IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A twenty nine on a Thursday of Love. This time
a week I heard media aviation extpert Jay Ratliff joins
us every week to talk aviation issues when we're not
talking stocks. Right, Jay, welcome back, my friend. Love having
you on the show.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I will talk about either one of them my friends,
but it's it's always good, always good to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Jay always follows up the segment sometime in the morning,
like an hour from now. He's say, look, I'm made
eight grand today. It took me five minutes.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
You actually I'm using I'm using a stock as we speak,
so they can do anything with it. For the end
of the segment, I'll let you know.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
It only takes you a couple of minutes to turn
it around. I like to report you get that's Brian.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
When I tell people that I I reduce the risk
of my stock trading by day trading, they look at
me like I'm nuts. But if you can take a
small bit of it, put it in the market for
you know, eight ten minutes at a time, you're reducing
your risk big time, and that's better protecting your portfolio.
So to me, that's the way to do it. I'm

(00:58):
not a part of the long term by holding prey
crowd and now the last six weeks, I think I'm
averaging seven thousand dollars a week. So look, Northwest Airlines
didn't pay me that. I mean it was worth it.
But I know, I know, I know how corporate America is, right,
I do care what we think.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
You don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
And Southwest Airlines, I guess, is not going to be
cunning an eleven million dollar check. What's the story on this?
I know, I know you're really pleased about this outcome.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
So you had and you just had to start with
this one, right, Let's get Jay's blood pressure up. The
Southwest Airlines two Christmases ago, it was the week of
twenty twenty three Christmas week, they had a computer meltdown.
I mean, no other way to put it. The computer
system that we later found out was last updated in
like I don't know, nineteen ninety four, had crashed. This

(01:46):
is a computer system for scheduling that was developed, right,
I think at a time when Southwest was a third
of the size of what they are now. So the
Department Transportation under the Biden administration stepped in and said
time out here, you really drop the ball with regards
to your customers, we're finding you thirty five million dollars.
They were holding the airlines accountable. I was thrilled. And look,

(02:09):
Southwest is a great airline, but when you don't devote
the resources that your employees need, yeah, you've got to
pay for it. So Southwest has paid twenty four million
of that. The next payment of eleven million was due
in the next month in January, and the US Department
Transportation stepped in said, you know what, You've already paid enough.
You don't need to pay any more. You promise never
to do it again. It's going to be okay. Just

(02:32):
forget about that last of eleven million dollars. Now, Yeah,
that bothers me a great deal. But this is the
trend of the Trump administration, which I'm a big fan of,
with regards to the treatment with the airline industry. The
airlines almost get a free pass. Not from a safety
related standpoint, Don't get me wrong there, because the FAA
is still doing their job there, trying to keep everything

(02:52):
safe as they can. But Brian, it just it drives
me out of my mind when we've got a situation
when you have just time after time after time of
having a situation where you've got this ongoing issue of
airlines getting away with what they do. It just it
drives me crazy.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, I can imagine.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
So this was a proprietary software that Southwest itself developed, yes, okay,
part of their system.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And I can't remember if it was the flight control system,
not flight control system, but if it was a crew
management system or something they were using for their flight
control as far as the using that, but it was
a system that was woefully outdated and over the years
Southwest has had issues with this. But Brian, they have
an all star team at Southwest and every single time

(03:43):
the men and women would find a way to pull
it out. They would rise to the occasion and save
the day. And sadly that's what worked against Southwest Airlines
because they could always rely on that happening. Well, it
just got to the point where it was just too much,
too quick, and there was no way they could get
past it. And yeah, you had a lot of passengers
that were in essence put in a situation over the

(04:05):
busy Christmas seat travel season, all the flights were filled
where you gonna put them. I mean, you've got a
flight of one hundred and fifty three people just canceled.
Every single flight around is full. I don't know where
you're gonna put them.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I understand the reason for the fine, and that becomes
crystal clear, Unlike, for example, if it was the outdated
ancient air traffic control system. So when's the federal government
can of find itself for not improving that one?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Oh, they'll find it and then they'll wave the fine
and we'll all feel better because they find themselves. That's
how it works.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
I learned that from you, brother, amen.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
And meanwhile they're they're busily scrambling around looking for five
and a quarter it's floppy disk to keep the thing
up and running.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Seven forty seven. Still, yeah, still are at a at
a point where they do get their updates through that.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
So yes, indeed, I'll tell you what. Rather than go
extra long and draw the hairy eyeball from Executiveroducer, Joe
Strecker will pause right now, we'll bring you back. We'll
find out about this quantus flight, which is u given
faulty load and balanced numbers before takeoff. That sounds frightening.
Plus Tampa Airport award bonuses to some workers, et cetera.
We got multiple topics to go over with. I heart
media Aviation Expert Jay Ratlef's stick Around Right Back.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Fifty five KRC Champion Windows, seasons, the talk spatial. Have
you ever been in a cockpit.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Before Jay Ratliff has I heard Media Aviation Expert. We
had the pleasure of his company every Thursday for a
few segments. Segment number two here, This one's kind of weird.
I don't know how this works in terms of the
load distribution on a plight on a flight, but apparently
you have to watch that kind of stuff. What happened
with this Quantus flight, Well, we had.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
We had a situation where you know Quantus, which is
known as what the safest to.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Airline in the world according to rain Man.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, that's absolutely the case. What ended up happening was
that the crew was given the detail. Well, what we're
hearing is that Quantus flight in December took off with
fifty one more passengers than were reported. Now, the weight
and balance calculations for each flight are exact, I mean
to the last pound, and a lot of times if

