U.S. TV Network News Theme During Past Few Days

Caveat Reader: I watch most of 'em off 'n on, so I'll post MY take
(opinion, subjective interpretation), not a specific factual citation
link, and thus stand to be reproached, burned at stake, a beaten pulp,
criticized for my ethnic affiliation et cetera

The U.S. commuter airplanes industry a la the Buffalo incident isn't
up to snuff

Why?

APPARENTLY VERY low pilot compensation

How much is "low?"

would ya believe $23,000--$24,000 per year

How crazy is this?

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 25

Robert Cohen wrote:

would ya believe $23,000--$24,000 per year

How crazy is this?

In the past, these were considered entry level jobs and the pilots would
quickly move to 737s/DC9s.

But the current structure is such that pilots can remain at a regional
carrier for a whole carreer because they are now separate entities from
the mainline carrier. So the 24k salary isn't as "entry level" as before.

More importantly, regional carriers have grown significantly with the
majors offloading many routes to regional carriers, whereas in the past,
the regional carriers were much smaller independants that served only a
few routes not served by the majors.

On May 15, 1:27*pm, John wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2009 07:25:43 -0700 (PDT), Robert Cohen



wrote:
Caveat Reader: I watch most of 'em off 'n on, so I'll post MY take
(opinion, subjective interpretation), not a specific factual citation
link, and thus stand to be reproached, burned at stake, a beaten pulp,
criticized for my ethnic affiliation et cetera

The U.S. commuter airplanes industry a la the Buffalo incident isn't
up to snuff

Why?

APPARENTLY VERY low pilot compensation

How much is "low?"

would ya believe $23,000--$24,000 per year

How crazy is this?

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 25

Are you saying that is a fantastic salary?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fantastic

fantastic's lexicography

The normatively utilized fantabulous a 1950s radio dee jay
expression connotation of that f word ain't vat i's tryin to convey,
though "grotesque" & "bizarre" certainly do bill the fit

And they say that the exotic Chinese lingo for a seemingly simple
adjective has complex nuances or meanings

No wonder the World is so damn fantastic

BTW:

My wife happened to see the news item last night, and w/o any comments
nor prompting by me, she says she will not be flying commuter

As I offered in this n.g. a few years ago, the austerities our airline
industry undergo DO affect public safety

Isn't Calgon (not the terrific dishwasher powder) a division of that
major airline that starts with "C" and ends with "L" ?

My theory used to be that the insurance industry wouldn't support, or
allow/underwrite such grotesqueness as a commercial pilot's
fantastic poverty wage

Now that we see, for instance, AIG's corporate casa of cards, I
hereby withdraw the insurance company implicit regulatory assumption

The commuter industry outrage is FLYIN FECES until further notice

"Robert Cohen" wrote in message
...
Caveat Reader: I watch most of 'em off 'n on, so I'll post MY take
(opinion, subjective interpretation), not a specific factual citation
link, and thus stand to be reproached, burned at stake, a beaten pulp,
criticized for my ethnic affiliation et cetera

The U.S. commuter airplanes industry a la the Buffalo incident isn't
up to snuff

Why?

APPARENTLY VERY low pilot compensation

How much is "low?"

would ya believe $23,000--$24,000 per year

How crazy is this?

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 25

"Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot who landed in the Hudson, was testifying to
that effect before a congressional committee, noting that some pilots made
as little as 12K per year. His point was that pilots need to be paid more,
and thereby, encourage the better, more experienced guys to stay in their
jobs.

"Robert Cohen" wrote in message
...
Caveat Reader: I watch most of 'em off 'n on, so I'll post MY take
(opinion, subjective interpretation), not a specific factual citation
link, and thus stand to be reproached, burned at stake, a beaten pulp,
criticized for my ethnic affiliation et cetera

The U.S. commuter airplanes industry a la the Buffalo incident isn't
up to snuff

Why?

APPARENTLY VERY low pilot compensation

How much is "low?"

would ya believe $23,000--$24,000 per year

How crazy is this?

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 25

Not if it's what could be considered a part-time job:

"Pilots Set Up for Fatigue, Officials Say
By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON - The head of the National Transportation Safety Board on
Wednesday told executives of Colgan Air, whose plane crashed outside Buffalo
in February, that paying new pilots very low wages without taking into
account that some would commute across the country to their jobs constituted
"winking and nodding" at safety policy.

Members of the board said that the crew of the twin-engine turboprop that
crashed, killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground, was set up
for fatigue and inattention before they even took off, partly because of the
structure of the commuter airline business.

