FLIGHT OPS FLYER OCTOBER 15, 1999 **************** **************** United to Provide Two Cockpit Jumpseats on All Aircraft ------------------------------------------------------- Senior Vice President-Flight Operations Captain Steve Forte announced this week that United has committed to provide two cockpit jumpseats on all its aircraft. The company will install a second jumpseat on the two fleets that do not currently have two jumpseats - the B737-300/500 and the B757 - when the aircraft go through heavy maintenance visits. All new aircraft will be delivered with two cockpit jumpseats. "We're taking this action because it's the right thing to do," says Forte. "It will improve the quality of work life for our pilots." United Ready to Start B777 ETOPS in the Pacific ----------------------------------------------- United this week received approval to fly the B777 inaugural flight between Seattle and Narita Oct. 31, following a simulated B777 ETOPS diversion test with the FAA. The test, which took place onboard a regularly scheduled B747 flight without interrupting normal operations, evaluated how United would handle an emergency diversion into an airport at which it doesn't operate, in this case into Petropavlovsk (PKC), Russia. United demonstrated all emergency procedures during the diversion, including activation of the Crisis Center, initiation of the Recovery Plans and a formal debriefing. In preparation for the simulation, considerable advance liaison and planning was required with the Russian government, U.S. Consulate, U.S. Coast Guard, PKC airport authorities and ground service providers. "This was a tremendous cross-divisional effort that involved various employee groups, including flight crews, ALPA, the Flight Center, Flight Dispatch, SOC, SAMC, the Crew Desk, Flight Safety and Maintenance," says Captain Steve Forte, senior vice president-Flight Operations. "Everyone on the team deserves credit for putting together the most comprehensive contingency plan for Pacific flying in the industry." "The FAA was very impressed with the work we did during the simulation," says Captain Lew Kosich, manager-Flight Operations Support, DENTK. "With this last piece in place, we're ready to start flying on Oct. 31." The FAA will monitor United's inaugural SEA-NRT flight to count as the proving run for ETOPS operation of United's B777 fleet in the Pacific. Flight Crew Resources Seeks Vacation Deferrals ---------------------------------------------- In a letter dated Oct. 7, director-Flight Crew Resources Richard Lung asked for pilots to participate in vacation deferral of some or all of their currently assigned February, March and April vacation, as well as any unassigned vacation remaining after the January 60 day assignments are complete. Lung shared some of the manpower reasons making the deferral necessary and outlined the timeline for the process. "Pilots are moving up at record rates," Lung says. "New hire and transition training is projected to increase from about 3,500 this year to almost 5,000 pilots next year." Pilot retirements, aircraft growth and recovery of the Pacific operation are all contributing to the year 2000 manpower needs, according to Lung. The deferral is in accordance with Section 11-F of the 1994 Pilot Contract and Letter 96-13. Vacation deferral submission began Oct. 7 and concludes on Nov. 17 at noon Chicago time. Pilots can submit requests through DIS*31190. Flight Crew Resources will send confirmation letters of all awarded deferrals on Nov. 22. United to Perform Y2K Preparedness Test --------------------------------------- The Year 2000 Division will perform a companywide preparedness test on Oct. 20. The purpose of the test is to conduct a dry run of "wellness checks" and reporting processes. "Wellness checks" are lists of items performed to ensure systems, applications and equipment operate correctly after the calendar turns 2000. Welcome Aboard -------------- Twenty new-hire pilots began training at the Flight Center this week, bringing the 1999 total to 629. Their assignments are: 3 B727 F/O 3 to SFO 8 B727 S/O 5 to SFO, 3 to DEN 4 B300 F/O 4 to SFO 2 B737 F/O 2 to ORD 3 U-30 F/O 3 to SFO ************************************************************ 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 ************************************************************