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.

Motivation

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It’s very hard to understand in the beginning that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit. – Dr. George Sheehan

I love this quote, which I got from a runner buddy of mine at work. I suppose some elite or competitive runners might focus primarily on winning, but I think the sentiment above is true for most other runners. When I race, it would be nice to win (I assume – it’s never happened before and probably never will), but I’m more focused on personal goals: What’s my best time at this distance? How fast do I think I can go today? Do I have enough left in the tank to keep up this pace? How disappointed in myself would I be if I slowed down or quit early?

One of the most important lessons my mother ever taught me was that I should do my best, whatever that might be, and that my best was good enough.

For me, meeting the goals I set is its own reward. I measure my success largely with data. On the trail, I use faster times or longer distances. In school, I used my GPA and test scores. At the doctor’s office, I use cholesterol counts and resting heart rates. When driving, I use my MPG.

Yes, I’m a nerd. But unless you’re new here, you already knew that.

Despite my enthusiasm for my favorite teams, I’m not terribly competitive when it comes to my own pursuits. Competition compares my effort and ability, which are somewhat under my control, to those of my opponents, which are completely outside my control. I can’t influence how fast the other runners run, so I’m not upset when the other guy can run a 20-minute 5k. I couldn’t stop our high school valedictorian from pushing his GPA nearly a full point ahead of mine, so I didn’t worry about it.

However, many people are motivated by things other than data. I am married to one of them. Jenny accepts my interest in (obsession with?) data as a driving force for my ambitions. She cheers me on when I come home from a run and report a new personal record, even if the actual numbers are meaningless to her. But as she tries to get in better shape and lose weight, she wants a more concrete and external reward than just lower numbers on a scale. Leading up to our recent cruise, for example, she visualized a beautiful blue dress that she wanted to buy and wear for the formal night. After the cruise, the dress no longer provided motivation, and she lost a bit of enthusiasm. Now she is searching for a new reward to keep her motivated.

You can probably think of other examples of externally motivated people. In Rocky IV, motivated by revenge, Rocky posts a newspaper photo of Drago on his mirror. An honors student only reaches her full potential after her parents promise her a car if she becomes valedictorian. A manager promises himself a nice vacation once he gets the promotion. A ballerina practices hours every day hoping to finally win her father’s approval.

Are you more internally or externally motivated? Do you compete more against yourself or others? Are you more focused on pleasing yourself or others? Does data, money, acclaim, revenge, love, or another factor fill your sails best? I want to hear your thoughts.

How to Improve Pro Hockey

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We had a blast at the Stars game. It reminded me of some ideas I’ve had simmering for a while about how to make a great sport even better.

Determine the standings by win-loss record rather than points. Except for some soccer matches, every pro sporting event ends with one winner and one loser. That’s the main goal of the event, to pit two players or teams against each other and see which one emerges victorious that day. The team with the most wins is ranked first, the team with the second-most is ranked second, and so on.

But hockey is different, using a point system instead to determine the standings and the playoff seeds. Any victory nets the team two points. A loss in regulation nets the team zero points. The weird thing is a loss in overtime, which nets the team one point. It’s like a consolation prize. Say two teams each have 20 wins and 20 losses, but Team A’s losses came in regulation while Team B’s came in overtime. Team B’s 60 points would be way ahead of Team A’s 40 points. Put another way, a win is just as valuable as two overtime losses. Such foolishness should not be. This isn’t Little League where we want everyone to feel like a winner. Don’t reward professional athletes for losing just because they took more than 60 minutes to do it.

Bonus trivia: the current system, believe it or not, is actually an improvement. Until a few years ago, the league allowed ties, which netted each team one point. A team could have a record of 5-1-4-3. Two more and you would’ve had a set of lottery numbers.

End a power play after any goal, power-play or shorthanded. When a player receives a penalty, his team generally plays one man short for the duration of the penalty, usually two minutes. This time is known as a power play for the other team. The power-play team focuses on offense, the shorthanded team on defense. If the power-play team scores, the power play ends, and the penalized player gets to return to the ice.

On rare occasions, the shorthanded team manages to score anyway. That’s such a middle-finger achievement that it should end the power play immediately and get their guy out of the penalty box. This change would make power plays even more interesting by giving both sides incentive to work on offense where possible and also increasing the odds that a goal will occur.

