Category Archives: My Job

News from Work

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These are exciting days at old Southwestern Airways. I’m pretty much limited to discussing publicly available or personal information (no company secrets), but here’s an overview of what’s going on in my work world:

  • Our purchase of AirTran is moving along nicely. Yesterday the AirTran (AAI) shareholders voted to allow the sale with 98.6 percent approval. Since we’re paying a significant premium for AirTran, the shareholders were widely expected to approve the sale, but it’s still a crucial milestone. Now we just need approval from the regulators, which is also expected. Then we can close sometime in the second quarter. The two companies will continue to operate separately for at least a year or two while we integrate our computer systems, operational plans, employee groups, and numerous other details. Combining two airlines takes a huge amount of work.
  • I’ve worked the day shift from Monday through Thursday this week. The first three days provided my annual recurrent training. Today I worked a West Coast desk. It’s almost like living a “normal” life. I wake up around 5am and leave for work before 6:30am. Jenny stays home with the boys. Then I come home in the afternoon. Weird.
  • I might be switching to the day shift for quite a while if I get chosen for a special project. If I do, I’ll post details later this month.
  • Our union has been negotiating a new contract since December 2009. Last week the company decided to request a mediator to help move the negotiations along. In theory, the mediator should help speed things up, but only time will tell. I’m not involved in the negotiations and know very little about what’s actually going on. I have plenty of thoughts on the topic, but for obvious reasons, we’ll have to discuss them in private.
  • My department is hiring again, which is always good news. Four new guys start in early April, and we just posted the position externally for a few more that will start this summer. Right now I’m #103 of 149 on the Dispatcher seniority list. It’s hard to believe we’ve grown that much, and I’ve moved up that much, in just six years.

Can I Retire?

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Too many Americans have their heads in the sand in the face of obvious savings deficits. Barring a miracle, a winning lottery ticket or a big inheritance, they’re going to be forced to dramatically cut back their lifestyles after retirement. – Laurie Nordquist, director of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement Trust

This interesting but scary article discusses a recent survey about retirement planning among middle-class Americans. The gist of the article is simple: many middle-class Americans have no clue how much they really need to retire like they want, and they have saved only a small fraction of that amount. As a result, many won’t be able to actually stop working.

The reasons for the retirement shortfall are numerous. For some, it’s hard to save for retirement because it requires cutting back on their lifestyle now. Maybe there aren’t any good places to cut back. Some choose to stay home because their spouse earns enough to support them right now, even though working would go a long way toward closing their savings gap. But according to the survey, financial ignorance is one of the main problems. Many people simply haven’t done the math to figure out how much they’ll need to retire and how much to set aside each month to get there.

Need help? CNN has a nice retirement planning calculator that can give you a rough idea of where you’ll be with your current savings plan. Obviously, it would be more helpful to meet with an actual financial planner, especially if you aren’t comfortable with financial matters. But the online calculators are a place to start.

I don’t plan to retire from Southwest for a few more decades, but I believe in retirement planning and started saving for retirement the minute I started working full-time. Southwest helps tremendously with a generous 401k match and profitsharing that functions as a second retirement account. But we still have to make the difficult choice to sock away lots of money each month, money that we could use for any number of short-term needs like groceries, gas, medical bills, or house repairs and improvements. I avoid the temptation by funding my 401k automatically. The money goes straight from Southwest to my retirement account so I never see it. If we continue this approach throughout my career, and God doesn’t throw us any surprises that derail our plans, I am confident we’ll have enough to retire comfortably. Like about 80 percent of people my age, I have no confidence that Social Security will be available for us and don’t even consider it in my planning. If it still exists, it will be gravy.

Alpha Bravo

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You’re on the phone with someone. You need to spell a word for the other party, perhaps a street name so they can send you a giant novelty check or a free puppy. You have two choices:

  1. Waste time and oxygen with the traditional “L as in Larry, A as in Apple, R as in Robot…”
  2. Use the ICAO spelling alphabet.

People who talk on the radio, such as pilots and sailors, find that radio communication can be hampered by poor reception, stress, time pressures, and various accents and dialects. Since English is the standard language of aviation, the international aviation community developed the ICAO spelling alphabet to make it easy to understand individual English letters over the radio throughout the world.

Although it sounds a bit odd and technical at first, once you learn the system, it’s actually easy to use and more efficient than the traditional “L as in Larry.” A little practice goes a long way. The word form of each letter, as you probably expect, starts with that letter. A becomes Alpha, B becomes Bravo, and so on.

I use the ICAO spelling alphabet quite often at work. For example, when we must amend a flight release, we use our initials for simplicity. Instead of “AB,” which the pilot could easily mishear as “AD” or “AV”, I am simply Alpha Bravo. Not only does it sound slick, but it also prevents the pilots from mishearing my name as Randy Fox or Sandy Cox.

Here’s a breakdown of the spelling version of the English alphabet:

A Alpha N November
B Bravo O Oscar
C Charlie P Papa
D Delta Q Quebec
E Echo R Romeo
F Foxtrot S Sierra
G Golf T Tango
H Hotel U Uniform
I India V Victor
J Juliet W Whiskey
K Kilo X X-ray
L Lima Y Yankee
M Mike Z Zulu

Sure, some of the words are a bit goofy and/or dated (“foxtrot”? seriously?), but the system works. The U.S. military, police forces, and other groups also use this system or a modified version of it. I am a big fan and wish everyone used it whenever they need to spell something out over the phone. It can also be used to more politely encode some impolite acronyms for those in the know (see military aviator slang).

New Test for the Three-Hour Rule

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I don’t have any data on how much the new three-hour rule for tarmac delays has affected us over the last few months, and probably shouldn’t publish them if I did. But I do suspect that the next four months will provide the toughest test for the new rule.

Winter weather is one of the biggest challenges we face. Running an airline in any weather is difficult, and winter adds a host of complications including frozen precipitation, deicing requirements, variable runway traction, poor visibility, and our employees’ difficulty getting to work through the nasty weather. As I explained in more detail this spring, these factors combine to greatly increase the chances that some flights will need to wait on the tarmac for some time before takeoff or after landing.

This article in the Wall Street Journal discusses some of the airlines’ preparations for winter under the new rules and the impact they expect.

Don’t be fooled by one statistic in the article. The DOT argues that the airlines aren’t canceling significantly more flights. Citing September 2010 as an example, it claims the airlines canceled 0.9 percent of their flights compared to 0.6 percent in September 2009. September is one of the best weather months for a North American airline. The air is starting to cool, reducing the frequency and severity of tarmac-delay-causing thunderstorms, and Old Man Winter is still a couple of months away as well. It’s rare that an opportunity would exist for a three-hour tarmac delay in September. For a better measure of the rule’s impact, we’ll need to consider the number of cancelations for November through March. I suspect they’ll be significantly higher.

I can certainly understand why someone wouldn’t want to be trapped for hours on an airplane. I wouldn’t, either. However, the airlines must operate safely and legally above all, and sometimes we can’t achieve those goals without inconveniencing some of our passengers. Given the choice between a long wait on the plane and potentially having to wait a day or more to reach my destination, I’d rather take the delay unless I was traveling with my kids. If I could see that the weather could be a problem, I would plan ahead and bring some food, water, and plenty of entertainment just in case.

Beardtober – Week 3

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I have completed three weeks without shaving. The itchiness has decreased a bit. The whiskers are becoming long enough to make the patchiness a bit less noticeable, but…you know. I must confess that I plan to shave over the weekend, so this will be your last pic of fully-beardedness. Maybe ever. =)

Last week:

First week:

Check out the Beardtober website to see how the other guys are doing.