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News from ALPA International

February 28, 2012

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The FlightDeck

In This Issue:

ALPA Statement on FAA-Proposed Minimum Pilot Quals
Capt. Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, released the following statement regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) notice of proposed rulemaking on minimum qualification standards for airline first officers.

“The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) notice of proposed rulemaking regarding minimum qualification standards for airline first officers is the culmination of many months of intensive work by the FAA and industry stakeholders.

“The First Officer Qualifications Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) was established as a result of the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010, which directed the FAA to modify the flight experience and training necessary for an individual to become an airline first officer. ALPA served on the ARC with the goal of ensuring that air transportation achieves the highest possible level of safety.

Read more.

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New ALPA Reps Gain Skills at Leadership Training Conference


View a photo slideshow
of the conference
.

Nearly 100 pilots from 25 ALPA airlines are in Reston, Va., this week for the Association’s Leadership Training Conference, ALPA’s training ground for newly elected local council representatives and MEC officers. The LTC is held each year, usually in February to coincide with the beginning of many new elected representatives’ terms. This year’s meeting agenda has been retooled to provide an even stronger focus on giving ALPA leaders the personal and professional tools they’ll need to succeed.

The four-day conference is one of the most important things the Association does, said ALPA president Capt. Lee Moak. “Being an ALPA rep is tough. It’s not flag football, it’s full-contact without pads,” said Moak, a former DAL LEC rep and MEC chairman. “You are going to be getting calls in the middle of the night. You are going to be handling grievances. You are now going to be making decisions—decisions that some people won’t like.”

The key to being an effective union leader is to make full use of ALPA’s staff resources and rely on fellow pilots for support, he said. “We are going to make sure you’re successful. Everybody in this room needs to look around and see that the guy next to you is here to help you. We have your back, we have your six,” Moak said.

Read more.

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Stay Connected
Stay connected with your union, your profession, and your industry by reading Air Line Pilot magazine and watching monthly episodes of The FlightDeck.

Read about the details of the recent FAA reauthorization legislation on page 18 of the March issue of Air Line Pilot magazine.

On the 12th installment of The FlightDeck, find out what you can do to avoid deep vein thrombosis.

Remember that both Air Line Pilot and The FlightDeck can also be accessed from the members-only portion of the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.

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Help the Flight Safety Foundation

The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is requesting pilot input in a study under way to explore the relationship between unstable approaches and go-arounds. Recent studies have reaffirmed that more than 30 percent of all aviation accidents are runway excursions. Many of these excursions result from unstable approaches. Although some unstable approaches result in “go-arounds,” for a variety of reasons others continue to land.

To find strategies to reduce the associated runway excursion rate, FSF has launched a project to research and analyze issues associated with unstable approach and go-around decision making. The survey should take approximately 25 minutes and will assist the Flight Safety Foundation in better understanding decision making during unstable approaches at or below stable approach height.

FSF plans to publish the results of the project in several public forums, which you will be able to review in the future. Please understand that no personally identifying information is collected—survey respondents are completely anonymous. Please also note that you cannot save your progress during this survey; you must complete the survey in one sitting.

Take the survey.

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Other Industry News
• According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, China is luring U.S. pilots tired of the 14-year wait for the captain’s seat. Read more.

• The Boston Globe reports that civilian cousins of military drones are in domestic demand. Read more.

• According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the feds are getting tougher on cockpit laser illumination cases. Read more.

The Independent (from the United Kingdom) reports the United States will inflame the long-running trade dispute between aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus by demanding that the World Trade Organization impose annual sanctions against the EU. Read more.

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FastFact

On February 17, 2002, the new U.S. Transportation Security Administration assumed security for all airports in the United States.

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Feedback & E-mail Address Changes
Questions or comments on this FastRead? Give us your feedback at communications@alpa.org.

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.

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