FAIL, ALPA. FAIL!!

I'm surprised this one hasn't been getting more news lately, maybe it's still circulating the forum/blogosphere. The current issue of ALPA magazine had a two page spread on an American Eagle first officer by the name of Tim Martins who ALPA was holding up as example of professionalism. Or in their words: “He is what ALPA stands for. Tim is ALPA.”

Here is the text of the original article that sets the story:

Mature Beyond His Years
By Jan W. Steenblik
Technical Editor


F/O Timothy Martins (American Eagle) personifies pilot professionalism and living by the ALPA Code of Ethics

Some men and women grace their world with a maturity uncommon for their age. One such is F/O Timothy Martins (American Eagle), a role model for the ALPA Code of Ethics.

“I met Tim 4 years ago on the Saab in DFW at Eagle,” says F/O Ray Nicoll (Delta). “He came to me fresh off IOE at the age of 21. When he came into the cockpit, he looked me straight in the eye and shook my hand as he introduced himself to me.”

The ALPA Code of Ethics declares, in part, that “[an airline pilot] will realize that he represents the airline to all who meet him, and will at all times keep his personal appearance and conduct above reproach.”

“His shoes were shined and his uniform and personal appearance were sharp,” Nicoll continues. “He looked like a real professional pilot. There was something about the way he carried himself that made him stand out from the other pilots.

“Tim is always at work early with a smile on his face,” Nicoll adds. “The way he looks through the paperwork and weather, you would think that he has been a pilot his whole life. He is a real treat to work with. Throughout the years that I’ve known him, he never ceases to amaze me.”

Falcons and Eagle(s)

Martins got an early start on his path to the cockpit.

“When I was 6 or 7 years old,” he recalls, “my family went on vacation. We flew from Islip to Miami on a B-727. I got to see the cockpit as we boarded, and I thought, ‘This looks pretty cool. This is what I want to do when I grow up.’”

At the age of 16, Martins started flying in September 2001—an inauspicious month, to be sure—as a freshman in the Dowling College Schoolof Aviation, located at Brookhaven Airport on Long Island, N.Y. He graduated 3 years later, all of 19 years old, with a commercial certificate and multiengine, instrument, CFII, and single-engine sea ratings.

“I was in one of the last classes at Atlantic Coast Airlines,” Martins recalls, “but I was furloughed after 8 months, so I joined the New Jersey Air National Guard.” He flies F-16s as a member of the 177th Fighter Wing, which is based in Atlantic City, N.J.; F-15s might be next.

In August 2006, Martins joined EGL, flying as a Saab 340 copilot based at LAX. Since 2007, he’s flown Embraer 135/145s from New York’s JFK and LGA.

Community service and ALPA volunteerism

The ALPA Code of Ethics asserts that an airline pilot “will be a good citizen of his country, state, and community, taking an active part in their affairs….”

Martins lives up to that part of the Code in multiple ways.

In addition to flying for EGL, Martins, carrying on a family tradition, works as a firefighter and paramedic for New York City. “It’s an easy second job to hold,” he explains, “because I can work a flexible schedule that fits in with my flying.” Martins is a member of Ladder Company Two, located in midtown Manhattan.

“Tim is the type of guy who would give you the shirt off his back if you need it,” Nicoll points out. “He is always helping guys at work with things.”

In 2007, Martins took the ALPA training, hosted by the ExpressJet Master Executive Council in Houston, to become a volunteer serving in the Association’s Critical Incident Response Program (CIRP). He also is cross-trained in safety and accident investigation, having completed the ALPA Basic Safety School and the Accident Investigation Course.

With that background, he was well prepared to provide CIRP support for the ALPA accident investigators who participated in the field investigation of the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash near Buffalo, N.Y., in February 2009. Martins spent 10 days at the Colgan field investigation.

Martins also provides CIRP support to EGL pilots when they encounter situations that might seem minor when compared to working on the field investigation of a major accident, but are stressful nonetheless—“a rough time at home, going through a divorce, experiencing smoke in the cockpit, stuff like that,” Martins explains. “I give ‘em a call and ask how they’re doing.”

As if his days aren’t full enough, Martins also volunteers in the food pantry at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Nesconset, N.Y., down the street from where he lives, and has helped build houses through the Habitat for Humanity program.