(06:09):
there's bad weather, the crew can say, you know what,
we could use some extra fuel because we may have
encounter delays. So since we've got a lighter load, let's
go ahead and put on some more fuel. And the
problem is you could then exceed your maximum allowable takeoff weight,
and you've got a problem because they had ten thousand
pounds of extra weight they did not know about. Now,

(06:31):
they could have also said, since we have a lighter load,
let's take off from a shorter runway. So yeah, it
just the the the ramifications of this being off this
much could have been could have been tragic, could have
been horrific. Now, the crew did taxi, they took off,
there was no problem, and it wasn't until they were
airborne that they realized when they were told what had

(06:54):
taken place. So as a result, you know, QUANTAS is investigating.
They're trying to look at this, trying to see exactly
what's taken place so that they can try to avoid
this kind of mistake from happening. In the airline industry.
As you and I have talked about forever, constantly shares
mistakes so that people at other airlines can learn from
what took place at Kuanas, so that they can make

(07:15):
sure they can take necessary steps to try to reduce
the likelihood of that taking effects so terrific company.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, the airline that the flight ended up with fifty
one more people than originally expected, is that?

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Is that what I understand?

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Know, then the manifest showed let's say that they were
expecting two hundred and fifty one people. The paperwork showed
two hundred, so that two hundred people boarded, but they
really had two hundred and fifty one, So the manifest
itself didn't match with what they had. And you give
the crew the total number of passengers, the bags, the cargo,
all the stuff, so that they can compute what their

(07:55):
their maximum takeoff weight is going to be, and it
dictates everything that they do on the flight deck. So
when that's off, then the most critical moment of flight
take off has been in essence compromised if you're not careful.
So that's one of the reasons that so often, you know,
we tend to overlook sometimes just how good flight crews

(08:16):
are and all the inner workings of what goes on
in the airline industry, and it's got to be exact,
and sadly in this case for some reason, Yeah, think
through ten thousand extra pounds on the aircraft and passengers
and bags and the flight crew is unaware. Well, they
were operating on a different set of data.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
It seems unusual to me, just based on all the
stories that you've talked about in this segment over the years,
that they would rely on the manifest in determining how
much extra fuel in this case, they could put on
the plane. Because we listen, there's always a scramble at
the end. People coming up in the gate lay, they
buy a ticket last minute, some people don't show up,
they overbook a flight, in which case I imagine they
wouldn't add extra fuel. But just to rely on manifest

(08:57):
and not rely on a head count, that just seems no.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
What the crew gets is exact. So the people at
the gate may be expecting three hundred people, but if
one hundred and eighty three get on board, that's the
number of the crew uses. The crew's given exact numbers.
We have one hundred and eighty three souls on board.
You've got all of that stuff squared away so that
everybody's operating from the same you know, the same thing.
The problem was what was put on the airplane. The

(09:23):
information gave the pilots was ten thousand pounds off. It
was an operation issue where they did not h Yeah,
and that was really the problem.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Well, I mean the horror that you know, I can
imagine might happen as a consequence of this. You know,
the planes is not going to have lift off, right,
I mean, isn't that really what you're talking about?

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, I mean remember the horrific common air crash in
Lexington that happened because the crew took off on the
wrong runway which was too short And yeah, I mean
had had quantas done something like that where they needed
more run Brian, It's just it's you know, flying is
in incredibly, incredibly safe. My apologies to anybody who's on

(10:03):
their way to the airport right now, because it's not
like something that happens. But you know, when you have
the number of flights that we have in the course
of the day, and you have eight or ten million
people a day that are flying worldwide, how often do
we talk about an accident that takes place? Very very
rarely do we. And that's a result of the training
that the crews have, the incredible equipment that we have,

(10:25):
and you know, just all the things that go on
behind the scenes to keep things safe. But one of
the things we have to have is a very exact
count of everything that's on the airplane so that the
crew at the last moment can do their weight and
balance calculations they can go from there. A lot of
times with those comm air jets, we would have a
situation with those fifty passengers, which were great to have,

