Closure, part III

January and especially February 2015 were a professional low. Although social life was improving and becoming more intense all the time, professionally I hit rock bottom.

During my time in Kenya, I reached
10.000hrs in the air. At this point,
things were still good, mostly...

The main culprit is of course all the struggles with the salary deductions, but also not getting the contract renewed. On top of this, after the simulator checks, there were issues with getting my license renewed. After a line of misunderstandings and misinterpretations from my side, I suddenly found my license being expired. Yes, the license is the responsibility of the pilot. The problem is that I had come from outside the system and didn’t know how it worked, and the answers I was getting presumed otherwise. As usual, nobody admitted to any wrongdoings or unclear instructions, I was the only one to blame.

Going back to the simulator briefly, I was surprised that I actually managed to find enough motivation for it. Being treated like crap, fighting for your salary and knowing the contract will end in a few months, aren’t what you would call motivators. It still went decently, teamed up with a Kenyan captain, a true union activist. A lot of multiple failures under time pressure as usual, but not as bad as the first time. The new young instructors were apparently getting some sense into the operations.

The hassle with my license did nothing to improve motivation. One day in February, I found myself sitting in the afternoon rush-hour traffic, heading home from work. As usual the traffic moved slowly or not at all, with cars constantly changing lanes or even forming new ones. I was just staring ahead, not really participating in the struggle for a better position. It then came to me, like a powerful blow to the back of my head; I can’t do this!

Fortunately the car wasn’t moving at this time, otherwise I could probably have hit anything, or even worse, missed my exit and get stuck in even worse traffic.

The next morning I was supposed to fly again, but it felt impossible, no way I could go out there and do my job the way it is supposed to be done. Even though I probably got some shite for it later, I am glad I was man enough to refuse to fly. We have recently seen what a worst case scenario can lead to, unfortunately.

This clearly shows what I felt.
And I'm the one on the...eh left? No, right. Right.
Actually it was before one hell of a party.

Eventually at home I called scheduling. This is how that discussion turned out. For those not involved in aviation, you should know that the regulations forbid you to fly when fatigued (or exhausted, actually even tired…).

- Hi, I can’t fly tomorrow, I am fatigued.

- Hi captain, so you are calling in sick?

- No, I am not sick, I am fatigued. I can’t fly.

- So you are calling in sick?

- No, not sick. Exhausted, tired. I can’t do my work.

- So we put you on sick leave for tomorrow, yes?

- Whatever…

This was one of three times I took sick leave between January and March. Once I did it just to get the weekend off (yes, I know it is bad morale, but keep in mind the countdown had already started…), another time I was really down with the flu. I don’t know if these sick leaves had any impact on what was to follow, maybe it was sort of a revenge, who knows. At that time it felt like the only way to go forward.

The final flights

Early March I was preparing for our upcoming holiday to Capetown (down with the flu), while counting down the remaining days of the contract. Suddenly I received a roster change, where my previously agreed leave weeks had been put in early. These were weeks I had had to fight for, to get them where they were supposed to be. I wasn’t really worried, just upset, then again you never knew where you had scheduling.

Enjoying Table Mountain, nice to be away from the problems,
for a while.

A few days later, when I finally got hold of scheduling, they just told me to contact the chief pilot. This was out of the ordinary. I talked to the fleet manager and he also told me to contact the chief pilot, it was out of his hands, he said. But make sure you have the doctor’s statement for the sick leave, he added. Now this was getting troublesome. Was it just about the sick leave? Well, I did have the statement so no worries there. I also made sure everyone involved received it. My voice was still down from the flu, so I didn’t think I’d have a problem convincing anyone.

After a few attempts I got hold of the chief pilot, but he told me to call again when I was well. Ok, apparently they did believe the sick leave then. After the weekend I managed to get hold of him again. I almost dropped the phone when he told me I was grounded! Well, sort of grounded. I had been put on leave, while they were examining a report that had been filed on me. He told me he would be in contact later that week.

This was something totally unexpected, an anonymous report! He didn’t tell me what it was about; if it was something I had said or done. The only thing he said is that while they investigate the report, I am not allowed to fly.

This is the closet I got to flying during my last time.

I couldn’t come up with having done anything wrong. The only thing coming to mind was a visual approach where we stabilized late. Not too late, mind you, but later than normally. On the other hand the co-pilot never said anything. If you aren’t happy with an approach, by default you tell the other guy to make a go-around, then later when at a safe altitude you discuss what happened, what went wrong. By not commenting anything you sort of withdraw your veto-right.