“I try to give back to my community,” he says. “It’s the way I was raised.”

A few years ago, during EGL’s big hiring push, Martins served as a volunteer in the EGL MEC’s new-hire mentor program. Some of the new hires he guided through their first year on the airline had as few as 500 hours total flight time, and were understandably overwhelmed by not only flying larger airplanes but also learning the myriad details—such as using the airline’s computerized bidding system—that more senior pilots had long since incorporated into their lives on the line.

Cockpit professional

Capt. Dave Michaud (EGL) describes Martins as “lots of fun to fly with—he’s very personable, but that doesn’t interfere with his professionalism. He’s not only flying the airplane, he’s having fun doing the job, and I think that takes a special talent. He has a great ability to get along with anyone—flight attendants, dispatchers, maintenance, everyone he comes into contact with.

“His knowledge of the airplane probably exceeds my own,” Michaud adds. “Tim does everything above and beyond the requirements of the job.
He does all the procedures by the book, following SOPS, and always uses the checklists. It makes it easier to do the job right, the way we’re supposed to do it.

“It’s the little things, like always saying, ‘My airplane’ or ‘your airplane’ when we transfer control, so there’s no doubt about who’s flying the airplane.”

“Tim, to me, shows the professionalism that every pilot should show,” Nicoll says. “He truly cares about his passengers and crew.” And that brings us back to the very first declaration in the ALPA Code of Ethics: “An Air Line Pilot will keep uppermost in his mind that the safety, comfort, and well-being of the passengers who entrust their lives to him are his first and greatest responsibility.”

Nicoll sums up Martins thusly: “He is what ALPA stands for. Tim is ALPA.”

Sounds good, doesn't it? Folks you can't make this stuff up, because Tim Martins IS making this stuff up. An pilot on the forum Airlinebuzz had this to sum up:

Well lets see all the stuff this guy claims... if you look at all of the stuff how does this guy have time to sleep, eat or even anything. It is quite funny really... (copied from the ALPA article)

- Started flying at age 16 in Sept 2001

- Graduated in 2004 (w/ CFII and sea plane rating, thou nothing in the FAA Database)

- One of the last classes at ACA then furloughed after 8 months

- Joined the NJ ANG and flies the F-16

- Joined EAGLE in 2006

- Is a FDNY paramedic for Ladder company 2

- Took the Expressjet MEC sponsored course to become a volunteer serving in the ALPA's Critical Incident Response Program (CIRP)

- Cross-trained in safety and accident investigation, having completed the ALPA basic Safety School and the Accident Investigation Course.

- With that background, he was well prepared to provide CIRP support for the ALPA accident investigators who overwhelmed by not only flying larger airplanes but also learning the myriad details—such as using the airline’s computerized bidding system—that more senior pilots had long since incorporated into their lives on the line.

- Participated in the field investigation for the Colgan 3407 Crash

- Also volunteers in the food pantry at holy Cross Catholic Church in Nesconset, NY

- Served as a volunteer in the Eagle MEC’s new-hire mentor program

Before his Linkedin page got deleted, he had also listed himself as a 2006 US Air Force Academy graduate as well as a Southwest pilot. On his Facebook page (now-deleted), he copy and pasted a description of a HUD-assisted landing from an article written by a real Southwest pilot on their company blog. He even had himself listed as a rescue diver on that page.

After a firestorm that broke on BaseOps spread to other aviation forums, ALPA sent this email to its members:

To All ALPA Members:

We have been advised by several sources that there may be misinformation, misstatements, or misinterpretations in the article "Mature Beyond His Years" published in the April issue of Air Line Pilot magazine.

We take these allegations very seriously, and we have begun an inquiry into the facts of this matter.

At the conclusion of this inquiry, we will take appropriate action to correct any inaccuracies.

Marie Schwartz

Marie S. Schwartz
Director, Communications Department
Air Line Pilots Association, International
communications@alpa.org
www.alpa.org

Where was the fact checking on this before running the story? It seems that many folks busted this one better than ALPA Magazine's own editors. A member of the BaseOps forum who flew for Continental had a friend who flew in the New Jersey ANG F-16 unit and asked him, and they'd never heard of anyone named Tim Martins. BaseOps has a reputation for busting poser pilots in the past and it spread from there to other aviation/pilot forums.

