FLIGHT OPS FLYER JANUARY 7, 2000 **************** *************** Congratulations on Successful Y2K Rollover ------------------------------------------ "EOK, except we are working on New Year's Eve." "Sky guys to earthlings! No meltdown here, are you still with us?" ""The airplane just celebrated Y2K and guess what . . . nothing. Just won a few bets." These are some of the answers from airborne crews responding to wellness checks as the last day of 1999 rolled over into 2000. After several years and millions of dollars in preparation and planning, United Airlines' airplanes, facilities and computer systems made the transition to the new millennium with no significant problems resulting from the Y2K computer bug. "The Y2K rollover was no problem, because many people in Flight Ops did their homework and more," says Manager-Flight Operations Automation Michele Manoski. "Credit and a big thank you to everyone in Flight Ops who worked so hard to achieve a trouble-free rollover." Sr. Vice President Captain Steve Forte was airborne at the controls of flight 928 ORD-LHR at midnight UTC, with Y2K guru and author Peter de Jager onboard. De Jager, who was instrumental in raising awareness worldwide of the need to prepare business and information technology industries for Y2K, was so impressed with United's extensive Y2K preparations that he decided to take flight 928 to London for the rollover. "I would like to add my congratulations and thanks to everyone for a successful Y2K transition," says Captain Forte. "A special thank you to those who worked the night of December 31. Due to everyone's efforts, our operation went forward as usual. The last word goes to WHQVF Staff Analyst-Automation Dave Kleckner, who said: `We came, we saw, we kicked bug!'" Changes to Flight Officer Employment Program -------------------------------------------- In order to ensure United continues to recruit and hire the finest pilots in the industry, the company has announced several changes to the Flight Officer Employment program. In November, Roger Vesely was announced as the new Manager- Flight Officer Employment, replacing Nancy Stuke, who is on special assignment. In December, DEN A320 Captain John Szakach was chosen for the newly created position of Manager-Flight Officer Recruiting Programs and reports directly to Managing Director-Line Operations and System Chief Pilot Captain Rick Maloney. Szakach's responsibilities include serving as the company's chief spokesperson for all company pilot recruiting, chairing both the Flight Officer Board of Review and Flight Officer Selection Steering Committee, managing the Interview Captains and partnering with Vesely on all aspects of the flight officer selection process. In addition, the following changes have been made to the initial hiring process, effective January 1: ** The $50 application fee is eliminated for any application received after January 1. The current application form will not become obsolete, and applicants with paperwork already in the system do not need to re-apply. ** Candidates who are unsuccessful can re-apply after six months. ** Vision must be correctable to 20/20 with no uncorrected limit. ** A one day interview process with no simulator evaluation. All new hire pilots, including second officers, will still receive a flying skills evaluation. It will be conducted during their first year, before flying the line as a first officer. This evaluation will provide a better overall assessment of the pilot's flying skills than a one hour prepped simulator profile. Interview Captains conduct a thorough interview that includes a technical evaluation. Recency of experience, complexity of aircraft flown, check ride history, previous training difficulties and FAA/military action are all factored into the hiring decision. Letters of recommendation from current United pilots are also given significant consideration. "These changes are more evidence of our commitment to play an increasingly active role in the flight officer employment process," says Captain Maloney. Pilots will receive more detailed information about these changes and the hiring process in a Flight Officer Employment newsletter to be distributed to pilot mailboxes within the next few weeks. New Flight Manager in Denver ---------------------------- DENFO Chief Pilot Captain Joe Swenson has announced the selection of Captain Mical Bruce as the new Flight Manager at DENFO, replacing Captain J.R. Russell who has moved to the Manager-Captain Development Course position. Captain Bruce, who joined United in 1990, has flown the B737, B727, B757/767, B777 and A320. He served as the Flight Operations Supervisor at IADFO for four years, and has a Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech University and a Master of Science from Central Michigan University. His new position is effective January 16. Welcome Aboard -------------- The first new-hire class of 2000 has 23 flight officers, who were assigned the following bids: 4 U-30 F/O 4 to SFO 1 DC10 S/O 1 to ANC 2 A320 F/O 2 to SFO 1 B727 F/O 1 to ORD 10 B727 S/O 8 to ORD, 2 to DEN 4 B300 F/O 4 to ORD 1 B737 F/O 1 to ORD ***********************Safety Issues************************ High Speed Abort ---------------- A B777 departing ORD aborted takeoff at approximately 135 knots. ************************************************************ Flight Operations Communications, WHQVF 847/700-7288 Current and past issues of "Flight Ops Flyer" are available on Flite Site, the Flight Ops pages in Skynet, United's intranet, and in Library 13 in the UAL Employees Forum in CompuServe. Employees may access Skynet via the internet at http://united.intranet.ual.com ************************************************************