Apart from that one flight, I couldn’t come up with anything. The co-pilot on it was a hardcore union guy, so not unthinkable that it was a union move. I probably wasn’t too popular with those guys.

My usual enthusiasm was certainly gone during these last flights, but as far as to break any rules? I don’t think so. I still did my job, but nothing more.

It is also quite possible that it was something I’ve said. I come from an environment where you can basically discuss anything on the flightdeck. Normally what is said on the flightdeck, stays there. When investigating, I learnt that in Kenya it is not the case. Apparently you need to have a real self and a work self. A co-pilot told me that he never says anything personal or against the company at work, because you never know what the other guys agenda is.

This is a more likely scenario, as I spoke quite freely during the last two months of flying. I did nothing to hide how I felt being treated by the company, but instead talked about it. Maybe it was a mistake.

Naturally the chief pilot never called back, and the following week he was on a type-rating course and had delegated his duties to someone else. When I eventually got hold of the stand-in, he promised to investigate.

Again another week went by, and naturally he never called back. They just don’t do it. A few days, and a few attempts later, I did get hold of him. There was nothing new, but he still needed more info. The only info he had received initially was a small note on his desk. Now this substitute chiefpilot was still a guy I had met a few times and thought him a reasonable fellow.

When he finally had some more info, almost a month had already gone by. By now I was slowly giving up the hope of flying in Kenya again. After talking to him it was clear. They had decided that as the contract was so close to ending, they wouldn’t investigate the report. “Good”, I said, “Sounds right. So when can I continue flying?” “You can’t fly until it is investigated”, was the answer.

“Hold on”, I said, “So I can’t fly until it is investigated, but you are not going to investigate?”

I had understood it perfectly. For one reason or another they didn’t want me out flying again. The reason being political, financial (to use up all the remaining leave) or whatever, I don’t know. I never got an answer to what the report was about.

While enjoying a holiday on the coast, the Swedish place
we stayed at, actually had a sauna. Built by a Finn, of course.
It was actually a decent one, felt a bit strange though, bathing when
temperature outside was 32...

This was about the time when I emailed by boss at Finnair, explaining the situation, asking whether it was possible to return earlier. As things were, I had no desire to stay one single extra day in Kenya. They also effectively managed to spoil the last few months we had in Kenya. Yes, I had a lot of time off, if you can call it that, but I felt I was hanging in a loose noose so wasn’t really able to enjoy it.

Fortunately Finnair were prepared to take me back earlier, I was booked for return training a month earlier than originally planned. Thank god for people who got things done, who actually answered emails, not hiding even if the answers weren’t always pleasant. But things in Kenya were still far from solved.

Ups and downs, Closure part II

Autumn last year was a good time in Kenya. From September to November there were no real problems at work and flying was nice. Well, actually there were, but we didn’t know it yet…

Time for a catnap.

After passing the simulator checkout in September, it was back to flying. Things had cooled down between the fleet manager and me, he was actually starting to see us expats as a resource instead of a problem. One of the reasons for this was the huge amount of reports I was writing.

Kenya Airways had a fairly good operation going, but there were still lots of things that could be done better or in a different way. Coming from a background where things work and flights leave on schedule, it was easy for me to point out problems.

During my time in Kenya I had learnt that people do not always react good to advice from a Westerner. With that in mind I tried to be quite careful and mostly only point out the problems, possibly with a subtle hint of what could be done about it.

I’ve got to hand it to my fleet manager; he was trying quite hard and was actually getting things done. More importantly, he actually followed up on the issues. The only unfortunate thing is that it partially led to trying to find a scapegoat, a role no one volunteers in taking. I can actually understand the hesitancy, because people do get fired quite easily in Kenya. However, a lot in aviation is based on the non-punitive approach, in order to encourage reporting and improving safety and efficiency. Unfortunately it didn’t really work that way at KQ.

The norm was trying to escape responsibility, or even effort for that matter. This was especially true it wasn’t quite clear whose task it was. It was also true if there were any problems. A general approach to problem solving was don’t. If it isn’t your responsibility, don’t get involved. Even if it is your responsibility try hiding, by not answering phone calls or emails. If you do it long enough the problems might solve themselves. At least that seemed to be the general attitude.

Even Santa came to visit. But he must
have messed up his calendar, as he
came in October...