According to some of the American Eagle pilots who have posted in some forums, Tim Martins has been pulled from line duty and suspended pending the outcome of an investigation.

I'm not in the industry. I consider myself more of a passionate observer of the industry. But in my profession if anyone did something like this in misrepresenting themselves, they'd be up on criminal charges. The sad part about this episode is that it's more egg on the face on ALPA than anything else. Many of the forums that I linked to on this posting had posts expressing anything from disdain and disgust to incredulity that it is ALPA that represents their interests, the same ALPA that was holding this poser as their poster boy for ethics.

The other recent first flight

Lost in the news of the Sukhoi PAK-FA's unveiling and first flight was the first flight of the Kawasaki XC-2 which was delayed due to structural issues discovered around the time of the P-X's first flight.



Sharp-looking bird. It'll be interesting how it stacks up to the Embraer transport, the KC-390.

Kawasaki has said that it has some commonality with the P-X, but I'm not sure how, perhaps cross-deck qualification as they seem to be about as different looking aircraft as can be. Airliners.net just posted a good shot of the XC-2 on approach.

Boeing's troubles reach to the top

Kudos to Jon Talton at the Seattle Times for calling it like it is:

Tuesday's announcement of a record $1 billion charge for delays in the 747-8 should be a moment of clarity. And when all the debris of excuses and blame is cleared away, we stand at the door of Chairman and Chief Executive James McNerney and the Boeing board of directors.

And the summation:

Boeing has a board that should be a model of independence and executive competence. There's John Biggs, the former boss of TIAA-CREF, who should be a maniac for protecting shareholders such as the huge retirement fund he once ran. John Bryson ran the parent of a tiny, simple company called Southern California Edison for 18 years. Linda Cook is executive director of Royal Dutch Shell and Mike Zafirovski (another Welch protégé) is the former CEO of Nortel. No other Boeing employee but McNerney sits on the board.

It's a struggle to understand why a board of this stature and intelligence would allow McNerney to continue as chief executive. The clubby and insular world of top business leaders should only get him so far with these directors unless it's yet another sign of even deeper troubles. One would be the kind of CEO cult of personality pioneered by Welch. Another is the kind of Kool-Aid keg party held by seemingly strong boards that nevertheless bought into a flawed and insular worldview of their company. General Motors comes crashing to mind.

Honoring local aviation pioneers: Historical markers for Texas Aero to be rededicated

I love it when I come across a golden nugget of aviation history I didn't know about before. This story came from the Temple Daily Telegram:

Two historical markers honoring early Temple aviation pioneers have flown the coop. However, by next year, they will get to roost in a new, more meaningful location, thanks to efforts from the Bell County Historical Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation.

Now the Historical Commission is gathering names and addresses of descendants of those early pioneers for when the markers are replaced and rededicated sometime next year. Those families will be specially invited guests to the ceremonies.

In 1970, the Texas Historical Commission awarded a historical marker to honor Texas Aero and the creators of the Temple monoplane.

Having been to the Frontiers of Flight Museum several times, I didn't even realize the Temple monoplane is on display there!

Although Texas Aero has been gone for nearly 80 years, stories abound about those heady days of flight. The Texas Aero story still fascinates Ferrel. He began researching the company in the early 1960s and scoured every inch of the abandoned factory site for plane remnants.

As early as 1910, the Williamses experimented with their monoplane design, which they dubbed "Temple Monoplane." By 1913, they were in the air, albeit at first for a few minutes and for a few yards.

"The problem was George Williams didn't know how to fly. It wasn't until World War I that he learned," Ferrel said.

Despite that minor hindrance, Williams held several patents on monoplane improvements. The early monoplane was designed primarily for air delivery. E.K. Williams, editor of the Temple Daily Telegram, delivered newspapers by air to rural areas. The Williamses also got postal delivery routes.

Sanderford learned to fly during World War I, when aircraft were used for scouting and reconnaissance and later evolved into air fights. A mechanic, Carroll added adjustable landing lights and fireproof mail compartments to the monoplane's design. The partners also developed lights and other aids for night flights - an innovation at the time.

The brothers worked under several business names. By 1927, they founded Texas Aero. That same year, the company produced the two- and three-seat commercial-wing aircraft, designed by George Williams and Carroll.

