Allied Pilots Family Awareness

09/13/2017

Come see us in Reno !! Please refer to the post below for more information or contact FO Doug Hancock at 704-737-6330 for details.

09/08/2017

Three of our fellow AA pilots airplanes down here at Triple Tree Fly-in, Stacy Lutes' 180, Chuck Berkebile's Grumman and the Gail and Steve Jones's Bellanca. If you have a chance, come on down and enjoy some APA hospitality. We are open all day Friday and Saturday.

07/04/2017

It is with great sadness we report the passing of CA David Laczko. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as they proceed through this difficult time.

M. David Laczko September 25, 1962 - June 30, 2017
Matthew David Laczko, 54, died on Friday, June 30, 2017, in his home town of Edenton, NC.
Mr. Laczko was born on September 25, 1962, and was the son of the late Dr. Andrew Laszlo Laczko, a native of Hungary, and Elfriede Hoermann Laczko, a native of Germany. David attended Enloe High School in Raleigh and continued his education at Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK, graduating as a certified flight instructor. Hired by Piedmont Airlines in 1984, he was currently employed as an International Captain for American Airlines. Having flown commercially for 34 years, he loved flying both on and off the job, and was currently teaching his children to fly in his beloved J-3 Cub.
Along with his love for flying, he was an avid outdoorsman. He spent many hours in the woods around the Edenton area hunting with his children, family and friends, as well as boating in the surrounding waters. He and his wife shared a love of horses and were active in the equestrian community. He loved to spend time at the Outer Banks with his family and extended family. Other enjoyments included his membership in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the Yeopim Raptors Hunt Club, the Airline Pilots Association, and serving as a mentor for many years with the Boy Scouts of America.
Born: September 25, 1962 Death: June 30, 2017

He is survived by his wife, Shelby Sellers Laczko, and their children, Emma, Andrew, and Grace of Edenton. Also surviving are two brothers, Lawrence of Raleigh, and Andrew of Charlotte.
Funeral services will be held Thursday at 3:00 p.m. in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and will be conducted by The Rev. J. Malone Gilliam. The burial will follow in Beaver Hill Cemetery. Friends may join the family Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Miller Funeral Home & Crematory, 735 Virginia Road, Edenton.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to an educational fund being established for his children at the local State Employees Credit Union, 101 Mexico Road, Edenton, NC 27932.
Online condolences may be made by visiting www.millerfhc.com.

In 1907 when Mr. Lycurgus Hofler founded our business, the most common mode of informing the Gatesville community of a death was by sending a young boy door to door with a handwritten announcement on a silver tray, covered by a black cloth. Who could have imagined then the technology of today? But e...

06/30/2017

Additional thoughts from APA Vice-President FO Tim Hamel....take your vacation, you earned it and deserve it !!

Take Your Well-Deserved Vacation

What to do now that you’ve gotten your vacation lined up? Enjoy the time off — you’ve earned it. Accumulated fatigue from flying month in and month out requires recharging. It’s essential to ensure the daily operation has sharp pilots flying our passengers with the professionalism that all of us possess.

When President Carey stated, “2017 is our year,” he knew two things: We needed our membership to get behind their leadership, and the middle of the bell curve would respond to bold new paths set out before them. The nadir of bankruptcy was behind us, the time was right, and we knew this pilot group would begin gaining ground.

We are on a better path now than just 12 months ago when your new national officers took office. Dan, Pam, and I have stayed focused on the charted course set by our policy makers, our Board of Directors. With their guidance and the ability given to the national officers to utilize every resource within APA, your leaders are well positioned to continue making gains toward our goal of industry leadership in all areas of our contract. Be assured that the path to realizing our collective goals will have many challenges and some sacrifices. It will require your leadership and trust in the fact that we can accomplish anything when we have unity in purpose.

