Aviation Discussion

Is there any speculation yet on what caused the plane in Nepal to crash?
 
Is there any speculation yet on what caused the plane in Nepal to crash?
There's some videos on Reddit. One video a guy was live streaming for about 2 minutes before the crash and the moment of the crash is in the video and the video doesn't cut off on impact. You hear screams for about 2 seconds, impact, then just silence and flames. I hope things went quickly for all those folks. Horrible.
 
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There's some videos on Reddit. One video a guy was live streaming for about 2 minutes before the crash and the moment of the crash is in the video and the video doesn't cut off on impact. You hear screams for about 2 seconds, impact, then just silence and flames. I hope things went quickly for all those folks. Horrible.
That sounds horrible. Yikes
 
That sounds horrible. Yikes
It's also very calm up until basically impact. I don't think the passengers were aware of any danger until mere seconds before impact. For me I think that would be the worst part. The moments between knowing you're about to die and actually dying.
 
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Thank you for sharing that. I heard about it and thought of you. Went on vacation the next day and forgot to ask and make sure you were okay.

The video was rough to watch. I’m sure you talked to these guys pretty often since they were out of the Nashville facility.


How often do you all have issues with handoffs failing? Seems to happen way too much with Atlanta. An unreal chain of events led to a close call for me today haha.
 
The video was rough to watch. I’m sure you talked to these guys pretty often since they were out of the Nashville facility.


How often do you all have issues with handoffs failing? Seems to happen way too much with Atlanta. An unreal chain of events led to a close call for me today haha.
Occasionally we have issues with Nashville approach. Almost never with ZID or ZTL. Don’t really have issues with the other approach controls either, just BNA.
 
Occasionally we have issues with Nashville approach. Almost never with ZID or ZTL. Don’t really have issues with the other approach controls either, just BNA.

it happens way too often with Atlanta. I’ve been told it’s something about duplicate flight plans. It seems like if Atlanta is showing a new code for them, you get them to switch to it and for some reason it will pass.

Have you ever thought about leaving ZME? I’m still not sure long term what my plan is. Part of me wants to eventually transfer to TYS, but learning tower and approach seems like it may be quite the task after working purely highs. I saw where ZID is only 75% staffed. Would probably take a sup bud to transfer anywhere and I’m afraid I’d miss working traffic too much.
 
it happens way too often with Atlanta. I’ve been told it’s something about duplicate flight plans. It seems like if Atlanta is showing a new code for them, you get them to switch to it and for some reason it will pass.

Have you ever thought about leaving ZME? I’m still not sure long term what my plan is. Part of me wants to eventually transfer to TYS, but learning tower and approach seems like it may be quite the task after working purely highs. I saw where ZID is only 75% staffed. Would probably take a sup bud to transfer anywhere and I’m afraid I’d miss working traffic too much.
Does it happen mostly with aircraft they’re going to work or corner clippers?

Never really seriously considered it. There was a bid out to go to Alaska, can’t remember which facility, for a year shortly after I certified. I thought that sounded fun, would have gotten approach/tower experience and a bunch of OT, as we were saving for a house at the time. There were no return rights to your specific area when you came back though so I didn’t apply.

Center wise, I don’t think there’s anywhere else I’d rather be. ZTL or ZID would be fine but not worth moving to at this point. Living in BNA has never really appealed to me. TYS would be fun, but I know it’d be a paycut and I’ve always kinda told myself it’s probably pretty hard to get leave on Saturdays there. I’m going to be #15 in seniority soon in our area and have had Sunday/Monday off for 4/5 last years so it’d be hard to leave a good situation like that.

Have you met your new OM that came from here? I went to r-school with him.
 
Does it happen mostly with aircraft they’re going to work or corner clippers?

Never really seriously considered it. There was a bid out to go to Alaska, can’t remember which facility, for a year shortly after I certified. I thought that sounded fun, would have gotten approach/tower experience and a bunch of OT, as we were saving for a house at the time. There were no return rights to your specific area when you came back though so I didn’t apply.

Center wise, I don’t think there’s anywhere else I’d rather be. ZTL or ZID would be fine but not worth moving to at this point. Living in BNA has never really appealed to me. TYS would be fun, but I know it’d be a paycut and I’ve always kinda told myself it’s probably pretty hard to get leave on Saturdays there. I’m going to be #15 in seniority soon in our area and have had Sunday/Monday off for 4/5 last years so it’d be hard to leave a good situation like that.

