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Where’s The ‘LUV’?
by Steve Smith - Tuesday January 31, 2012Southwest Airlines didn’t show too much LUV to SRQ a couple of weeks back. “LUV” is Southwest’s stock ticker symbol and “SRQ” is the designation for the Sunshine State’s Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Frederick J. Piccolo, SRQ president, picked up the phone on a Friday morning to hear a midlevel manager from Southwest Airlines telling him that AirTran service would fly away for good this August from his airport. That left a big hole in the airport’s flight plan – AirTran flew about a third of its passengers last year and was its second-largest carrier after seven years of service. By the way, Piccolo’s no slouch in charge of some “small” airport. He’s currently the vice chairman of the Airport... -
London Calling
by Steve Smith - Tuesday January 24, 2012The 2012 Summer Olympic Games come to London this July and August. Over the weekend, I read a British newspaper account of the Olympian challenge ahead for the baggage handlers at London Heathrow Airport. “Baggage Chaos” was just one part of the headline. Even with a special temporary Olympic Terminal, ground crews will have to contend with approximately 80,000 Olympic athletes, plus more than 59,000 members of the “Games family” and another 21,000 attending the Paralympic Games. Airport officials have already stated there is “insufficient capacity” to handle the work and passengers face long delays to retrieve their bags, if planned mitigation measures fail to work. The extra work begins on July 26, the day before the games... -
You're Still Getting Very Sleepy
by Steve Smith - Tuesday January 17, 2012In my Jan. 3 blog, I repeated a point my AMT colleague Ronald Donner stated in one of his blogs on FAA's new regulations designed to reduce pilot fatigue. Taking into account recent scientific research, FAA announced the new rules last Dec. 21. Airlines must now consider several factors when scheduling, including pilots’ duty periods, the number of time zones crossed and the time at which pilots start their first flights. Pilots must now have a 10-hour rest period before reporting for duty, a two-hour increase over previous regulations. FAA also increased the number of consecutive free hours pilots must have per week to 30 hours. And, added acting FAA administrator Michael Huerta: “If a pilot reports that he or she is fatigued, then... -
Ramp Rat, D.D.S.
by Steve Smith - Tuesday January 10, 2012With gas way past three dollars a gallon, my long-time Chicago dentist just didn't seem worth the 180-mile trip to my hometown to get my teeth scraped and polished every six months. So last month, I walked into the nearby office of Brian A. Hamann, D.D.S., to make an appointment. He asked me what I did for a living and when he found out he proudly identified himself as a former "ramp rat" for United Airlines. Last Friday, armed with a tape recorder, I interviewed him from the chair. Considering my state, I couldn't ask him too many questions, but I did manage to mumble and spit out a few. In his own words, here's how he related his experience at ORD: "This was in the late-1980s until the early-1990s. I worked out on the ramp for... -
You're Getting Very Sleepy
by Steve Smith - Tuesday January 3, 2012Before the end of last year, my AMT colleague Ronald Donner posted a blog about FAA's new regulations designed to prevent airline pilots flying while fatigued. The new rules increase pilots' rest periods and set limits on flying time. Ronald asked a great question in his original post: "What about aircraft mechanic duty time? We get fatigued just as pilots do." Ronald also emphasized that FAA admits that mechanic fatigue is a well-known contributing factor to human errors in aircraft maintenance. The same objection Ronald raised applies just as much to ground support crews. I've spent some time on the ramp and my first impression was just how close the quarters are among parked aircraft and the various GSE zooming around the ramp...