I’d like to take this time to address a situation that is developing. APA has learned that management is soliciting pilot volunteers to forego and defer their vacation in accordance with Section 9.D. of the contract. APA understands that the contract allows management to make a written request for a pilot to forego vacation and then allows a pilot to take the vacation later in the same vacation year — i.e., bid on future, Company-designated vacation slots — or defer the vacation into the successive vacation year. However, our contract does not allow for vacation that a pilot foregoes and defers at the request of the Company to be placed into the pilot’s vacation bank to “sell back” or for payout in February (2018).

To be clear, there is no cash-out/banking/sell-back of deferred vacations. Deferred vacations are either taken later in the vacation year or during the next vacation year.

We’ve set a course that depends upon your engagement. Please get involved. Your participation is the vital ingredient in the progress that we’re now achieving. It’s time to get unified and stay that way. A 15,000-pilot negotiating committee can accomplish a great deal when they back their leadership. Making gains with a fully engaged pilot group is how it’s done.

This profession is once again in our control. Get involved, stay unified, enjoy the ride, and have a safe, reinvigorating summer.

In Unity,

First Officer Tim Hamel
APA Vice President

06/30/2017

Concourse Conversations next week in ORD, July 6th and 7th from 0800 until 1800 daily. Pilot representatives will be located in operations, the food court and under the Arrival/Departure board at the base of the H and K concourses. We will have all 3 National Officers on hand, as well as both ORD domicile reps. Additionally, we will have representatives from NCN, Communications, GAC and Family Awareness to help answer any questions you may have. Please try to swing by, grab a $10 food voucher, get some questions answered and find out about volunteer opportunities within the Union.

Please contact FO Doug Hancock, Family Awareness Chairman, at [email protected] or 704-737-6330 with any questions.

06/30/2017

You Can’t Buy Back Time: Take Your Vacation

I’d like to congratulate you once again on the gains that your unity produced in the first half of 2017, our year.

From the mid-contract pay raise to the profit sharing letter of agreement to the ASAP memorandum — to say that your unity and hard work paid off would be an understatement. Simply put, you stepped up and supported your leadership, and value was delivered.

Whether you’re flying this Independence Day weekend or not, part of that well-deserved value is the reward of hard-earned and more highly compensated vacation time.

During our vacation bidding period, your APA leadership asked that you consider your personal strategy for bidding your 2017-2018 vacation to maximize use of awarded vacation while minimizing use of the floating option. In that message, your leadership pointed out that Crew Scheduling’s obsession with squeezing every dollar out of the schedule “optimizer,” without regard for the fatiguing consequences, is risking our operational reliability and narrowing the margin of safety.

Your leadership highlighted the importance of taking time off via your contractual vacation rights to replenish, recharge, and spend time with family and friends. You clearly value the importance of this time as critical to personal and professional health because nearly 50,000 days/7,000 weeks of additional vacation time were taken compared to last year. I’m certain that this time will now play an important role in enhancing our operation’s reliability and margin of safety.

I encourage you to take full advantage of your vacation and recharge to help ensure safe operations and because we have much work ahead of us as we continue our “2017 is Our Year” momentum. I’m certain that 15,000 recharged and unified pilots will be a formidable — and necessary — force as we continue restoring our profession.

It is very apparent that management has built a schedule that is strained by manning shortages and has engaged in contractual short-cuts to cover the schedule. Therefore, it is ever important that you hold your ground and defend your contract. Utilize your APA Contract Administrators and Contract Compliance Committee experts as you operate as the last line of defense.

Management is soliciting volunteers to “forego” their vacation in an attempt to alleviate their under-staffed schedule. It is important to note that the contract only provides for a pilot to defer vacation until later in the vacation year or the succeeding vacation year. Vacation deferrals do not provide for a payout option like vacation floating does. APA has notified management of this distinction.

Enjoy the fireworks this weekend,

CA Dan Carey
APA President

06/15/2017

DCA Concourse conversations program with Family Awareness Chairman FO Doug Hancock and DCA Domicile Chairman CA Carl Jackson.