Have you met your new OM that came from here? I went to r-school with him.

I think the two centers I’d realistically leave for are ZTL and ZJX. Both would be an increase in volume and/or complexity. Seems like Jax is constantly getting crushed these days with all the Florida restrictions we have and I think their staffing is even worse than ours.

With everyone from my area who has publicly said they want to leave, I would jump quite a bit in seniority if we ever get to the point we can release. I loved the Sun/Mon crew and I spent two years on that side training. If I still worked with them I don’t think I’d ever leave.

There’s a part of me that wants to apply to an A80 bid in the future. I’m decent, but not sure I’m on that level especially with no approach experience. By pass rate alone, that seems to be the hardest cert in the country and I love a good challenge haha.
 
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I think the two centers I’d realistically leave for are ZTL and ZJX. Both would be an increase in volume and/or complexity. Seems like Jax is constantly getting crushed these days with all the Florida restrictions we have and I think their staffing is even worse than ours.

With everyone from my area who has publicly said they want to leave, I would jump quite a bit in seniority if we ever get to the point we can release. I loved the Sun/Mon crew and I spent two years on that side training. If I still worked with them I don’t think I’d ever leave.

There’s a part of me that wants to apply to an A80 bid in the future. I’m decent, but not sure I’m on that level especially with no approach experience. By pass rate alone, that seems to be the hardest cert in the country and I love a good challenge haha.
One of my trainers works at A80 now. He had only enroute experience before getting there.

I have two good friends that left ZME and transferred to ZJX, one as a controller and one as a supervisor. They both have terrible things to say about the facility. They enjoy living in that area but both say it’s not a good place to work. One is leaving there in a few months.
 
I think a majority of the failed handoffs would eventually go into Washington Center, but they go through Atlanta long enough to not be a point out. When it happens, though, PVDs fail as well.

We have so many new OMs and OSs, it’s tough to keep track of. Did he just get here? I don’t know if you heard, but Liz is in DC now.
 
One of my trainers works at A80 now. He had only enroute experience before getting there.

I have two good friends that left ZME and transferred to ZJX, one as a controller and one as a supervisor. They both have terrible things to say about the facility. They enjoy living in that area but both say it’s not a good place to work. One is leaving there in a few months.

Yeah, living so close to Savannah and St Simons is what was most appealing. Sucks to hear about the facility culture, though.

Do you know much about save pay? If I went to Knoxville as a controller, I just go to the top of their pay band? But as a supervisor, since it’s career progression, does that qualify as save pay? The transfer system is so confusing. Probably on purpose haha.
 
Yeah, living so close to Savannah and St Simons is what was most appealing. Sucks to hear about the facility culture, though.

Do you know much about save pay? If I went to Knoxville as a controller, I just go to the top of their pay band? But as a supervisor, since it’s career progression, does that qualify as save pay? The transfer system is so confusing. Probably on purpose haha.
Yeah, you’d go to the top of their pay band and then any raises (that don’t move the pay bands) you got later would just be in cash. Where that really hurts is in regards to your retirement, as your high 3 would be a lot lower.

I don’t know a ton about save pay. I think you keep your pay for a specific amount of time, maybe 3 years, and then you go to the top of their band. I’m not sure I’m correct on that.
 
Yeah, you’d go to the top of their pay band and then any raises (that don’t move the pay bands) you got later would just be in cash. Where that really hurts is in regards to your retirement, as your high 3 would be a lot lower.

I don’t know a ton about save pay. I think you keep your pay for a specific amount of time, maybe 3 years, and then you go to the top of their band. I’m not sure I’m correct on that.

I guess to remedy that you could just take a sup job at a 12 to close out your career. If that counts. I still get confused on which jobs count as “good” years or not for retirement. Another thing I saw about Knoxville was their staffing is 92%+. Seems like you would never get overtime, whereas I work six days here almost every week plus a few hours of holdover. Base pay right now wouldn’t be a huge cut, but I’d lose a ton in OT I think.
 
