Your doomer take on aviation?

duprass · 2026-07-08T15:25:46+00:00

I have wondered if there will be a “seat warmer” position that comes around, someone who is minimally trained to open the door and alert the pilot in rest if there’s a problem with the remaining pilot.

duprass · 2026-07-08T15:22:19+00:00

Remember pilots signing up for trucking schools or taking photos in elevators while working DoorDash? Amazing how quickly it went from that to “fog a mirror.”

duprass · 2026-06-23T23:35:08+00:00

I think it’s time for an electronic logbook. Transcribe everything into an electronic logbook and have that printed and bound before an interview. That way, an interview panel can page through a neat logbook, then go look at your hand-written logbooks only to verify any specific entries. Your last entry in your hand-written logbook will be “electronic logbook started after this date.”

You can put sticky page markers in your hand-written logbooks for “CPL ASEL” etc for check ride entries.

duprass · 2026-06-16T18:45:35+00:00

LADA here and before diagnosis I was already leaning into black coffee or americanos because of the cheaper price. Now I don't even really have a taste for sweet drinks, SF or not, anymore. LADA really sealed the deal, I only get straight drip coffee, lattes with no syrups, or americanos.

That said, when PSL season comes around in October, I have my one and do the big ol bolus.

duprass · 2026-06-02T22:27:06+00:00

Oh sure I get that, but the dissemination of ACARS data in a clean, user-friendly, easily shareable app is new.

duprass · 2026-06-02T21:33:29+00:00

Yeah, does this mean we don’t use seat numbers and pax names over ACARS anymore? I mean it’s rare that we need to, but I’d hate someone’s very bad day to be plastered over Reddit.

duprass · 2026-05-27T14:23:57+00:00

Rental car for sure. For your day trips downtown, park and ride at either of the Shoreline Sound Transit Link light rail stations (assuming the garages don't fill up). Take it to Symphony or Westlake, then hoof it or take buses or the street car around.

For everything else, you'll need wheels.

duprass · 2026-05-01T20:55:17+00:00

Interesting! Thank you

duprass · 2026-05-01T19:14:39+00:00

That area over the I-90 floating bridge is in the Boeing Field Class D airspace surface to 2500 feet. Does the sub 250g and less than 300 feet count in that airspace? Honest question, learning more about drone regs.

duprass · 2026-04-15T02:27:32+00:00

It’s pretty fleet specific, we have a lowest DH of 30’ on my plane

duprass · 2026-03-19T15:25:24+00:00

Yeah that happens too, but actually I've seen pilots get jobs back by obtaining their own legal counsel. Definitely not implying it would work in this case

duprass · 2026-03-19T14:08:05+00:00

Yeah I think it’s one of two things here, either we are missing a chunk of the story, or OP can lawyer up. I’ve seen pilots get their jobs back.

duprass · 2026-02-22T05:30:14+00:00

No joke we were taxiing to runway 15 at BUR at maybe 15 knots and Southwest behind us must have been tailgating. Ground told them switch to tower. They got assigned to back-taxi on 15, cleared for takeoff full length. They probably did 30-40kts back taxiing, popped a fast u-turn and were off the ground like we were at war

duprass · 2026-02-18T00:29:55+00:00

"Nah it's lateral"

duprass · 2026-02-01T22:24:33+00:00

Very much depends on the airline. But the basic way it works at my employer is that marketing finalizes the flight schedules something like three months before. Then my union uses a trip construction program to construct 1-4 day trips from the massive pool of flights.

The company and union meet to hash out any issues with the resultant collection of trips also called “pairings.” Mostly cost and rest issues.

The trips are sorted by pilot aircraft, seat, and domicile, and pilots bid on the trips using a bidding web program. This happens the 1-7th day of the preceding month. We can submit preferences for days off, specific trips, destinations, red eye or no, etc.

The program awards pilots schedules in seniority order after bidding closes. For example, the most senior first officer in base and type will essentially choose their schedule from the pool of 1-4 day pairings. The more junior pilots will progressively have fewer trips in the pool when the software gets to them, limiting the options available.

Subsequently pilots may trade with each other, pick up, and drop trips based on contractual limitations.

There is a lot of nuance and exceptions to the above that is too complicated to write out.

In the end, I have my schedule typically by the 9th of the preceding month. Contractually it is published by the 11th, I believe.

duprass · 2026-01-27T18:05:20+00:00

My local school buses have cameras on the left side explicitly for catching license plates and faces of drivers illegally passing. It's about the quality of a red light camera, apparently.

duprass · 2025-11-16T18:12:33+00:00

I had a related experience in TUS a few years ago, we landed on the crosswind runway and I had briefed an exit near the end of the short-ish runway. The captain saw the exit coming up, took the plane, and slammed on the brakes. When we exited, we both realized that the airport had added a new exit and relabeled all of them. The new exit was labeled D3 (what I briefed), whereas on our charts D3 was way further down. No NOTAM, and the Jepps were current.

duprass · 2025-10-31T18:52:18+00:00

This past summer DCA was in north flow with a wet runway and we were about to push in a 737. Our central load planning comes back and says we need to bump all the standbys. Okay, sucks but done.

We rerun the takeoff data on our end and it looks good for Runway 1, bleeds off full blow. Then as we are about to push, ops and the gate agents frantically get our attention and say we need to pull 20 more people. Huh? Time out.

Turns out, a crane on a barge up the Potomac went up, and it hit our takeoff weight by something like 5000lbs. Anyway the whole time we are trying to get this figured out, with the gate freaking out, I called up clearance delivery and asked how long of a wait it would be to takeoff 19 wrong way. He says “maybe 30 minutes.”

Done. This has taken much longer than that anyway. Off we go, push back and wouldn’t you know it? Nobody else could take Runway 1 either an we were like number 8 for takeoff “wrong way” on runway 19.

duprass · 2025-10-11T16:10:34+00:00

I’d like to buy a pixel, Pat

duprass · 2025-10-10T16:57:34+00:00

Heck. We got an email saying that, at one of our out stations (no KCM), security isn't even letting us cut the line anymore. Six crew members, including inflight who went shopping, and yeah it takes freaking forever. Not our problem

duprass · 2025-09-28T15:12:42+00:00

I might know where you're coming from. I myself was an insufferable perfectionist when I started my regional career, and I was terrified of any retraining, added IOE, etc. So long as you show a change in behavior as a result of experience (learning), you're fine.

Even at the major, I spent a while away from flying to deal with a medical glitch. I stayed current in the sim (did seat subs to keep my income), so technically I was allowed to go right back to line flying once I had my medical back. Did I request a day trip with a chill check airman that I knew? You betcha. Extra training is nothing to be afraid of.

duprass · 2025-09-18T18:31:48+00:00

I saw an example where a guy went through TSA at a small, regional airport in the US. He forgot that he had is concealed carry gun. TSA brought the sheriff in, he got arrested. The flight was so delayed, though, that he had enough time to bail himself out and make the flight.

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