Salt Lake City Chief Pilot s Office Base Newsletter In this issue: FEBRUARY 2016 Save the Date Flight Ops Visit Airport Security Airfield Safety Line Safety Jeannie s Retirement SLC Office Help Delay Coding and ACARS Reporting Delta Care and Scholarship Funds SLC ID Badges Pilot Retirements Service Anniversaries Contact Info Flight Operations Base Visit: Jim Graham, Vice President - Flight Operations will be coming to SLC on Wednesday March 16. Jim will be in our lounge from 8 10 am to discuss current issues and answer your questions. If you haven t seen Jim before, he is an engaging speaker who openly shares his knowledge of our operations and insights into our business plan. Projected West Region growth and network expansion should make this an interesting meeting. Please plan to attend. Airport Security Changes: Airport security is a highly dynamic concept. As perceived and real threats change, so will the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) response. It is safe to assume that security processes and procedures will not remain static for very long, and that they will continue to morph and evolve for the rest of our Delta careers. A potential insider threat was exposed in December 2014. DHS responded with a number of policy modifications, many of which are still being implemented. Pilots should be aware of the following changes: 1. Restriction of SIDA badges to essential personnel who are actually employed at the airport; this will exclude all airline flight crews from holding a SIDA badge 2. An increase in spot checks around airport access doors 1
Expiring SLC badges will not be renewed and sometime in the near future, flight crew members will be required to surrender their SLC DOA SIDA badges. A second KCM checkpoint will open at the IAB (Concourse D) screening facility on February 1. Hours of operation will initially be 0500 2200 daily. This will allow flight crew members to continue to enjoy a reduced level of screening, as well as the flexibility of an additional entry point. The even better news is that our local DHS Federal Security Director (FSD) has agreed to allow flight crews to depart the airport via the Concourse D sally port without a SIDA badge. This will give us quick, climate controlled access to the employee bus stop. This function will become operational beginning February 1. The instructions for use will be provided by signage, which has already been placed at the facility. Please be very careful to follow the egress instructions closely and assure the greatest level of security for the airport when you exercise this privilege. Your diligence will help protect our continued access to this exit. TSA personnel will be on-site during the roll-out period to answer questions and offer assistance, so take a moment to talk with them and make sure you understand the system. Hot Air: the lines here). Our good friends at Airport Operations have asked us to improve pilot awareness of the Minimum Power sign at runway 16L. The sign resides just south of the H-12 intersection on taxiway Hotel. The reason for the sign is to protect the construction zone just West of TWY H from jet-blast as aircraft turn the corner toward the RWY 16L hold-short line. The work site has been blasted and barriers blown over on several occasions. No other air carriers have been asked to exercise additional caution at this site (read between The Line Safety Perspective: As of last week there have been over 1200 ASAP reports submitted for the year with and average of 1.3 reports received per event. If you feel that there is a reason or need to file and ASAP please inform your fellow pilot and encourage him or her to do the same. In addition to the protections that an ASAP provides, your report provides valuable information that is used to help your fellow pilots. I pass along the following recent trend identified 2
through ASAP by LGA Line Safety Coordinator Ben Zirkel. "Within the past 8 weeks, Delta pilots have committed 8 altitude busts over RIDGY on the KORRY3 Arrival into LGA. Contributing factors included strong tailwinds, cockpit distractions, and the default FMS constraint of AT OR ABOVE FL 270 even though ATC commonly assigns RIDGY as a hard altitude. All 8 incidents could have been prevented with proper monitoring of the automation and flight path." Recently a SLC pilot submitted an ASAP regarding the excessive altitude and speed changes we get on departures out of SLC. Using this report we have started a dialogue with TRACON to see about addressing this issue. Mike Wilkinson Line Safety Coordinator, SLC Jeannie is Retiring - April Fools! Yep, she is really going to do it. Jeannie s effective retirement date will be Friday April 1, 2016 and that seems like the perfect date for a party in her honor. The details of the day s events have not been finalized, but it will culminate with an open house reception that evening from 6-9 pm. Please mark your calendars and plan to be there. New Faces: Two students from Westminster College have joined our team as interns for the Spring semester. Senior Sean Purcel and junior Colin Fleck are both Flight Operations majors who are interested in pilot careers with Delta. Our past interns have proven to be invaluable assets to our office by augmenting our ability to serve you. Although they will receive academic credit for their participation in the program, they receive no other compensation for their work. The next time you are in the CPO take a