Flying...something to think about

This article was in today's Seattle Times:

Buffalo crash opened window into pilots' life
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

Archive Family, friends mourn loss of co-pilot from Washington
CLARENCE, N.Y. —
Long-suffering pilots for commuter airlines say it's about time that Washington and passengers alike pay attention to the cockpit, after a federal hearing into the deadly crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 exposed pilots who may have been exhausted, under-trained - and paid less than the bus or cab drivers who'd ferried their passengers to the airport.

"We have been calling for years trying to get the public to understand what their lifestyle is really like," said Capt. Paul Rice, first vice president of the Air Line Pilots Association, International, the nation's largest pilot's union, representing 54,000 flyers.

Like Flight 3407's co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, Capt. Dave Ryter earned around $17,000 in his first year with a regional carrier and flew coast-to-coast just to get to work because of his placement in Miami.

"My wife held down a job and we lived in an apartment about 45 minutes north of Los Angeles International (Airport) and scraped by," said Ryter, who has 10 years with his regional airline and is a union officer with ALPA.

Regional carriers like Ryter's, and Shaw's employer, Colgan Air, handle about half of all domestic departures and about a quarter of the passengers, about 160 million yearly, often flying under the names of their larger partner airlines, like Continental or USAir.

But with smaller planes, shorter routes and less experienced pilots, they pay considerably less than their larger counterparts, despite pilot schedules that can include multiple daily flights for six days in a row.

Rice described draining 14- to 16-hour duty days, much of that time unpaid and spent waiting in crew lounges. With no food on planes, pilots grab meals on the run from airport fast-food stands.
Perks like holiday and overtime pay don't exist, he said.

To earn six to eight hours of pay, "you can come to work at seven in the morning for an eight o'clock departure and park your last flight at nine o'clock that night," said Rice, whose union favors tougher FAA regulations on how many consecutive hours pilots can fly or be on duty. The issue has lingered on the agendas of the FAA and the NTSB since the mid-1990s.

The National Transportation Safety Board's recent three-day hearing into the Feb. 12 crash near Buffalo that killed 50 people set off a cry in Congress for a review of safety at regional carriers, including training, scheduling and pay issues.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has scheduled hearings Wednesday and June 17 on pilot fatigue and safety. A House hearing is also planned for June, although no date has been set.

Pilots said fatigue and lower pay are eroding the quality of pilots entering the airline industry, both at regional and major carriers.

"It used to be that airline pilot jobs were a coveted position," said veteran pilot Jeff Skiles, the first officer of US Flight 1549, which collided with Canada geese after takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport in January and ditched into the Hudson River.

"But even at the major airline level, with the bankruptcies and how they've decimated our contracts, it's just not an attractive job any more," Skiles said. "People aren't leaving the military to become pilots - there are plenty of other options. For instance, corporate flying has exploded quite a bit. What you're finding is the qualifications of the entry level pilots in the traditional airline business have gone from adequate to very inadequate."

During last month's annual meeting of the Regional Airlines Association, one executive said the NTSB hearing into the Flight 3407 crash provided a skewed view of safety in an industry that, he said, treats entry-level professionals no differently than any other industry.

"We have a very robust safety management system in place," said Joseph Randell, president and chief executive of Air Canada Jazz. "In a lot of industries, entry-level conditions are onerous for junior people who come in at a lower pay. There's nothing unique about the airline business in that respect."

Russell "Chip" Childs, president and chief operating officer of Delta partner SkyWest Airlines Inc., said his company's research shows no correlation between pay and proficiency.

"People need to understand also that first-year pilot pay is a little bit lower because the companies put in $30,000 in training costs into that individual that first year. That's very well accepted," Childs said.

"Regional airlines pay so little at that entry level because they can," said Louis Smith, a retired Northwest Airlines captain and president of FltOps.com, which tracks the industry for those inside it. "And the pilots are getting compensated in two ways: One is income, the other is the all-important qualifications, jet time, (pilot-in-command) time, basically trying to get as much experience so they can leave as soon as possible, in many cases.

"You can't live off the second compensation, which is experience," he said, "so you either rely on friends or family or you cut down to the bare bones and try to survive the hard times."

