AUGUST, 1970
THE PIEDMONITOR
PAGE THREE
KIOMIROUS UTTtRS OF COMMENDATIOM m
COMPLMNT ARE RtCklVED DMLV. TUE MOST
RECtMT, ALTUOOGM SUBMITTED IN A VERY
UMORTHODOX MANNER, WA!> APPROPRIATE
AV)0 TO JWl POINT....
IT WAS PtKC\tED OK TV\t BACK OF A PAM
OF 'VESTERYtKR.UStT) EV^TETSSIVELN BtVOT^E TrtE
AWENT OF AIRCONDIT\ON1N&.
LONG LINES
Since Piedmont’s long line is one of, if not the most, successful
of our modes of communication, we thought a column by the same
name might be a good way of mentioning some of the small, but
newsy things of interest that go on around the system. Any contribu
tions you might have will be more than welcome. Address them to
the Editor, Piedmonitor, INT-ZY.
Speaking of saving money, as most everyone is these days, a
note from our Communications Department suggests thiat our day
to day telephone business is not being conducted in the most eco
nomical manner. Southern Bell prepared an analysis of the Com
pany’s toll calls during May of this year. Their findings could save
Piedmont a substantial amount of money this year. Surely we all
know that station-to-station calls cost less than person-to-person calls
but it seems we don’t always remember that. The study showed
that we make three quarters as many person-to-person calls as we
do direct dial calls. The breakdown pointed out that person-to-person
calls completed totaled 576 at a cost of $1211.98. Their proposed cost
was $809.14. Station-to-station operator handled calls cost $49.72 against
the proposed cost of $47.22. The present federal excise tax is $126.17
while the proposed figure is $85.64. The combined totals show a cur
rent cost of $1387.87 as opposed to a proposed cost of $942.00 or an
annual savings of $5,350.44.
And while we’re on the subject of long distance calls the Ac
counting Department reminds everyone to be sure to submit Long
Distance Phone Tickets (Form PA-2) when making a long distance
call over one of the FX (Foreign Exchange) lines. These PA-2’s
should be forwarded to INT-AA or INT-XZ either immediately or at
the end of the business day.
The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded a contract to
a Norfolk firm to build air traffic control towers at two airports
which Piedmont serves. They are Columbus, Ohio and Parkersburg,
West Virginia. The facilities are scheduled for completion by May,
1971. Parkersburg presently operates with a temporary type portable
tower, while Columbus is using a privately owned tower facility.
^ «
Vice President - Finance T. W. Morton advises that an Internal
Revenue Service Ruling issued last month says that service charges
paid by airline employees and their relatives for flights are subject
to the 8% excise tax for domestic travel and the $3.00 service charge
for international travel. Therefore, the applicable tax is to be col
lected on all non-revenue pass service charges beginning immediately.
^The tax is levied only on amounts paid.
FAA Is Taking
Steps To Protect
Its Power Systems
To cope with the ever increas
ing threat of power shortages
throughout the country and its ef
fects upon air traffic operations,
the Federal Aviation Administra
tion of the Department of Trans
portation is taking several pre
cautionary measures and review
ing its power policies to ensure
that emergency power back-up sys
tems are available in the event
commercial power fails.
Regions Alerted
FAA power coordinators have
been designated for each region
in the National Airspace System.
Working directly with power com
panies in their regions, these co
ordinators are seeking to have the
power companies designate local
FAA facilities as high priority
users — thus making these facili
ties less liable for power cutoffs
— and try to anticipate potential
power problem areas and devise
methods of dealing with them.
Further, FAA regions and cen
ters have been alerted to place
mobile generators in top operating
condition so that generator pools
can be established for shipment to
hard-hit areas. Also, consideration
is being given to placing facilities
on standby power during periods
of critical demand such as recently
occurred in New York City.
Procedures Updated
Various procedures to handle
power shortages were developed by
FAA following the 1965 “Blackout”
in the northeast corridor of the
U. S. Among them was establish
ment of an uninterruptible power
system (UPS) tor air route traffic
control centers. In updating its
procedures to deal with critical
power problems, t h e agency is
also taking steps to ensure avail
ability of adequate supplies of fuel
for standby engine generators.
This renewed interest in power
planning stems from a May 1970
report from the Office of Emerg
ency Preparedness on electrical
power problems which warned of
possible shortages this summer.
Pilots See Contrasts
In African Way Of Life
to the plane with a fire extinguish
er in his hands.”
For three months the men lived
and worked with the Africans. The
people are very patriotic, Sifford
said, and they love Americans.
“I was hurt the way the Afri
cans were treated over there,” he
said. "They would be screamed
and hollered at and worked like
slaves for 6 or 7 cents a day.
“Those are good people; they
were the only thing that made it
(the trio) bearable.
“You see just as many happy
people on three cents a day as you
do (here) on $30.
“This was different from being
in service where you live with
English-speaking people and have
American products.
“After living with the pe?;jfe;
this seemed like a better country
when 1 got back,” he said.
