For the aviation fans

[Bateleur1]

@Long Wheel Base I see Lufthansa is pulling 5 of their A340-600 back into service and going to refit the first class seats for routes to North America and Asia.  I found that interresting.

How are things on your front and with SAA?

[Long Wheel Base]

27 minutes ago, Bateleur1 said:

@Long Wheel Base I see Lufthansa is pulling 5 of their A340-600 back into service and going to refit the first class seats for routes to North America and Asia.  I found that interresting.

How are things on your front and with SAA?

I have about 7 working days left here. 27th should be my last working day. Clearing out and all the paperwork that goes with it will take a few days but officially the 27th will be my last day. I have unfortunately had enough and have decided I want out. I am in the minority though for obvious reasons so there are a lot of people who don't want to go and will be forced to go in the very near future but I am opting to go. I can buy a top of the range S-WORKS with the back pay they owe from all the reduced/zero pay months we have had in the last 15 months so financially it's not wise for me to stay. This month will be 0 pay again as Comair are not flying and Mango didn't pay their employees last month so they have no money to pay our fees so the company(SAAT) has no income at all this month as SAA still isn't flying. I have 13 years service here and I have all the licenses for the components in my section so I am fairly high up on the salary grade but the package is still not great(1 week for every year, no sweetener, 1 month notice pay). Before tax I get just short of R400k.

 

Interesting about Lufthansa, those things are heavy on fuel. They can buy spares from us, we still got 6 here with extra engines. I remember seeing one of those 600s with all economy pax here once, it's A LOT of seats. The galleys and toilets were down in the cargo hold so it was literally seats from front to back.

[Bateleur1]

22 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

I have about 7 working days left here. 27th should be my last working day. Clearing out and all the paperwork that goes with it will take a few days but officially the 27th will be my last day. I have unfortunately had enough and have decided I want out. I am in the minority though for obvious reasons so there are a lot of people who don't want to go and will be forced to go in the very near future but I am opting to go. I can buy a top of the range S-WORKS with the back pay they owe from all the reduced/zero pay months we have had in the last 15 months so financially it's not wise for me to stay. This month will be 0 pay again as Comair are not flying and Mango didn't pay their employees last month so they have no money to pay our fees so the company(SAAT) has no income at all this month as SAA still isn't flying. I have 13 years service here and I have all the licenses for the components in my section so I am fairly high up on the salary grade but the package is still not great(1 week for every year, no sweetener, 1 month notice pay). Before tax I get just short of R400k.

 

Interesting about Lufthansa, those things are heavy on fuel. They can buy spares from us, we still got 6 here with extra engines. I remember seeing one of those 600s with all economy pax here once, it's A LOT of seats. The galleys and toilets were down in the cargo hold so it was literally seats from front to back.

So sorry to hear LWB

[Long Wheel Base]

40 minutes ago, Bateleur1 said:

So sorry to hear LWB

Nah don't worry but thanks. I am done with all the politics and nonsense. I have made other plans and am excited to go towards new ventures.

[dirtypot]

27 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Nah don't worry but thanks. I am done with all the politics and nonsense. I have made other plans and am excited to go towards new ventures.

What's the next thing on the horizon?  

[Spokey]

8 hours ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Nah don't worry but thanks. I am done with all the politics and nonsense. I have made other plans and am excited to go towards new ventures.

LWB

 

Good Luck with your new ventures. One of my brothers friends has also lost his job there after many years. In 1981 I did my one year as an “appie” at SAA Technical. I left and joined the hotel industry. In 1994 I started my flying training and bar one period of two years around 2007/8 where I worked freelance for only 12 months, I have managed to stay flying. Not without tough times however as with many in this industry.  I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be on this new Global having also flown aircraft as ancient as the DC4 in my career. 
I really wish you and your colleagues all the very best. With out you engineers us pilots would have nothing to break!

Swing by Hoekwil for a beer and a chat if ever in the area (if I am home too!)

 

[DJR]

19 hours ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Nah don't worry but thanks. I am done with all the politics and nonsense. I have made other plans and am excited to go towards new ventures.

LWB, I wish you all the best. I cannot imagine how tough the last few years must have been, but your attitude sounds brilliant and I'm sure you'll thrive.  

[PhilipV]

On 7/16/2021 at 12:44 PM, Long Wheel Base said:

Nah don't worry but thanks. I am done with all the politics and nonsense. I have made other plans and am excited to go towards new ventures.

Let us know what it is please. If in any way we can help by being customers, let us know. I know I’m not the only one who will support you where we can.

[Long Wheel Base]

On 7/16/2021 at 1:12 PM, dirtypot said:

What's the next thing on the horizon?  

 

On 7/16/2021 at 9:26 PM, Spokey said:

LWB

 

Good Luck with your new ventures. One of my brothers friends has also lost his job there after many years. In 1981 I did my one year as an “appie” at SAA Technical. I left and joined the hotel industry. In 1994 I started my flying training and bar one period of two years around 2007/8 where I worked freelance for only 12 months, I have managed to stay flying. Not without tough times however as with many in this industry.  I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be on this new Global having also flown aircraft as ancient as the DC4 in my career. 
I really wish you and your colleagues all the very best. With out you engineers us pilots would have nothing to break!

Swing by Hoekwil for a beer and a chat if ever in the area (if I am home too!)

 

 

On 7/17/2021 at 8:43 AM, DJR said:

LWB, I wish you all the best. I cannot imagine how tough the last few years must have been, but your attitude sounds brilliant and I'm sure you'll thrive.  

 

On 7/17/2021 at 2:09 PM, PhilipV said:

Let us know what it is please. If in any way we can help by being customers, let us know. I know I’m not the only one who will support you where we can.

I had a loooong message typed out but decided to delete most of it as it's not really aviation thread related.