One good example of this is when I tried finding out about getting paid for working an off day. This is quite the norm in aviation and all the local pilots, including managers, were getting the payment. Now the problem was that it wasn’t specified in our contract, like it should have. So when I started flying (finally), it was time to raise the issue.

No one was interested. Fleet managers and flight management said contractual issues were the responsibility of HR. HR wasn’t interested, as we now were flying and in that sense out of their hands. It was impossible to get a response and eventually I gave up. It is unfortunate as it would have saved us expats from a lot of problems later, but of course I didn’t know it at that time. The main reason for me giving up was however that we actually started receiving these payments, together with a few other extras that weren’t in the contract but had been mentioned in a briefing.

All is well that ends well? Not quite. In December we suddenly found out that there were going to be deductions in our salaries. We eventually managed to find out that it was all about the flights extras that had been paid during the last six months (yes, including the off day payment).

The repo-man also
dropped by. 

A ton of phone calls and emails finally got us a meeting with the HR Director. He was very nice and agreed that we should be paid for work done.  He was going to see to it. Happily we left the office and continued flying. When we got our next salary the deductions were still there! Four weeks later, after several calls and mails again, we got another meeting with him.

He was still quite nice and assured us that things would be attended to. After two weeks and complete silence, we realized that he wasn’t going to do anything. Then, after contacting the Director of flight operations, we were told that HR couldn’t make decisions affecting the budget of the flight department. No, no, now it was back to square one where the chief pilot was going to sit down with someone from HR and discuss the issue. By this time we knew that nothing was going to happen.

All of this took about 2-3 months, during which time our motivation was spiraling downwards. It didn’t improve motivation that in January we finally were told they weren’t going to extend the contract (that ended in May). Nothing wrong with that (it was their contractual right) and it was expected anyway, but I had started asking in September, as usual not getting any answers…

Closure, part I

At the time of writing, Kenya is becoming a distant memory. After a while you tend to forget all the problems and cherish only the good things. It is probably a blessing that Man is constructed that way, otherwise there might be no more children in families, after the first one… We had great times in Kenya and learnt to know wonderful people, but this time is not about them.

Squeezing in the last furniture...

I have now spent already four months in Finland and summer is drawing its finals breaths.

During the last few months lots of things have happened, and then not, in a good way. We’ve had a moving company empty our house in Kenya. Before the container had left Mombasa harbour, I was already in Finland working. A month later my family joined me, and we were basically homeless for a few weeks, using my in-laws apartment and our countryside house to store our suitcases and us. End of June we got our house back as agreed, three weeks later our furniture finally arrived. Not quite on schedule, but then again, that was expected.

With the arrival of the furniture the circle closed. Our lives started again, almost like we’d never been away, but more importantly, the last ties with KQ were severed. Now there was nothing anymore that they could do or not do. This is actually the reason that I stopped writing the blog for a few months, the fear of being monitored (and maybe punished for what I write). The last three months were honestly a pain in the ass, with many surprising turns, a classic Greek drama in many parts.

One of the great times in Kenya, in Watamu.

I have been flying for twenty years now. I do like my job, quite a bit. Of course it is not always nice to go to work, there are regularly other things that I’d like to do even more. As a general rule though the work itself is nice. In Kenya, for the first time in my career, I suddenly found myself in a situation where I was unable to go to work. I was driving home in the afternoon usual traffic chaos, when I suddenly realized that there was no way I could work the next day. I wasn’t ill or anything, I just couldn’t muster the motivation to do my work. That itself, is really a strong statement from somebody who likes flying. A few days later I had recovered enough to be able to do my work, but I wasn’t happy as a bird and just putting in what was required. It turned out that there wasn’t many days of flying in Kenya left, but I was yet to find out.

Voi näitä päiviä

 Aina ei elämä mene kuin Strömsössä. Perjantai 13:a oli sellainen päivä.

Kävin simulaattorissa puolitoista viikkoa sitten. Siellä kysyin tarkastajalta, tarvitseeko nyt viedä kaikki paperit ja muut ilmailulaitokselle. Yllätyin suuresti kun sain kieltävän vastauksen. Ei, riittää kun hän kirjoittaa nimmarin lupakirjaan. Jaahas, no jopa jotain.

Koska myöhemmin selvisi että brasilialainen kollegani oli vienyt hakemukset ja muut paperit sinne, epäilin asiaa. Kysyin tekstarin kautta pomoltani, täsmääkö tämä. Kyllä, oli vastaus, jos sinulla on kaikki lupakirjat voimassa ei ole tarvetta lähteä sinne. Jaahas.

