some good observations get spread on Facebook

found on https://www.facebook.com/breedofspeed/

How do airliner passenger planes get forgotten in lost and found? Doesn't someone have to do reports on them? Their maintenance records for example?

with all the internet ability to research the owners or airliners... they have failed to figure out who owns these planes. Even though they know the registration numbers. That is stupid.

The operators of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) have placed a bizarre advertisement in a Malaysian newspaper seeking the owners of three 747-200F aircraft apparently abandoned there.

"If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft" under Malaysian regulations, said the ad which ran in Monday's edition of The Star.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/to-whom-it-may-concern-please-claim-your-boeing-747s/ar-AAga0gU
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/08/aviation/malaysia-aviation-airport-abandoned-aircraft/index.html 

Starting Wednesday, the U.S.-Mexico border will be one of the world's only boundaries with an airport straddling two countries.

An investor group that includes Chicago billionaire Sam Zell built a sleek terminal in San Diego with a bridge that crosses a razor-wire border fence to Tijuana's decades-old airport. Passengers pay $18 to walk a 390-foot overpass to Tijuana International Airport, a springboard to about 30 Mexican destinations.



The terminal is targeting the estimated 60 percent of Tijuana airport passengers who cross into the United States, about 2.6 million travelers last year. Now, they drive about 15 minutes to a congested land crossing, where they sometimes wait several hours to enter San Diego by car or on foot. The airport bridge is a five-minute walk to a U.S. border inspector.

Cross Border Xpress, one of the largest privately-operated U.S. air terminals, wouldn't have happened if Tijuana didn't build its airport a few steps from the international line in the 1950s or if it wasn't surrounded by undeveloped land in a barren, industrial part of San Diego.

CBX officials say they hope to capture half of Tijuana passengers bound for the U.S., which sounds realistic to nervous Tijuana airport taxi drivers who charge $13 for a ride to a land crossing. Nearly all cars in the Tijuana airport garage have California plates.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california/Tijuana-San-Diego-California-Airport-Mexico-360787851.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_LABrand

a pilot has to know when it is OK to drink a beer, being "on call" can't count as rest

The cold beer test can show whether an airliner company has a "prospective rest" policy.

The FAA has once again issued a legal interpretation explaining that an “on call” pilot can’t count as rest all of the time that a call never came.

The agency has been restating this principle periodically for years, and each time, many in the FAR Part 135 on-demand charter world angrily reply that this policy cannot function in the real world. Their position: If a pilot hasn’t flown or worked in any way for a week, why can’t that same, well-rested pilot fly on 2-hr. notice?

a flight-crew member’s rest period must be “(1) continuous, (2) determined prospectively (i.e., known in advance) and (3) free from all restraint by the certificate holder, including freedom from work or the present responsibility for work should the occasion arise.”

http://m.aviationweek.com/bca/faa-call-pilots-are-duty

David wrote to tell me what the related rules are for railroad crews:

It's not that way with the railroads, when you work in "train service," as either an engineer or conductor, when you're on call.

If you have enough seniority, you can "mark up" for a specific train. Otherwise you're on the "extra board" and on call. You can work as much as a 16 hour shift (at that point you are officially off duty and the railroad has to send a "cab" to replace your crew and pick you up to bring you to a hotel.). The clock starts running on your 10 hours of rest the second that you clock out (it used to be only 8 hours, but some railroads are finding that with the shorter time off, crews were experiencing "micro-sleep events, nodding off for a second and missing a signal that would tell them to stop and they would have a collision with another train, usually involving the death of the train crew. So, it's much better now, than it was.). Your drive home, clean up time and sleep are all counted into your rest time. And they can call you again after 10 hours if you are up next in the rotation for train crew. Then you have between 90 and 120 minutes to report after the call, which includes getting up, getting dressed, getting your spare set of clothes packed (in case you're sent out "on the road"), and the drive back into your terminal. There is a ZERO TOLERANCE policy for Alcoholism or Drug Use. Any positive test means IMMEDIATE TERMINATION.

It's a dangerous job that pays damn good, for a job that only requires a high school education (plus passing the safety rules exam, and doing all of the physical work in all seasons of weather 24x7x365.25) at about $67,000/year for Conductor before overtime (with overtime starting after the 8th hour each day) and about $83,000/year for Engineer. AND employees with 5 years are no longer part of Social Security, but are included in Railroad Retirement (employees have contributed into RRE since day one, but become vested at 5 years of service and your SSI is rolled into RRE - which unlike SSI is solvent and totally funded). In addition to that, if you have a spouse, she gets her own account funded at 50% of your contributions to RRE!

As a train enthusiast, it's something that I've always wanted to do and have recently applied for. And I believe that IF I ever get selected, I'd be just fine, living on the road (although I'd be in my own bed every other night), even with the funky, on-call schedule, because I'd be doing something that I've always wanted to do and that I love.