Shaw, who chatted with Capt. Marvin Renslow about career options during the flight, lived with her husband and parents near Seattle. Getting to her Newark, N.J., base the night before the crash meant a redeye aboard a FedEx plane to Memphis and then another flight to Newark.

That struck Dan Marzolf as "crazy."

"I wouldn't want to have to travel for 10 hours and get on an airplane and do my job," said Marzolf, whose sister Jean Marie Srnecz was killed when Flight 3407 crashed on a house as it approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

"They should be in the area 24 hours ahead of time and there should be a place for them to stay," Marzolf said. "It may mean passengers paying a little more money, but I'd gladly pay a little more money to know that my pilot was well-rested and ready for the job."

Airport crew lounges are stocked with recliners suitable for a few winks, but they're not supposed to be slept in.

Still, it happens.

NTSB hearing testimony indicated Shaw talked of a couch with her "name on it" the morning of the crash. It is unclear where Renslow, who was in the middle of a two-day assignment, slept the night before the trip, but he logged into a computer from Colgan's crew room in Newark at 3 a.m. on the day of the flight, according to NTSB documents.

"They don't have the money to get a nice hotel room with blackout curtains and an air conditioner and get three or four hours or sleep if they get there early enough to be ready to go," said Joe Mazzone, a retired Delta Airlines pilot. "You go to the crew lounge ... you sit down and you put your hat over your eyes and you try to get a few nods in the recliner before you sign in so you're a little more refreshed. That's what's going on."

But he said those conditions "open up a large window of vulnerability" in the cockpit, especially when pilots are inexperienced and lack the confidence that comes with time at the controls.
"One or two little errors can be tragic," he said.

Flight 3407 experienced an aerodynamic stall on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport before plunging into a house. All 49 people on board and a man in the house were killed. Testimony and documents indicate Renslow and Shaw made a series of critical errors, some of which may be related to fatigue, inexperience and inattention to regulations.

While NTSB investigators calculated Shaw was paid just over $16,000 in her first year with Colgan, airline officials said later her salary was $23,900. Renslow's salary was estimated at $55,000 to $67,000.
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I'm going to agree with a lot of what was said. The road to the airlines has always been (on the civilian side): Flight Instructing, then Cargo, then Regional Airlines, then Majors.

These days, a lot of Regional pilots come right from flight schools--where they were students, not necessarily instructors. Some still come from the Cargo pool, but a lot come without much, if any, real world experience.

I've flown with pilots who, like First Officer Shaw, have never flown in icing conditions. I've flown with pilots who have never operated around thunderstorms. I've flown with pilots who have never had to make a real life, real time, life-affecting decision.

I don't think that's a factor of low pay. I think it's the reality of the shift of the paradigm of the road to the airlines--we aren't getting pilots with a lot of experience. We aren't getting pilots with an interest in aviation--I flew with a First Officer recently who had no idea what a J-3 Cub was! He said, "I can't identify any of those airplanes. I'm just not interested." Daddy had paid for his flight training and degree at Embry Riddle--he'd never had to work for a single flight hour.

That blew me away. But a lot of these pilots aren't aviators...they are just pilots, and this is just a job.

I do think that the FAA and NTSB need to tighten up the hours that we can work. Currently, I can legally work a 16 hour duty day, although 10-12 hours is the norm. A "duty day" starts when I arrive at the airport and ends 15 minutes after I park my airplane. Getting to & from the hotel, eating, sleeping, showering--that's on my own time. It's often only 8-9 hours between duty days--try getting to the hotel after waiting for the van for 30-45 minutes, getting checked into your room by filling out the forms at the front desk, getting to your room, unpacking your stuff, setting up your stuff for tomorrow (ironing, etc), getting the room to a comfortable temperature because they didn't turn the a/c or heat on, getting to sleep in a strange place with strange noises on a sagging mattress with uncomfortable pillows that hurt your neck--and getting QUALITY sleep under those conditions, then getting up, showering, dressing, packing and heading down to the van to go back to the airport. By the way--did you see "eating" in there? We often don't have time to do that.