He described one tribal custom
where a mother goes out into the
and
tween reported break-even need
and subsidy payments amounts to
about $9 million but this is be
fore consideration of any return
on investment."
The Board emphasized that
these figures represent the re
ported operating results of the car
riers as a group and do not re
flect adjustments which may be
necessary to exclude any need re
lated to operations ineligible for
subsidy as well as other adjust
ments required by the Federal
Aviation Act.
The CAB added: “The formula
we are striving to design is one
SUBSIDY INVESTIGATION
(('ontinu(‘d from On«‘i
that will specifically identify the
amount of subsidy payment re
lated to providing service at and
between particular communities,
and that will provide positive sub
sidy incentives to the carriers to
maintain an adequate volume of
transportation to smaller commu
nities.
Carriers involved are Allegheny
Airlines, Inc., Frontier Airlines,
Inc., Hughes Air West, Mohawk
Airlines, Inc., North Central Air
lines, Inc., Ozark Air Lines, Inc.,
Piedmont Aviation, Inc., Southern
Airways, Inc., and Texas Inter
national Airways, Inc.
Paper Clips—Will
Even Clip Paper
A study by a bank in England
on 100,000 paper clips produced
some very interesting statistics;
19,143 clips were used as stakes
in card games.
5,308 clips were used to clean
fingernails.
14,163 were twisted out of shape
or broken during telephone conver
sations.
5,434 to pick teeth.
7,200 to avert clothing mishaps,
such as snapped buttons.
3,169 to clean pipe stems.
30,000 were dropped on floors
and until swept up by janitors, re
mained a safety hazard.
That leaves 15,583 clips which
the investigators “guess” were
used to clip pieces of paper to
gether.
Three of Piedmont’s pilots have
flown as few Americans have.
Washington Division Chief Mike
Page, Assistant Division Chief in
Atlanta Clarence McLean, and
First Officer Jim Sifford of Win-
ston-Salem returned earlier this
summer from three months of fly
ing over the primitive mid-section
of Africa.
Their purpose was to help Air
Africa evaluate their new YS-ll’s.
The men were based at Doula,
Cameroon. Air Africa replaced one
of its DC-4’s with the YS-ll’s
which the Piedmont crew flew
while the African crew went to
ground school in Japan.
Sifford was talking about his
experiences not long ago.
“We didn’t do anything that a
tourist would do,” he said. It was
his first trip out of this country.
The men flew across vast deserts
where tribal villages appear as , , , , , ,
circular warts on the parched | woods to deliver her baby
stands between two trees. She
presses against one with her feel;
her back is pressed against tiie
trunk of another.
The baby drops to the ground.
“Travel Heavy”
“There are so many things we
take for granted,” Sifford said,
“Like when we buy an 18-cent
hamburger, we assume it's baen
inspected by a meat department
somewhere,” Sifford said.
At one stop, meat was loaded
aboard the plane for distribution
in the hinterland. A slide flashed
onto Sifford's office wall showing
raw meat lying in an open half
ton truck with no refrigeration. It
often stays in the open for several
days where the temperature is
above 100 degrees, he said.
“Vultures hang onto it and men
walk around on it while they're
leading it,'’ he said.
African air travelers quite differ
ent from the Amei'ican stereotype
with a set of matched luggage and
“travel light” motto.
“Many of these people actually
take their beds with them,” Sif
ford said. A picture he took show
ed the traveling items of one
female passenger: A can of coal
oil for lanterns and cooking, a
trunk, a tattered suitcase, a bas
ket of peanuts and dried fish, and
a sword.
The per capita income of the
people in Cameroon is $80 a year,
he said. “There aren't any high
ways, so if you go anywhere, you
just about have to go by air.”
Yet “air travel costs about four
times what it does here,” he said.
“There are two classes of peoplc-.=».
The Europeans and the Africans,
There is no middle class,”
ground. They flew across game
reserves where the sight of the
airplane and the sound of its 3,060
horsepower Rolls-Royce turboprop
engines made elephants disappear
in a cloud of dust.
Showing color slides as he talk
ed, Sifford said “some of these
things you see as a pilot and still
don’t believe them.”
They flew regularly from an
airport with a dirt runway and
straw terminal building. Some,
though, had paved, light runways
and modern glass terminals.
And the contrast in airports
mirrors the contrasts in the coun
try they noticed — the differences
between the modern and the
primitive, the immaculate and the
squalid.
The primitive runway, Sifford
said, was a strip burned out of
the jungle, its edge marked by a
white line. During the dry season
its surface was parched — you
could lose a pack of cigarettes in
its ragged cracks. During the
month it rains all day every day,
mud caked on the tires of the
plane and the crewmen slopped
through puddles of water,
“Lowest Overhead”
That airport’s terminal building
was simply a grass roof on sticks.
The thatched roof kept out rain
and sun — there were no sides.
“That airport must have had the
lowest overhead of any in the
world,” Sifford said. “There was
no electricity, no telephone, lights
or navigational aids.
“When a plane would come in,
the airport manager would run the
cattle off the runway, then run up
F/O Sifford talks about Africa.