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I guess to remedy that you could just take a sup job at a 12 to close out your career. If that counts. I still get confused on which jobs count as “good” years or not for retirement. Another thing I saw about Knoxville was their staffing is 92%+. Seems like you would never get overtime, whereas I work six days here almost every week plus a few hours of holdover. Base pay right now wouldn’t be a huge cut, but I’d lose a ton in OT I think.
We’ve been non-stop 6 day work weeks since 2019. It’s slowed down to OT every other week so far this year. We actually have a chance to be decently staffed in the next year or so.

Good time you have to either maintain currency or directly supervise someone that maintains currency.
 
We’ve been non-stop 6 day work weeks since 2019. It’s slowed down to OT every other week so far this year. We actually have a chance to be decently staffed in the next year or so.

Good time you have to either maintain currency or directly supervise someone that maintains currency.

I don’t mind the 6 day weeks during our slow periods, but I’m sure that tune will change once summer traffic and thunderstorms hit. I get outbid for about half the OTs I request, but on weeks I don’t get one, it’s a given we’ll take a bomb and I’m the only one from my crew who will accept a call in.

I’m working my first mid Tuesday night, so we’ll see how that goes. Luckily, I’ve heard my area really dies off after midnight. We’ve still been running three sometimes four sectors at 11:30 the past few weeks on my 4-12.
 
I don’t mind the 6 day weeks during our slow periods, but I’m sure that tune will change once summer traffic and thunderstorms hit. I get outbid for about half the OTs I request, but on weeks I don’t get one, it’s a given we’ll take a bomb and I’m the only one from my crew who will accept a call in.

I’m working my first mid Tuesday night, so we’ll see how that goes. Luckily, I’ve heard my area really dies off after midnight. We’ve still been running three sometimes four sectors at 11:30 the past few weeks on my 4-12.
That’s pretty wild to have that many sectors open.

What do you mean bid on OT’s? We just get assigned them based on hours and seniority.
 
That’s pretty wild to have that many sectors open.

What do you mean bid on OT’s? We just get assigned them based on hours and seniority.

Guess that was poor phrasing. I’m lowest seniority in the area so everyone above me seems to get first dibs. Maybe my hours also have something to do with it. Never even asked how it’s determined who gets the shift if multiple people request.
 
Guess that was poor phrasing. I’m lowest seniority in the area so everyone above me seems to get first dibs. Maybe my hours also have something to do with it. Never even asked how it’s determined who gets the shift if multiple people request.
I guess the request part is just what confused me. If you go on web schedules there should be a OT list halfway down or so you can click on and view. Whoever has the lowest hours gets scheduled for the OT first. If two people are tied then the more senior one is scheduled.

Here we start trainees off with like 300 hours of OT on the list, just so they don’t get scheduled before any CPC’s. Also you can be on the yes or no list. Being on the no list doesn’t mean you can’t be scheduled, just means you’ll get scheduled after everyone on the yes list has been exhausted.

It is a little confusing. Also if you get called and answer the phone and then turn down the OT, you still get charged 8 hours like you accepted it.
 
I guess the request part is just what confused me. If you go on web schedules there should be a OT list halfway down or so you can click on and view. Whoever has the lowest hours gets scheduled for the OT first. If two people are tied then the more senior one is scheduled.

Here we start trainees off with like 300 hours of OT on the list, just so they don’t get scheduled before any CPC’s. Also you can be on the yes or no list. Being on the no list doesn’t mean you can’t be scheduled, just means you’ll get scheduled after everyone on the yes list has been exhausted.

It is a little confusing. Also if you get called and answer the phone and then turn down the OT, you still get charged 8 hours like you accepted it.

Gotcha. Can you see the hours for your area anywhere? I’ve looked at a couple different things on wmt but couldn’t find that specifically.

I asked our sups today about that last sentence and they said it’s all about how the MOU is interpreted. At Indy, you don’t get charged if you answer. Only if you accept the shift and then switch out of it.
 
Gotcha. Can you see the hours for your area anywhere? I’ve looked at a couple different things on wmt but couldn’t find that specifically.

I asked our sups today about that last sentence and they said it’s all about how the MOU is interpreted. At Indy, you don’t get charged if you answer. Only if you accept the shift and then switch out of it.
It’s just on WMT for us to see. There’s a link near the bottom. Maybe you have to be a CIC to see it.

That’s interesting it’s interpreted different ways at different facilities.
 

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