• mkwt@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Southwest Airlines pays their pilots a bonus for every minute they block in early.

    Guess who has a reputation for bugging ATC for shortcuts and taxiing really fast.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Aha, I knew it! Flight attendants get paid per ‘flight’ hour and the pilots get bonuses to reduce the amount of time the attendants are paid for. That’s fucked up

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Pay is usually per flight hour, but also paid on a block-or-better basis. The minimum pay for completing a leg is the scheduled time, but if there are delays, then actual time from parking brake to parking brake is paid

  • JayObey711@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Boeing is doing the low% speedrun where you try to get to your destination with the least aircraft parts.

  • nebulaone@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Ooooh, so that’s why I saw a plane doing janky backwards jumps before being flung off into the sky.

  • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    <Pilots start looking for glitches>

    Hmm, after reading my contract carefully, there’s nothing in there that explicitly says I actually have to wait for the passengers and baggage to be loaded before taking off…

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Block time (airlines calculate it differently) was traditionally viewed from “block to block”, the time the wheel chocks were removed for the aircraft to move under its own power for departure to the time the wheel chocks were put back under the wheels at destination. Now it just means what the airline thinks the flight time will be for scheduling purposes.

    As a passenger, this is what you see when your app tells you the flight time. It includes taxi out and taxi in.

    Delay-prone flights are often over blocked, so a perfectly delay-free flight (push, taxi, takeoff, fly, land, taxi in, park) that takes say an hour and a half total might me blocked for 1:50 because historically one of the airports might be busy at that time an they know there will be a long taxi, gate holds, whatever.

    So sometimes fate smiles on everyone and you get to leave early, miss whatever built in delays there might be planned, ATC gives you a couple shortcuts, a favorable wind, and bam, you’re in 30 minutes early.

    So not really a speed run, just lots of luck.

    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Nice explanation, thanks.

      I was thinking that maybe the company needed that plane somewhere quickly and just said screw it to fuel efficiency.

  • Futurama@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    No no no, that’s only 52 minutes early. He left 2 minutes before the scheduled start time. Quit trying to boost your stats, man!

  • JayObey711@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    A TOS shows that if you do an out of bounds glitch you can trigger the loading zone under ground because they stretch to the bottom of the sky box.

  • okamiueru@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Party pooper here.

    You know when fast food workers post images of things like stepping bare footed onto a bowl of salad?

    To me, this is the equivalent for pilots. Safety, checklists and routines, take time. Don’t go posting on social media that your are competing in this space.

    Ps: the post in question is arguably not too bad. But, if this is “a thing”, then I’d suggest to be careful to be associated with it.

  • dance_ninja@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Weren’t airlines purposefully inflating trip times because of the Biden administration’s rule changes on trip refunds?