Templeites Ralph Doshier and Ted Von Rosenberg bought the last plane made there. Despite successes, Texas Aero closed during the Great Depression after George Williams died in August 1930 in a student training accident.

Thirty years later, Ferrel became so enchanted with the story of those lofty pioneers that he built a Temple monoplane from scratch, using original sketches loaned to him by George Williams' daughter, Dorothy. Registration for the last Texas Aero aircraft expired in the late 1930s in Fort Worth, and Ferrel could find no original planes.

And this part was particularly endearing:

In 1992, Ferrel donated the monoplane to the Frontiers of Flight Museum on the east side of Dallas' Love Field, where it still can be viewed suspended high and proud overhead. In his last act of historic derring-do, he flew the plane himself to Love Field.

"Actually, I had to land in Lancaster and phone the tower at Love Field so they could tell me what to do next and where to land," he said with a laugh.

Kudos to the Texas Department of Transportation for making sure this small jewel of aviation legacy in Texas isn't forgotten!

It takes Congress to get a change in the industry?

Perusing the August 3 issue of Aviation Week, there's an article "Meeting Hire Standards" by Frances Fiorino regarding the legislative fallout from the February crash of Colgan 3407. The provisions of the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Act of 2009 are expansive, but there are three areas that catch my interest.

First, an increase in flight time hiring requirements- all pilots (be they captains or first officers) must hold an ATP and have a minimum of 1500 flight hours. Current rules according to the article (and what I have heard from many in the industry) are a commercial pilot license and a minimum of 250 hours. Some regional airlines even have programs where the pilot pays the airline to fly and build up hours. Well, if that doesn't make me drop a load in my shorts out of fear.

As the successful ditching of the US Airways flight in the Hudson showed, there's no substitute for an experienced crew in the two seats up front when it hits the fan. There's an old saying in aviation that pilots start out with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience and the goal is to fill the bag of experience before emptying the bag of luck. I don't know about you folks, I'd like the guy with the biggest bag of experience up front. And if that means their pay has to be higher and that gets passed to the consumer, then so be it. Routine flight is easy. I've even got a few hours under my belt in general aviation aircraft. But I found that was tested the most by my instructor during simulated emergencies. That's where skill and experience come into play.

The second area of interest regards a more serious push towards addressing fatigue. It's been a contributing cause in some many accidents and it's been on the NTSB's most wanted list since 1990. That's NINETEEN YEARS AGO. NINETEEN! And now we're just getting around to seeing it as an important issue. I'd love to and fish through the accident databases just for the United States for all accidents since 1990 where fatigue as a factor.

I don't think there's a regional pilot in the United States that doesn't have a story about flying while tired. There are even regional airlines that operate under the name of big carriers that have in the past wanted their crews to stay overnight in the planes and rest there for the next duty day!

I once was talking about the ramifications of Colgan 3407 to a regional jet pilot and he put it plainly- "Now that the majors aren't hiring, many of us are now stuck here in the regionals. Before you put up with it because in a few years you moved up to the mainline and had a good life. Now a lot of us see flying for the regionals as our long term career and we're going to want a better lifestyle if that's the case."

The last item of the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act that got my attention was a provision for a "truth in advertising" mandate that the airline clearly disclose which regional airline is operating each leg of a flight, be it mainline or otherwise. Personally I like this idea. There are regional operations that I absolutely avoid and as it is now, I have to ask around the regional pilots I know who operates a given flight for a given carrier before I'm comfortable booking the flight. If I can't find out and there's a chance I'll get that particular regional airline, I don't care how cheap the flight is, I'm taking my business where I can get that solid answer on who is operating that flight.

We've all heard the story of the 47 passengers stuck on a Continental Express flight that diverted to Rochester, Minnesota. Initially, queries to Continental were referred to the operator of the flight, ExpressJet. Whatever happened to brand integrity? If ExpressJet is flying with your name and logo, then you have some responsibility for what happens on your regional partners.

And don't get me started on code shares.

DOH!

I was browsing the Key Publishing aviation forum last night and came across this gem of an account from a former USAF F-104 weapons instructor about a DACT engagement between the F-15 and the F-104 back in the 1970s:

When the F-15 training operation began at Luke in the latter 70s, the initial squadron was the 555th, known as 'the Nickle'. Sometime in 78 or so, the Nickle guys were looking for DACT with a variety of fighter types, and so they came down the street to the F-104 Fighter Weapons School in the 69TFTS, also at Luke.