My trips usually have a decent amount of time at the overnight, but not always. Last night, we were supposed to be in Cody, WY for 11 1/2 hours. However, Cody's weather had gone down and we had to divert to Billings. It took 2 1/2 hours to coordinate the flight back to Cody. We got in around 10:30 p, and had to be on the 7:10a van back to the airport in the morning. The hotel van was nowhere to be seen, and we waited a half-hour for it. So, we got to our rooms around 11:15p. Did I have a chance to eat at that time of night? Do you really think anything was open at midnight in Cody? Or that I wanted to go out to eat, since I was exhausted after having to make some critical flight decisions in bad weather, while dodging thunderstorms? Do you think that I actually got a good night's sleep? How about breakfast? Think I had time for the extra cup of coffee that everyone knows I need? You do the math.

Don't get me wrong--I LOVE my job. I've been with my company almost 9 years. I fly one of the most sophisticated, newest jet airplanes available. I work with terrific people most of the time. My company tries very hard to take good care of us, and I appreciate it. I'm glad that I don't work for Mesa, or Great Lakes, or some of the other airlines out there. I'm very happy where I am.

However, flying takes a lot out of you. Dealing with mechanical problems, emergencies, weather issues and passenger needs is mentally and emotionally exhausting. Even though I only flew two legs yesterday, I was exhausted by the time we got to bed.

Because on top of all of the stuff in the above paragraph, I didn't have enough fuel to make a mistake.

Cody's weather was supposed to be good at our time of arrival. Billings is 80 miles away. That distance burns about 800-1000 lbs of fuel. I had 2800 lbs on board, and we try to land with 2500-3000 lbs, so the math already wasn't working. Billings weather wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't great--they were advertising a pretty strong crosswind in a rainshower with thunderstorms nearby, which makes the approach and landing more difficult and more likely to be aborted. Aborting a landing, or going around, burns about 500-700 lbs in fuel. We were a minimum fuel aircraft when we turned towards Billings, and would have been an emergency aircraft with low fuel in mountainous terrain and marginal weather had anything in the slightest gone wrong.

And did I mention the 48 passengers and 3 crewmembers that I'm responsible for? Do you think there might have been a little adrenaline and a high pucker-factor?

So yes, I agree with the article. I agree with the letter that I posted a few days ago. I do think that there needs to be an overhaul of the system. I'd like to see a minimum of 11 hours at an overnight, from the time you get to the hotel, to the time you leave. That gives you 8 hours to sleep, and 3 hours to eat, shower, and sleep a little more.

I wouldn't like to see Mr. Marzolf's suggestion of being in your domicile 24 hours prior enacted, though. We're away from home enough. Most people work 40 hour weeks. That means that they aren't home for about 60 hours a week, but they are home every night, and can go to the grocery store or wash a load of clothes after work. When we get home, we have to do everything--and if something doesn't get done, it gets rolled over to the next week. After a while, your list of "to-do" things is overwhelming. Take away an extra day at home, and pilots would really have a hard time keeping their lives together.

I was gone a total of almost 80 hours this week and worked 6 days straight (I got off this morning, Saturday). I'll have tomorrow off, then start 4 days of flying on Monday. I live in my domicile, so my commute only consists of a drive to the airport once or twice a week. When I lived in WA, though, I had to fly to DEN or SLC to go to work, and it could take 8-10-12 hours to get there, depending on whether or not I made the first flight, or the fifth, or had to connect through Reno or Boise or Los Angeles. If I were required to commute in a day early, that would mean that I'd only be home for 3 or 4 days a month--maybe one night in my own bed every 6-8 days. How would I maintain my home, my yard, my horses, my cat, my dog, my social life and everything else that goes along with living?

I think the Colgan crash is going to change the industry. I can only hope that the changes are for the better--that they come from our recommendations and pertain to our real lives and what's really going on, instead of NTSB and FAA band-aids. The FAA and NTSB have demonstrated that they don't have a good grasp of what goes on at the airlines--they had NO idea that airline pilots start out at $16,000/year (I didn't have a lot of compassion--I made $11,000 my first year).

I'd love to have a rule-maker sit in my jumpseat for a 4-day trip--and eat when and what we eat, use the restroom when we get a chance to go, carry 80 lbs of rollaboards and flight cases up and down steep stairs, sleep in the same hotels we stay in...and try to catch a nap on the same recliners we covet. Then tell me that a 12 hour duty day and 8 hours between parking the airplane and getting back into it before flying another 10-12 hour day is OK.