In the crash, the first officer, Rebecca L. Shaw, 24, a Colgan employee for
about a year, apparently pulled an all-nighter to get a free
transcontinental trip to work. She was living near Seattle and commuting to
her job at Colgan's operation in Newark, according to board investigators.
She flew from Seattle to Memphis in a spare seat on one FedEx jet, and to
Newark on another, planning to sleep in a crew lounge, investigators said.
The airline said Wednesday evening that her rate of pay, for a minimum of 75
hours a month, was $23,900 a year.

The captain, Marvin D. Renslow, 47, who had been with Colgan since September
2005, had flown to Newark from his Florida home the previous evening. He was
logged on to a computer at 3 a.m.; investigators are not sure where he
slept, but he was known to have sometimes used the crew lounge at Newark,
even though the airline had threatened to fire pilots who used it for
overnight stays. The average salary for a captain is $67,000, Colgan said.

The board on Wednesday held its second of three days of hearings on the Feb.
12 crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air. The
turboprop plummeted to the ground during its approach to Buffalo Niagara
International Airport. While a final report is months away, broad
recommendations seem likely, especially concerning fatigue.

A Federal Aviation Administration scientist, Tom Nesthus, testified that
sleepy pilots were generally unable to judge the extent of their impairment,
and likely to have trouble concentrating and following multiple sources of
information. In the crash, the crew lost track of their deteriorating
airspeed, and when a warning system activated, Captain Renslow reacted
wrongly, pulling up the nose of the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, instead of
pushing it down, to regain airspeed and improve the angle of the wings.

The plane went into a stall, meaning the combination of angle and speed left
the wings unable to generate lift.

The acting chairman of the board, Mark V. Rosenker, said the company was
"winking and nodding" about its pilots' commuting practices. Another board
member, Kathryn O. Higgins, said, "When you put together the commuting
patterns, the pay levels, the fact that your crew rooms that aren't supposed
to be used, are being used, I think it's a recipe for an accident."

Board investigators found that the crew lounge was, in fact, used
inappropriately, and the airline recognized the problem with the practice.
"It's not quality rest," Harry Mitchel, Colgan's vice president for flight
operations, testified. "There's a lot of activity in our crew rooms."

A safety board member, Deborah A. P. Hersman, said Wednesday that Ms. Shaw
had told one FedEx pilot that there was a "couch with my name on it" in the
Colgan pilot's lounge in Newark where she would sleep.

But Daniel Morgan, vice president for safety and regulatory performance at
Colgan Air, said the airline had abided strictly by rules on how many hours
a pilot could work in a shift, and how many hours were given between shifts,
and could not control employees' off-hours behavior. "You're adults, you're
professionals, use the time we've given you to rest," he said. Pilots could
share apartments near the base, he said.

Both pilots can be heard yawning on the cockpit voice recorder.

Investigators found that Colgan's pilots frequently live hundreds or
thousands of miles from their crew base, and board members were openly
skeptical that the two pilots were atypical.

Mr. Rosenker, the acting chairman, said during a break in the hearing that
he and his colleagues had not surveyed commuting practices at other commuter
airlines but that it might be revealing for the F.A.A., which licenses
pilots and airlines, to do so.

At the hearing, Ms. Higgins asked, "What's the nexus between commuting and
fatigue?"

"Boy, that's difficult," Mr. Mitchel answered, adding that the answer would
depend on the individual.

Over two days of hearings, the airline has varied between protesting its
blamelessness and asking for help. The company said it was trying to make
sure pilots complied with its fatigue policy - including a requirement not
to commute in by plane on the day a duty shift begins.

On Tuesday it said Captain Renslow had lied on his job application by
listing only one of the three times that he had failed a hands-on
proficiency exam, called a check ride, and that the airline was hampered by
insufficiencies in a federal law intended to help carriers gather
information like that on job applicants. One company witness asked the board
for help in getting Congress to change the laws.

But Colgan had not taken the step that some safety board experts pointed
out, asking pilots to sign privacy waivers so the Federal Aviation
Administration could divulge their records to the company.

After Colgan hired Captain Renslow, he failed two more check rides, but
eventually was certified to fly the Dash 8, the plane that crashed.

Colgan, like other commuter airlines, often has a high turnover in which
employees spend only a year or two in low-paying entry-level jobs, a
disincentive to live near the airline's hub. "We look at it as a
steppingstone," said Mary Colgan Finnigan, the company's vice president for
administration, referring to a job at the company.

After the crash, the airline said it was also reviewing its sick leave
policy. Ms. Shaw could be heard sneezing on the cockpit voice recorder, and
at one point suggested to Captain Renslow that they seek permission from air
traffic control to descend early because that would be more comfortable for
her ears, which were stuffed. Pilots earn sick time at the rate of half a
day a month, but calling in sick can often mean missing more than one day of
work, since they are often assigned to two- or three-day trips."