They wanted to fly against us, and so we agreed to put up a two ship for a trial mission. Two FWS instructors were selected, one a German instructor (Hartmut Troehler) and one USAF instructor (me).

The Nickle hosted the mission. We briefed at their squadron with two of their instructors (both F-4 FWS grads). They were going to use the two seat model for the engagement. We would both have dedicated GCI. We were to simulate Floggers...not a bad idea since the G model that we flew was a good representation of the A2A capability of the MiG-23. Our simulated armament was to be Apex, Aphid, and the gun.

After the main briefing, Hartmut and I had our own briefing. I was the flight lead and intended to use as much deception as I could. We knew that the F-15 guys were really proud of their radar capabilities...the PD radar was new to the fighter community at that time. I thought that the two Nickle guys would be heavily relying on their radar to enter the fight...as it turned out, I was right.

My plan was to put Hartmut in close formation and run head on at the F-15 using GCI for vectoring. Our radar could search out to 40nm but we couldn't lock on until 20nm.

We took the first GCI vector and accelerated through the mach. Intended to fight fast...high speed extensions and hook turns. At 20nm, the F-15 made a large blip on my radar and I was able to get a lock. The plan was to Fox-1 at about 16nm and then have Hartmut peel off into a hard 360 to follow me.

I called the Apex at 16nm, told Hartmut to deploy, and then pushed it up to over 700KIAS. My hope was that the Eagle guys would hold their lock on me and not see Hartmut separate. We could slave our gunsight to the radar lock on angle...this let me fly right at the F-15. I picked him up visually...he was high, to the right, and had started a conversion turn. I unloaded, and extended away figuring they would try to follow...and they did.

What that did, of course, was get them sandwiched between me and Hartmut. My guess was that they would get all excited and jump on me without asking where my wingman was. They found out soon enough as their GCI relayed to them Hartmut's gun attack call.

I was looking back and saw their break turn that resulted. I went idle and boards, slowed to .85M, dropped my maneuver flaps, put my lift vector on the Eagle and then pulled the jet into a hard 7g turn using burner to hold my speed. I knew I could sustain that g at around 400KIAS.

I pulled into a lead snapshot position on the Eagle, closed in and went guns. The Eagle broke again as their GCI relayed the second gun call.

By this time, Hartmut was pitching back into the fight. He saw me extend away, went in for his second gun attack, and then extended away after me. I tallyed him, gave him a check turn to put us back into line abreast and then we became a dot.

The Eagle tried to call a Fox-2 as we separated but with us well over 700KIAS, it was way out of parameters.

The result was the two Fox-1s and three unobserved gun kills by us. They had no valid shots.

The debriefing was a hoot. I especially liked the part where the Nickle guy played his recorder and we heard the backseater say "Break, we just got gunned again"!

Of course, all of this should not have happened. The F-15 should have had us for lunch. But they didn't, and it was all because they didn't play to their strengths...and they severely underestimated their opponents. They didn't do that again and that was a good thing.

It looks like the battle was one before the fight began- the two F-104 pilots correctly anticipated what the Eagle drivers would do and they played on the F-104s strengths- speed, small head-on visual signature.

The return of counterinsurgency...it ain't sexy but it can work

Stephen Trimble's DEW Line posted today that Alenia plans to offer the M-346 (basically a Westernized Yak-130) for the USAF's potential order for 100 light attack fighter trainers. The M-346 would be the first pure jet offering to an RFP the USAF issued last week. Of course, the M-346 would also be a potential candidate for the T-38 Talon replacement contract known as T-X.

It's interesting that one one hand the USAF has been making a full court press on fifth generation projects like the F-35 and F-22, but now we have something that can do many things for less cost (training, light attack....dare I say air sovereignty?) being mooted.

In a competition that so far has been full of turboprop aircraft like the Air Tractor AT-802, Embraer Super Tucano, and an armed version of the Beech/Raytheon AT-6 Texan II, this is an interesting offering that might offer cost-savings for the USAF if it's also chosen for the T-X competition. Larger aircraft order, unit cost goes down and the airplane geek in me would be tickled to see an aircraft designed by Italian and Russian engineers in USAF markings.