Chief Pilot tenure?

[Typhoon1244]

This is a new concept to me...just heard about it the other day: term limits for chief pilots. The argument is that they're needed because it's very easy to lose touch with what's really happening on the line when you're stuck in the office for year after year.

I haven't made up my mind about it yet. Any thoughts?

 

[Flying Illini]

Our CP flies the line regularly. He doesn't have to, or need to, but he does.

 

[MetroSheriff]

Our CP flies the line regularly. He doesn't have to, or need to, but he does.

A good start. However, going out and flying the line and being a line pilot day in and day out are two different things.

 

[350DRIVER]

FI- a 121CP versus a 135/91CP is like comparing night to day and stating that they are pretty much the same.

Typhoon, I would have to agree with your statement about the CP loosing touch with what is actually going on or happening on the line. It is much more difficult to see the entire picture when you are stuck and swamped in paperwork, training dept. issues, etc, etc, .

3 5 0

you making a run for the CP position?

 

[Typhoon1244]

...I would have to agree with your statement...

Hey, don't give me credit for that...in case my C.P.'s are reading this!

As I implied, this came from someone else.

...you making a run for the CP position?

Jesus, no! I've seen what that job's like! (I'm not mean enough, anyway.)

 

[avbug]

Sounds like a teamsters issue to me. Perhaps one too many little young republicans in the crowd, all grown up and ready to reform the workplace.

Term limits?

What does the Chief Pilot need to comprehend about line service? The chief pilot position is administrative. It's all about scheduling checkrides, line checks, following up on medical currency, and ensuring that charts get updated. It's not rocket science; it's administrative quagmire.

Sounds like some cockamamy scheme for someone downthe totem pole to get a shot at the chief pilot pay. Let's jerk him out of there, give us all a shot, right?

Remember, the CP works for the company, not for you. You work for the company, too.

 

[Flying Illini]

FI- a 121CP versus a 135/91CP is like comparing night to day and stating that they are pretty much the same.

I understand this and I wasn't trying to compare the two. I just thought I would share my side of it. After all, it was posted in the general forum where everybody reads and can respond to it

 

[DCitrus9]

"scheduling checkrides, line checks, following up on medical currency, and ensuring that charts get updated.

Those are not 121CP functions. The CP does need to understand line flying because they are the medium between the clueless managers and spoiled pilots. If all they see is administrative, they become unfair to pilots as well as unable to communicate important flying issues to management. It is also possible for them to slant too much to the pilot side, but I've never seen that happen!

 

[avbug]

It's of no consequence to a CP that keeps his or her door open. In a large 121 operation, it's true that some more routine administrative actions are handled by assistants, but it's still the responsibility of the chief pilot to ensure that those items are done; that's the job description of the chief pilot. It also includes such mundane items as ensuring that each crewmember has current aeronautical charts. That this may be delegated (and typically is), isn't relevant.

Just what earth shattering issues must the CP be in tune with in order to carry the weight of his people to Pharaoh? The part where he understands that they have a schedule to keep while taking off at one airport and landing at another, or the part that they're whining that ten days a month is too much work and the breadcrumbs and window dressing is just too low?

"Gentlemen. I bring you news from the line. New challenges await out troops out there. Just yesteday I returned from the front lines, the place where our men slug it out with the worst our national airspace system has to offer. I have been there and seen it, gentlemen, and it is not pretty. With my own two eyes, gentleman, I saw a new trial, yet another new challenge faced by our boys; I was forced to fly an approach. Not any approach, but an instrument approach. I know. It's unsettling. But I believe we can make this equitable, maintain esperit de corps, and save a mutiny which is surely at our doors.

That is right, gentleman. By ensuring that each man, woman, and child receives an measily ten thousand extra this year, we can avert a civil war in our company, which is brought low to the dust by this new development. Is it not enough that our boys brave large pressing throngs of people every day in their quest to reach our cockpits? Is it not enough that every day, I hear from one or more brave troopers that has been wanded, that had to remove his or her shoes? Even yet, a few who have been forced, Lord help us, to remove their belt? Or hat?

Need I remind you of the difficulty that every young man and older man alike faces, in tying his tie every day (except for those silly little clip-on ones), or the risk of a papercut while updating his or her Jeppesen aeronautical charts? Gentleman, I stand before you this day, having been among our rank and file, to remind you that this day they will not go quietly into the night, this day they shall not rest without a range-fed chicken in every pot. This day they shall not endure another wand or lippy gate agent, or air traffic controller without a lisp, lacking the renumeration they so richly deserve. I urge you, all of you, to consider their plight before you retire to your overstuffed feather down beds this eve, to think of them in your prayers, to remember them in your budget. For I have been down there, gentlemen, and I have seen it myself. Their fate rests in your hands. Thank you."

Naw, you're right. Go for the term limits. Or at least leave it to union rank and file to vote in their administrative leaders, such as the chief pilot.

Perhaps while they're at it, they can have a say in who gets assigned as Director of Operations, and even as CEO...

 

[Dude Groovy]

Avbug,

I think you have, in your typically windy way, shown your lack of experience in this matter. This idea of staying in touch is well recognised in the business world as "Management by Walking Around". Belittling the concerns of the rank and file is a foolish move because the average pilot does have the best interests of their company at heart in most cases and has a unique perspective on company operations. A chief pilot in a 1,000 pilot 121 operation has plenty to keep him busy in the office and will typically take milk runs to stay current. Unless he/she is unusual this way of doing things will slowly erode their perspective. My 2 cents.