moment to say thanks and talk aviation with these young pilots. They would appreciate your advice and encouragement. Blatant Plagiarism: The following article was contributed by fellow West Region Chief Pilot Mike Levis Delay Coding and ACARS Reporting As part of the company-wide effort to improve the efficiency our operation and reliability of our product, there has been an increased emphasis on the accurate coding of delays. We know that for the vast majority of our sorties, crews are ready to push back as soon as the ALA (Aircraft Loading Agent) gives the word. So, for the few occasions that flight or cabin crews are assigned responsibility the delay, we want to know what happened. There is always more to the story and only you have the unique perspective of the operation to provide the answer. For most of these short delays an ACARS message will be sent to the pilots near the top of climb requesting additional information on the delay P codes. Please take a moment operation permitting to enter the P code AND any additional free-text information you can 3
about the delay. Occasionally, you may receive a phone call asking for additional amplification. These calls are not made to question your decisions or command authority, but to help define how to best tune our operation and add value the Delta product. Annual Delta Care and Scholarship Funds Drive: Once again Flight Operations is making a big push this February to up our participation rate in both the Delta Care and Scholarship Funds. These two funds help Delta people directly with the Care Fund being able to quickly help an employee in need, due to a hardship or emergency, and the Scholarship Fund helping both an employee and/or their kid s college education needs. The Care Fund has helped over 7,000 Delta family members facing a crisis with over $1 million in grants given each year since 2011. The Delta Scholarship Fund has made over $1 million worth of scholarships available for this academic year alone to Delta employees at large. Within the Scholarship Fund there is also a merit based endowment carved out exclusively for Delta pilots and their families! Our goal this year is to increase SLC flight operations participation rate to 30% from our current 20%. This is a worthy goal as it will bring us in line with our other work groups, both Tech Ops and ACS are currently running about 30%. Also we would like to improve our position among the Western region bases since SEA has a participation rate of 23% and LAX has a whopping 37%! As an incentive, prizes and drawings will be held throughout February to help increase the visibility of the fund drive and get folks to sign up for monthly contributions. Look for the Delta Care and Scholarship Funds kiosk in the pilots lounge for more information. Alex, Jim and Jeannie will also be available to answer any questions and help you get signed up. Let s take care of our own! System Participation Rates: ATG 33.2% ATL 19.6% CVG 18.7% DTW 17.9% JFK 20.5% LGA 32.1% NYC 24.2% LAX 36.9% MSP 20.5% SEA 23.2% SLC 19.9% ID Badges: There were 267 SLC pilots who had company ID badges that expired as of 31-JAN-2016. As all 267 of you know, there was a significant delay in getting these badges to you. The badges contain a micro-chip and a quality control problem resulted in late delivery of the card stock by the vendor to Corporate Security. Please accept our thanks for your patience and professionalism, and for your extra efforts to help us get the cards into your hands in time. Pilot Gulyás: Anyone who knows Captain Laszlo Preysz also knows that he is far more than just the loudest voice in the pilot lounge. Laszlo is a pilot who is rabidly enthusiastic about aviation and our 4
profession. Laszlo has dedicated thousands of hours over his career, working behind the scenes, to make flight operations better and safer for his fellow aviators. A former Central Air Safety Committee Chairman, once described Laszlo as both a sprinter and a marathon runner in the aviation safety world. As a Line Check Airman, he has trained and mentored countless pilots as we progressed through our careers. He was such a force in navigation procedure development that the FAA named LAZLO intersection after him. So, it is with great regret that we announce the impending retirement of our Hungarian dynamo. Our colleague will ride into retirement on the jumpseat of his son Matt s aircraft on flight DL89 LAS SLC on Thursday, February 18 arriving at A-0 of 16:20 MST. Milestones: Congratulations to our fellow pilots as they pass these significant Delta career mile markers. Our thanks to them for their dedication to providing a superior product to our customers and helping to make our base and our company a great place to work. 30 yrs Thomas Adrian Bryan Cadoo Eric Aust Ron Blue Jack Campbell Jim Myers 25 yrs Kevin Lewis Scott Pierce John Sweeney 15 yrs Joe Bright Bill Noftsker Joe Driscoll Scott Soto 1 yr Ed Anderson Roy Evans Domonic Bonello Justin Bybee Todd Deshler Nathan Halvorsen David Rhoades Seth Storms Keep it safe out there, 5
Phil, Christina, Alex, Jim, and Jeannie Contact Information: Captain Phil Davis Regional Director and Chief Pilot - West Region Christina Wallace Regional Ops Manager - West Region Captain Alex Cimos Base Chief Pilot FO Jim Hailey Assistant Chief Pilot Jeannie Sayama Administrative Assistant philip.t.davis@delta.com christina.wallace@delta.com alex.cimos@delta.com jim.hailey@delta.com jeannie.sayama@delta.com 6