Alaska Airlines recently announced that it will post a bid later this month that will include 24 vacancies. Alaska management, in a message to the pilots, said that it plans to fill a majority of these vacancies through pilot recalls. Additionally, the bid will mean opportunities for upgrades and a chance to bid into different crew bases.

Alaska has said it intends to fill the vacancies at a rate of six pilots per month between October and January. However, the number of vacancies to be filled by pilots on involuntary furlough will be affected by a number of issues. Pilots who participated in negotiated furlough mitigation programs—specifically extended leave of absence and voluntary furlough—will have the first right of refusal to return to active service. Additionally, Alaska management can cancel vacancies until the effective date of the bid, which is Jan. 31, 2011.

“Just last month, the Alaska MEC passed a resolution restating and reaffirming our commitment to our fellow Alaska pilots on furlough,” said Alaska MEC chairman Capt. Sean Cassidy. “We are very pleased by the news that there will be vacancies in the upcoming bid, and hope that all of the vacancies will be filled through recalls.”

Alaska MEC volunteers will continue to work with Alaska’s management throughout the bid process to advocate for the return of as many furloughed pilots as possible. Currently, 93 Alaska Airlines pilots remain involuntarily furloughed.

Return to top

ALPA’s Executive Board gathers for its 107th regular meeting October 1-2 at the Washington Hilton. Board members will hear national officer presentations, conduct strategic planning, and prepare for the Association’s upcoming Board of Directors meeting this October.

Look for FastRead coverage of these events next week.

Return to top

For details of the upcoming events and information about a special college scholarship, please click here.

Return to top

Following the IAC meeting, ALPA representatives participated in the annual development of a Call for Papers in preparation for the Flight Safety Foundation’s 2011 International Aviation Safety Seminar. A formal Call for Papers will be published in the next few weeks, soliciting papers on 25 current safety topic areas.

Return to top

Return to top

The MITRE Corporation Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) is soliciting the help of 10 pilots in a study of Equivalent Visual Operations (EVO) supported by a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI). This study will focus on use of a CDTI to monitor spacing while performing approaches to closely spaced parallel runways (less than 2,500 feet centerline separation), in a manner that is similar to pilots’ use of visual separation during visual approaches to such runways.

Flight crew input is required to help identify display usability and operations concept issues that may need to be resolved in order to implement use of CDTI for limited, pilot-managed spacing in Instrument Meteorological Conditions. The data collected during this study will be aggregated and de-identified prior to analysis and reporting. Individual pilots will not be identified.

Participants must have experience as a pilot in FAR Part 121 or Part 135 operations within the last 12 months. In addition, pilots with experience flying closely spaced parallel approaches with visual separation being applied (e.g., SFO, BOS) are strongly preferred. Both captains and first officers are eligible. Regardless of current crew status, all trials will be flown from the left seat as pilot in command and pilot flying. A confederate CAASD pilot will perform normal pilot monitoring duties. Preference will be given to pilots who have not flown in a CAASD study within the previous 12 months and, in particular, those who have never flown in a study of CDTI.

(For more information, please click here.)

Return to top

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center is conducting an online study about air traffic displays, and active, TCAS-experienced pilots are invited to participate. The study takes approximately 45 minutes to complete. Pilots will see short videos of traffic displays and answer questions about the targets on the display. Results of the study will be considered by the FAA and industry when developing guidance for future Cockpit Displays of Traffic Information.

To learn more about the study and to participate, go to www.trafficdisplayresearch.net. Results of the study may be presented to the RTCA, an industry group that develops avionics standards and recommendations (www.rtca.org). For more information on human factors research at the Volpe Center, go to www.volpe.dot.gov/hf/.

Return to top

Emily Howell Warner became the first woman pilot permanently employed by a commercial airline. Her first flight as copilot was on the Frontier Airlines DHC-6 Twin Otter on August 1, 1974.
 

Return to top

If you have moved or changed your ISP or e-mail address, please update your ALPA records. If you don’t, you will no longer receive the ALPA FastRead and other e-mail bulletins and notices, and once your postal forwarding order expires, you’ll no longer receive the magazine and other ALPA mail. You can do it yourself by going to www.alpa.org and logging in. Go to “My ALPA” in the menu at the top of the page, and from there, you’ll be instructed how to make the necessary changes.

If you don’t have access to the members-only section of www.alpa.org, you can e-mail your requests by sending them to membership@alpa.org. Be sure to include your member number or enough other information so that we can identify you in the membership database, and tell us what information needs to be updated.

Please note that it is not sufficient just to notify your LEC or MEC of these changes—you should register them with the ALPA Membership Department in Herndon.

Can’t remember your member number or how to log in? Need information about your ALPA insurance programs? These and other questions about ALPA services can be answered by contacting membership@alpa.org.

Return to top

Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l
1625 Massachusetts Avenue NW | Washington, DC 20036 | 703-689-2270