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ummmm not really
"Ben does understand the difference, including the legal FACT that, if the FCOM differs from the AFM with regard to a procedure, the FCOM is wrong, see CAR 138 and CASR 21-35."
Pity then, that there are no G/A SOP's in the Airbus AFM eh... In modern transport jets it is effectively a statuary document required for the ships library, rarely (if ever) used by crews. (I haven't seen an AFM with comprehensive operating procedures since GA / turbo prop days, is that the category of aircraft you are thinking of?).
I was not fussed myself, its nice to see a Journo take some interest in technical matters within aviation. Most don't have a clue nor care if they get it wrong.
Pity then, that there are no G/A SOP's in the Airbus AFM eh... In modern transport jets it is effectively a statuary document required for the ships library, rarely (if ever) used by crews. (I haven't seen an AFM with comprehensive operating procedures since GA / turbo prop days, is that the category of aircraft you are thinking of?).
I was not fussed myself, its nice to see a Journo take some interest in technical matters within aviation. Most don't have a clue nor care if they get it wrong.