Free the goalie to play anywhere. Current rules restrict the goalie from playing the puck outside the crease or the trapezoid behind the net. The trapezoid appeared a few years ago, partly to restrict the style of play used by one of my favorite goalies, former Dallas Star Marty Turco. He loved to play the puck and did so whenever practical until they fenced him in. He was effectively a third defensemen as well as a goalie. You never knew what he was going to do, and Jenny and I loved watching him play.

One of the best plays I’ve ever seen got Turco a rare assist. He left the crease to play an errant puck in his own zone right at the end of the opponent’s power play. He saw his teammate step out of the penalty box, had an open lane to him, and passed it. All the other team’s players were elsewhere, so the newly freed Star had a one-on-one shot and made it. The arena went nuts.

I say let the goalie play the puck wherever he wants. When he’s outside the crease, treat him like any other player, with full puck privileges and no special protection.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

Haiku Tuesday 14 – Hockey

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We have tickets to the Stars game tonight, so today’s haiku theme is HOCKEY. This will be our first Stars game since 2008 and our first since we lost Turco and Modano, two of our favorites. But the Stars still have plenty of talent, and I can still yell myself hoarse just like in the old days.

Trivia item: I am now older than every player on the roster except for Robidas and Skrastins. One forward was born in 1989. Hmm.

Enough rambling – on with the haiku!

Blood and sweat on ice
Waiting for the red light’s glow
Go nuts at the horn

Your turn.

A Better Deal on Green Power

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We’ve been with Green Mountain Energy for about 3 years now. I’ve always been willing to pay a little more to support cleaner electricity, and the company employs good people. Thanks to Green Mountain’s success and the growing interest in green products, several power companies now sell 100 percent renewable electricity at rates lower than Green Mountain’s. So I switched.

I was paying 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is high but much less than I was paying a couple of years ago. On PowerToChoose.org, I found a host of companies offering the same renewable electricity for under 9 cents/kwh. Yes, please.

TriEagle Energy won my business with a 12-month fixed-rate plan for renewable energy for 8.2 cents/kwh plus a $4.95/month service fee, making the effective rate for us about 8.6 cents. We’ll be saving about 25 percent over our current rate. I like the sound of that.

10 Random Facts for November 2010

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  1. Whey protein powder makes my esophagus spasm, but I really like my soy protein powder. I mix up a tasty soy protein shake after every long run to help my leg muscles recover.
  2. I get annoyed when servicepeople come over to do a job and spend half their time talking. You’re certainly welcome to your opinions, but your boss is paying you to fix stuff, not try to convince me that global warming is fake or that the government is evil. (I’m looking at you, AC guy!)
  3. We change insurance companies every couple of years, it seems. I learned last night that we can save about $300/year by switching back to Progressive. I’m sure Flo will be happy. I would rather NOT have a local agent (ex. Allstate, State Farm, etc.) with whom I must interact.
  4. Even though I’m not a fan of unions in general, with the Southwest-AirTran merger looming, it’s nice to know that some people will fight for my interests with regard to seniority. (It’s painful to admit that, though.)
  5. I greatly admire people who fight for a cause they believe in. Some of my friends fight for animal rights or try to help homeless pets. Some write letters to elected officials. Some volunteer with local or foreign organizations. It’s awesome. I talk about causes a lot and give money to various groups, but I don’t give much of my time other than occasionally giving blood. That bothers me.
  6. Whenever I enter the breakroom at work, I secretly hope that someone has set out some free desserts. We don’t have much sugar in the house anymore, which is good, but I miss it. When people bring stuff in, I tend to go a bit nuts.
  7. Sometimes I toy with the idea of making extra cash by setting up WordPress websites for local businesses. Part of my motivation, other than money, is my frustration with some of the hard-to-use, unattractive small-business websites I find. (You probably know what I’m talking about.) WP is a great platform that can be used for a blog or just a static website. For various reasons, I haven’t pursued it yet, but I might. I haven’t figured out how to pitch myself, though. “Hi, your website sucks. Will you pay me lots of money to fix it?” doesn’t seem quite right.
  8. I’m decent at writing stories but horrible at telling them out loud. That’s why I don’t do it unless coerced. It just doesn’t come naturally to me because I need time to figure out the best way to tell it.
  9. On a cold winter’s night, I love to step outside and breathe the air, which smells so clean at that temperature. It reminds me of walking through ski villages at night on family vacations, a nearby fireplace garnishing the air with a hint of smoke.
  10. I started thinking Jenny might be “the one” at the end of our first date. I’d never clicked with anyone so quickly as I did with her. Turns out I was right.