06/15/2017

Concourse conversations today and tomorrow in DCA. Big thanks to DCA Chairman CA Carl Jackson, DCA Vice Chairman FO Joe Collins, FO Fran Cloe, FO Jorge Sanchez, CA Willie Taylor, CA Bill Russell, NCN Coordinator CA Pam Sperry, and the Family Awareness team.

06/01/2017

APA’s Family Awareness and Communications Committees will host “Concourse Conversations” at four airports in June. These events are great opportunities to meet with union leaders, learn more about what APA does for its members, and find out how you can contribute. (They’re also great opportunities for you to get a free bite to eat.) Each event will start at 0800 and end at 1800.

DFW on June 6 and 7
We’ll be at Au Bon Pain in Terminal A, in the food court near operations in Terminal C, and near operations and Railhead BBQ in Terminal D. We will have vouchers for $10 that will be good at all airport vendors.

DCA on June 15 and 16
We’ll be at the Starbucks outside the security/KCM checkpoint, with a running tab available.

LGA on June 21
We’ll be in the food court outside of security next to operations. We will have running tabs at Dunkin” Donuts and Au Bon Pain.

JFK on June 22
We’ll be in the food court in Terminal 8. We will have running tabs at Starbucks and Abitino’s Pizzeria.

If you are a National Communications Network member who is willing to volunteer at any of these events, contact Family Awareness Committee Chairman FO Doug Hancock via [email protected] or 704-737-6330, or NCN National Coordinator CA Pam Sperry via [email protected].

05/31/2017

LGA Pilots,

Two of our pilots - Steve and Rae Smolen - need our help. Their house burned to the ground last night and they lost everything but the clothes on their backs. We have reached out to Steve and Rae, thankfully no one was hurt but right now they could use our support.

Let’s not overwhelm them, but maybe a phone call, a text, or email to let them know you are thinking of them. As soon as we find out what their needs are, we will pass that along. Some of you live near Steve and Rae and may be able to stop by to lend a hand.

This was a devastating loss, but fortunately they are both safe. I'm sure they will appreciate hearing from you. Your thoughts, prayers and support will go a long way assisting them getting their lives back together.

We have worked closely with Tony and Andy to ensure Rae and Steve receive all the assistance they need.

A gofundme account has been established to help Rae and Steve through this difficult time. Please consider a donation as we “take care of our own.” There are two accounts on the gofundme site. Ours has the photo of the NYC skyline.

https://www.gofundme.com/smolen-family-house-fire

Thanks in advance for your generosity.

Mike, Scott, Tony, and Andy

Two of our New York pilots, Rae and Steve, lost all of their belongings and home to a devasting fire on Tuesday May 30,2017.  We want to help them rebuild their lives starting with basic needs.   Imagine losing everything you own.  Please donate and keep the Smolen Family in your prayers. Mike

05/26/2017

A family friend of the Knutson's has made a large number of these shirts for tomorrow's funeral for Owen. The family will have the receiving from 10am until 1pm at the Chetek-Weyerhauser High School Gym, with the service to follow immediately afterwards.

Please keep the Knutson family in your thoughts and prayers as they proceed through the difficult days ahead.

05/25/2017

It is with incredible sadness we let our members know of the passing of Owen Knutson. Owen is the son of CA Tim Knutson and his lovely wife Dawn. He passed away yesterday in a light airplane accident in Chetek, WI. Owen was a part of our Family Awareness "family" at Oshkosh and will be sorely missed. He was my BBQ buddy at Oshkosh, always there to lend a hand and help out when needed.

The following link to an article in Flying magazine highlights Owen and the passion for aviation he possessed.

Please keep the Knutson family in your thoughts and prayers as they deal with the loss of their beloved son.

http://www.flyingmag.com/jumpseat-tale-flying-legacies-part-2

Doug Hancock
Family Awareness Chairman

Airline pilot and son of a WWII instructor pilot Tim Knutson flew his first solo in a J-3 Cub. His son, carrying on the flying legacy, soloed in the same plane.