Selvityksestä kuitenkin tuli tekstareitä missä kysyttiin uusitun lupakirjan kopioita. Lähetin kopion nimmarista pariinkin kertaan. Kerran sieltä jopa soitettiin: kerroin että minulle on sanottu nimmarin riittävän. Hän lupasi tarkistaa asian, enkä sittemmin kuullut hänestä, tietenkään.

Täytyy toivoa että jarrut toimivat keskeytetyssä
lentoonlähdössä... Kisumu, Kenia ja edessä Victoria
järvi.

Olin edelleen epävarma, ja koska kyselyt jatkuivat kyselin pomoltani asiaa uudestaan, ennen

seuraavaa työvuoroa.

No niin, nyt sain vihdoin tarpeeksi tarkan vastauksen. Ei, lupakirjani ei ollut enää voimassa. Minun olisi pitänyt hakea uusi lupakirja. Nimmari ei koskenut itse ATP-lupakirjaa, vain pelkästään mittarilentokelpuutusta! Ne ovat muuten molemmat samassa lupakirjassa…

Yhtiön luonnollisen tulkinnan mukaan syy on täysin minun, koska lupakirjan voimassaolo on lentäjän vastuulla. Eli minun olisi pitänyt tietää että se pitää uusia. No mutta tätähän minä yritin kysellä, koska en tiennyt! Hohhoh…

Ei muuta kuin aamulla sitten paperitöitä ja lupahakemus kuntoon. Tämä on melkoinen urakka, koska siinä täytyy tarkalleen määritellä kuinka monta tuntia on lentänyt päällikkönä, eritellä päivä ja yötunnit, paljonko tunteja E70 koneella ja paljonko E90 koneella myös päivä ja yö erikseen. Lisäksi tietenkin totaalitunnit ja totaali mittarilentotunnit sekä matkalentotunnit. Kaiken pitää lisäksi natsata, eli he laskevat yhteen ja katsovat että täsmää edellisen raportin kanssa…

Löydä kuvasta kaksi virhettä.....
1. Tie on hyvässä kunnossa, ei kuoppia tms.
2. Ei liikennettä.

Sain paperi kasaan parissa tunnissa ja lähdin sitten yhtiön konttorille. Nyt piti saada lokikirjaan leiman lisäksi nimmari. Nimmarin voi muuten vain kirjoittaa neljä henkilöä. Minulla oli tuuria ja sain vaadittavat nimmarit kasaan saman tien, ei muuta kuin laitokselle jonottamaan.

Omalla vuorollani, noin tunnin jonotuksen jälkeen, selvisi ettei tunteja saanut pyöristää (vaikka viime kerralla juuri niin tein), vaan ne täytyy kirjoittaa minuutilleen. Ei muuta kuin pikaisesti korjaamaan, ja maksamaan tarvittavat 40€ leimaveroa pahvista. Papereita tutkaillessa virkailija huomasi että kokonaistuntini eivät täsmänneet. Sähköinen lokikirjaohjelmani oli tehnyt kepposen ja jättänyt merkkaamatta n. 6000h. Ei auttanut selitellä että kyllähän nuo näkyvät tunnit riittävät, ei tietenkään. Auto kauniisti kohti kotia. Sen verran paljon oli kello jo että tiesin etten ehdi takaisin samana päivänä. Ja perjantai kun oli niin vasta maanantaina sitten uudestaan, hakemaan uudet leimat ja nimmarit…

Muutama päivä töitä tässä menetin, ja koska yhtiö ei ollut kuulevinaan selityksiäni, menetetyt päivät merkittiin lomapäiviksi. Yrittivät vielä samassa merkitä vapaapäiväni lomapäiväksi, sen kuitenkin sain torpattua.

Kotona harkitessani lohtukaljaa, selvisi ettei HR-päällikkö ollut lunastanut lupauksiaan. Toisesta tapaamisesta huolimatta, alustavassa palkkakuitissa oli edelleen samat vähennykset kuin viime kerralla! Asiastahan oltiin jo sovittu kolme viikkoa aikaisemmin, mutta mitään ei ollut tapahtunut. Eipä tietenkään. Jos tunnen nämä tyypit oikein, asiassa menee vielä muutama päivä, ja sitten he tulevat sanomaan ettei tähän palkanajoon asiaa enää ehdi korjaamaan. Jos korjaavat ollenkaan. Katsotaan mitä ensi viikko tuo tullessaan…

Ei, tämä ei ollut hyvä päivä.