 

 

Thanks Guys, really appreciate it. 

So after our twins were born in 2018, my wife and I decided it's best she stops working to look after the 3 kids. Whilst we had to cut on certain "lekker" things we still lived comfortably on just my salary(I also have 3 rental properties as an extra income). The intention was for her to stay off work until the kids started primary school(twins will start Gr1 in 2025) and then get something small to keep herself busy. But that had to be moved forward to now. So she is working again which at the moment is making up the shortfall from my vastly reduced salary here. Then that allowed me to start taking all my leave and look into other ideas. My Dad retired from here(SAAT) in August 2018 and he has plenty work/jobs at his house that he is prepared to pay me to help with. Between him, my boet and myself we have about 10 unfinished car projects. We going to basically each keep one car and flog the rest but with that does come some work and fortunately some of the stuff has already paid some income and there is interest in some of the other stuff, especially the V8 parts. Then my uncle owns a E-Waste recycling company operating out of Ballito and he is wanting to get a branch up and running here in Joburg. I am going to probably take a small roll there with him dealing with the clients up here as he doesn't want to fly up here all the time himself or fly one of his current Durban employees up here. It's not 8 hours a day for 5 days a week worth of work so it will allow me to basically do multiple things at once and have some flexibility with the kids if my wife is busy.

I have a lot to be grateful for from SAAT, my Dad started here in 1977 after spending 2 years in the army. 42 years later he retired at 63, They were good to him. I started here as a contractor in August 2007 then in April 2008 I got a permanent contract and I can without even giving a seconds thought say that I was treated well. I have no regrets about applying for and getting a job at SAAT. I learnt a lot and enjoyed my time here. 

If you want to chat more about the goings on here inside SAAT, DM me and we can exchange phone numbers and chat on whatsapp(for those of you that aren't already doing that) as I don't want to leave too much out here on a public forum.

[Spokey]

Jeepers Guys

Any of you seen this Challenger 605 crash at Truckee Airport in California. I saw on Blancolirio  on U Choob. Man, what a horrible accident. I even woke up this morning at 0430 with this playing over in my head. In my opinion and before even watching Juan on Blancolirio it seems to be a screwed up Circle to Land. Sadly the procedure is not even authorised for the Challenger which despite being a Cat C aeroplane is required to use Cat D mins for the Circle.

This resonates with me as I have relatively  recently (end of last year) stopped flying the 605 having Typed on my 7500. I do the FAA 61.58 recurrent in sim each year which includes a Circle to land at night to a Max effort landing. My heart bleeds for this crew. I believe they were going to hammerhead the turn to final and stalled while trying to tighten the turn. Again, my opinion at this stage. So so sad. The little Chally is a handful and a busy aeroplane. But such an unnecessary crash considering conditions with a perfectly serviceable aeroplane. 
 

Check  it out on U Choob……..let me know what you all may think. Sorry for no link, I can fly an aerie around the world but some tech eludes me ha ha!

[Bateleur1]

2 hours ago, Spokey said:

Jeepers Guys

Any of you seen this Challenger 605 crash at Truckee Airport in California. I saw on Blancolirio  on U Choob. Man, what a horrible accident. I even woke up this morning at 0430 with this playing over in my head. In my opinion and before even watching Juan on Blancolirio it seems to be a screwed up Circle to Land. Sadly the procedure is not even authorised for the Challenger which despite being a Cat C aeroplane is required to use Cat D mins for the Circle.

This resonates with me as I have relatively  recently (end of last year) stopped flying the 605 having Typed on my 7500. I do the FAA 61.58 recurrent in sim each year which includes a Circle to land at night to a Max effort landing. My heart bleeds for this crew. I believe they were going to hammerhead the turn to final and stalled while trying to tighten the turn. Again, my opinion at this stage. So so sad. The little Chally is a handful and a busy aeroplane. But such an unnecessary crash considering conditions with a perfectly serviceable aeroplane. 
 

Check  it out on U Choob……..let me know what you all may think. Sorry for no link, I can fly an aerie around the world but some tech eludes me ha ha!

Some links

 

 

 

[Long Wheel Base]

Sjoe MANGO going into Business Rescue is not good at all. I really hope I am wrong but I am not sure they will recover and fly again. I know too much unfortunately. In my last few days here I am swamped with work and it is all to do with returning the mangos back to the owners. Just now this morning I got asked to do another one that wasn't on the cards previously ????.

[Bateleur1]

16 minutes ago, Long Wheel Base said:

Sjoe MANGO going into Business Rescue is not good at all. I really hope I am wrong but I am not sure they will recover and fly again. I know too much unfortunately. In my last few days here I am swamped with work and it is all to do with returning the mangos back to the owners. Just now this morning I got asked to do another one that wasn't on the cards previously ????.

What is left of the aviation industry at the moment?  Comair is battling from what I understand but they are servicing their aircraft with Lufthansa.  SAA is pretty much a chicken and I do not see them flying soon even in limited capacity.  Mango now going into business rescue.  Where does Safair service their aircaft?  They seem to be the only ones flying at the moment.

[Long Wheel Base]

36 minutes ago, Bateleur1 said:

What is left of the aviation industry at the moment?  Comair is battling from what I understand but they are servicing their aircraft with Lufthansa.  SAA is pretty much a chicken and I do not see them flying soon even in limited capacity.  Mango now going into business rescue.  Where does Safair service their aircaft?  They seem to be the only ones flying at the moment.

Comair has their maintenance split between us and Lufthansa. They started moving all their aircraft over to lufthansa, then were not happy and started bringing them back here. 

Safair have their own maintenance guys.

Safair and Airlink are both flying plenty.

[geomark]

 

 

[SwissVan]

Ja nee, not for the shakey handed pilots