(10:46):
but boy, they were painting the butt because if you
had a long flight with a lot of fuel, you'd
have to leave four or five people off the plane
because of the weight and balance requirements because they had
to take extra fuel, or you could take all the
passengers and no bags, or where you could take forty
seven people in some of the bags. I mean, there
was always this tightrope. Now, the bigger the airplane gets,

(11:07):
the more relaxed you can be on that where the
airplane is going to be able to be big enough
that it can take everything that you have, but those
weight and balance numbers that you give to the crew
have to be exact.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
So yeah, well it just reminds me that the de
icing the wing thing. Since we're getting a big winter
storm tonight. You know, my dad and I were on
that flight bringing the Bengals back from Denver, long, long
time ago, and we sat on the runway in this snow,
and it kept snowing. We kept sitting there and sitting there,
and sitting there and sitting there. My dad has this
just pale white, you know, power to him, and he's

(11:40):
kind of holding onto this armrest. And after we finally
took off, I'm like, Dad, what is wrong with you?
He said, they didn't de ice the wings. They didn't
de ice the wings. And it was like, what are
you talking about. So explained me the icing procedures and
apparently there's a time limit that you have to follow
and you're going to get the ice the wings. I'm
on a flight several many years later, same situation, sitting
on the runway in this it's kind of a sleety
coming down, and I just looked at the stewardess. I said,

(12:03):
is the pilot going to have the wings the ice
before we take off? And she goes, oh, don't worry
about that. The pilot knows what he's doing. And then,
you know, five minutes later, she disappears, and then the
captain comes on, we're going to be taking a brief
break to pull over and have the wings the ice.
And I always think that I was responsible for getting
the wings the ice because my dad brought that to
my attention when he didn't say a word.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Well, I mean, and you've got to be aware of that,
because Brian, it's just it's a critical thing. And I've
said before, if you really want to have a lot
of fun on a plane you're not on, you can
go to YouTube and look up. I think it's a
Russian aircraft that is taking off and it has like
I don't know, a put of snow on the wing.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Oh lord, yes, how can you get lift?

Speaker 2 (12:46):
How that airplane got off the ground? I don't I
tell you this. I would have been the next aviation
story because I had I been anywhere near an exit,
I would have been out the door before they pressurize
that aircraft to get out of there, because there's no
way that aircraft.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
All right, food for thought for people who are flying
later in this evening.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Again, apologies, I get I get lots of fun emails.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Like stop it.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, I know, I know, yeah, And I'm no huge
fan of flag. Anyway, let's pausele ring jay back got
a couple more stories to talk about and get.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Our hubs see ice A forty nine.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
If you have KCD Talk Station Brian Thomas with j
ratliffar aviation Expert. The entirety of iHeart Media is aviation expert.
He's on all over the nation. We get in for
a few segments on Thursdays and I love it. Let's
talk real quick since tomorrow's Tech Friday with Dave Hatter,
the TSA is warning about using public Wi Fi while
traveling through airports.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
You and I talked about the the the charging ports
that are at their airports and how to be careful. Yeah. Yeah,
because some some somehow we've had hackers that put out
some of these things like the fake ATM things or
things you put a gas pumps where people can unexpectedly
u you know, put something in and your your right

(14:00):
information is subject to hackers. Well, we've had that where
the TSA said, look, if you're going to charge your
phone at an airport, use your own charger. But they're
also saying, the TSA that they're getting reports of people
that are connecting to the public Wi Fi and airports
are placing themselves at risk as well because it's not
as secure. And Dave had it would know all about that.

(14:21):
Because the TSA is saying that Look, a lot of
these people are connecting to things that aren't as secure,
and it's allowing hackers to more easily access our personal information. Now,
when you've got the hectic pace of an airport, that
can cause a lot of people to let their guard
down because look, hits the time of travel exhaustion, the
last thing you're thinking about is protect your identification. So
I think that the TSA's warning comes at a good

(14:43):
point as we're approaching the end of the year with
we've got a lot of people traveling because you simply
can't be too careful. And that's something that I think
we can repeat over and over and over again, because
you've got to be careful when you're dealing with, you know,
trying to protect your identification.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Right, Well, that's a warning we all need to heed.
So and I think Dave has brought that kind of
thing up before too.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
So yeah, he's yawning right now because you're so boring
to him. But I like to talk about it because
it was a TSA warning and it's just reminding people
when you're at the airport, just protect yourself.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
You're electronic hygiene so to speak. All right, good, I
guess some of the Tampa Airport TSA workers are happy some.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, but I think twenty one of them up till
now they got a ten thousand dollars bonus for their
their performance during the government shutdown. This is something that
was recommended by their supervisors and others and it was
a nice ten thousand dollars check and others are looking
to get the same. And it's nice because not one

(15:46):
time during that six week period of time did we
talk about too much the letdown of the TSA checkpoints
where you know they were miles or three mile long
screening lines. Know, most of the focus was on the
air traff controllers. The TSA did their job. I mean
they I don't know how most of us would be
if you showed up for work for six weeks and

(16:07):
you weren't getting paid at that time and you still
were expected to be as professional and good at what
you do as as you would do normally. I mean,
that's a lot of pressure and a lot of stress.
So the fact that they're getting rewarded, I think is
great and I think I'd love to see it more often.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yep, I agree with you on that. Finally, wait, a
second good news from Spirit Airlines.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, they were going only three hundred and sixty five
pilots off the latest of a bunch of layoffs. They've
decided they don't need to do that. And I'm thrilled
to death to hear it, because Spirit right now is
a good airline. But they're struggling right now, and it's
going to take some time for them to regain their footing,
and they're really headed in the right direction, and I
hope that it continues because you want Spirit Airlines to

(16:51):
be around because all the low cost carriers that are
out there helped to keep the faverage fares down. Yes,
that's why when we get a carrier here at CBG,
if it's Frontier, Allegiance Southwest, whoever it is, we talk
about let's support them. And if it Breeze has got
a great fare to the West coast. And you're thinking, well,
I'm a Delta freaking flyer. They matching the fair I'll
fly Delta. Okay, you do that, but then in six

(17:14):
months when an airline says, you know, we're not getting
the loads we thought we're gonna leave, please don't email
me because I'll remind you that it's up to us. Well,
that happened with air Tran. Air Tran came in in
nineteen ninety five in February trying to compete with Delta
Airlines with forty nine dollars fares from Cincinnati to Orlando,
please forty nine bucks. The problem was Delta matched the fares,

(17:36):
So are you gonna fly Delta or an air Tran
which maybe you hadn't heard, you know, you didn't know
who they were. They were spent off of Northwest Massaba Airlines,
so it was a great airline. But the problem was
everybody flew Delta, so air Tran ran practically empty flights
back and forth to Orlando for a year and a
half before they said enough. And the minute they left,

(17:56):
people started complaining about where an air Tran go. Excuse me,
I mean, I'll me where they went. They left because
of us. But look, the community has done such a
great job because when Frontier came here with their one
flight of day to Denver, bringing it from the Dayton Airport,
I was pleading, please, this is our opportunity to support
because it took a lot of work to get Frontier

(18:17):
to come here. This is a place where on where
you had low cost carriers came to die. You never
bought a low cost carrier in here. Frontier came in here,
started having success. Here comes Allegian all of a sudden,
Southwest uproots their entire daton operation, brings them down here.
You've got great things happening. Why because the community is
supporting the low cost carriers. I'm preaching to the choir
because we've done a great job. But when I'm on

(18:38):
when I'm on the air around the country, I tell
them to do what's what's happening right here at Cincinnati
because we've we've got the model and the community as
an incredible service.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, it's demonstrabs, demonstrable success. We were the highest airport
in the country in terms of the cost of airfare.
People used to drive the Dayton to get a cheaper
flight and then lay over to Cincinnati on the way
to wherever they were going.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
They would go anywhere. Well, now Dayton's a ghost town. Yeah,
and you come down here and look at the license
plates in the barking lot. They're from all over the
Tri state area because they're coming here. Look when you
can jump on a flight to go to Vegas for
you know, one hundred and eighteen Bucks round trip or
Orlando for ninety nine dollars on trip, but during certain
times of the year you factor in inflation. It's cheaper

(19:18):
to fly now than it ever has been in the
history of aviation, only made possible by low cost carriers.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Support your low cost carrier. Keith from Iowa says hello,
he loves you, and Eric wants to know if you
have your own podcast.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
I do not. I've been asked, ive been encouraged, in fact,
by several of our producers to do so. Sleep is
already an interruption of my day. Do you think I'm
gonna have time for a podcast?

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Listen, you're making fat bank in the market. You don't
need that job day. I understand completely.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Can I can I give you the amount that I
made in the time we've been talking, go ahead, six
eighty one dollars and twenty one pos.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
I've been talking to him since eight thirty this morning.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
I sent I sent, I sent you screenshot because I
want you to know that we've got a few other
stocks at my ste ns and I are looking at
as well. Hopefully they when they make their gains, they leave.
I come. Just protect your portfolio, Just go enjoy the
rest say opening bells, not for what thirty four.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Minutes or so.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Wow, athlete named day trade Fun. That's where you find
Jay and the little plugs. A little plug for you.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Jay.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
All right, well, hub delays. I guess I gotta worry
about real quick just at a real quick time.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Nothing nothing, With apologies to Bismarck, North Dakota. We're in
good shape.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Wonderful news, Jay rightlift, love you man, appreciate you being
on the program. We'll talking in next Thursday. Best of
health and love to you and your better half. Man
eight fifty six. You didn't get a chance to lo