Live Q&A with Lady & The Ramp, Golf Clubs being Treated Poorly, and More

Live Q&A with Jessica from Lady & the Ramp on everything related to being a “ramper” for a major airline.

– Jessica responds to Rampers being a little too rough with a golf team’s clubs!
– Jessica answers your questions on the pros and cons of a life down on the ramp.

n [Music] okay so sorry technical difficulties but welcome my mic was muted I’m so sorry um but I haven’t been on here in a little while okay so sorry technical difficulties but welcome my mic was muted I’m so sorry um but I haven’t been on here in a little while okay so sorry again a little more technical difficulties but um welcome back here I’m lady in the ramp um I’m glad that you guys are all here it looks like you guys are from look at Oklahoma Minneapolis Nebraska Texas um Pres uh let’s see anywhere else um oh from per uh per Australia that’s awesome okay so yeah just let me know where you guys are um coming in from where you guys are um tuning in from that would be awesome I love I love connecting with all of you throughout the country and the world but I just haven’t been on here for a little while so I thought I would just hop on real quick do a quick little live stream recently okay oh and one more thing if you guys have any questions about any of my previous videos or whatever just start putting them in the chat box and I’ll um get to the question and answer period after this little this little thing that we we saw recently um it was like about a week or so ago we saw this video of these rampers just throwing these golf bags and I know that the PGA um the PGA just had their um their tournament their championship tournament and so golf maybe is on other people’s minds here in Phoenix we host a really big um it’s called the Waste Management Phoenix Open a really big um Phoenix uh or golf tournament here in in uh the valley and it’s beautiful wonderful we love it so many people come in from all over the place um our it was right around the Super Bowl time last year so we had the Super Bowl and the Phoenix open at the same time and man our airport was packed it was awesome we loved it um but whenever that happens there’s a huge increase in golf bags and so we just saw this video of this team I think it was a Collegiate level team and they were flying on another carrier and we we saw this video Let’s Play that video okay so here you’ll kind of see [Music] I know I can see [Music] I would never do this we have a ton of golfers because we live here in Phoenix we have beautiful weather all during the winter and all during the fall we have beautiful golf courses here so we have a lot of um we even have a lot of rampers who like are in tournaments and everything so we know that golf clubs are precious cargo well basically everything we handle we never want to throw in toss like this so I don’t know if these guys were having a bad day there was a ton of golf clubs coming so I’m sure there was a lot of work you get tired or fatigued but this is absolutely unacceptable I I know that all of our fellow employees out here were like just dying when we saw this so and sometimes too like if you do get tired you need to say okay hey I need to take a break I’m G to rotate out or something or if as a crew chief if you see one of your fellow employees doing that that’s when you come in and you say hey man why don’t you go take a break let’s cool off a little bit and have somebody else come in and and do that uh move the golf clubs because oh I’m just I just am feeling horrible for this guy filming I’m sure those are some of his clubs out there and he’s just like dying that they’re just tossing them onto the ground and then onto the cart so again I probably what I would have done in this situation is I would have moved up the cart so if you can see he’s tossing them back to that second cart I would have moved up the cart so that the the belt loader has the golf clubs right at that second cart so you can just stack them nicely up on there um I’m not sure I don’t know this is the only Viewpoint that I can see I I don’t know anything about this scenario just this uh five or 10 second clip of him tossing these these golf clubs um so just know that we as as my technical title it’s called a fleet service agent um as agents as um ramp Crews down on the ramp we this is definitely out of procedure this is not protocol we should never be throwing bags ever I I mean we call them tossing bags all the time but technically we’re especially with golf clubs is musical instruments um there’s a lot of cargo there’s bags that probably have special items in there we always try to keep them and uh treat them with respect and if we are getting tired that’s when we need to say okay hey I need to tag out for a minute or can somebody help me um so all right any questions let’s look at the question um okay what so hi Sarah um it says Sarah it says what advice would you give for other women wanting to get into ramping that is a great question so right now our company is hiring we are super excited as rampers because we need all these new hires in um so we’re excited that we’re hiring but I would say understand that you it’s a very obviously you you’ve seen some of my videos it’s a very physical job but there are breaks and stuff so just know that you’re going to be using it’s it’s like a you’re going to be using a lot of your muscles a lot you will be getting fatigued you do get sweaty out there um but it is so fulfilling like what I didn’t recognize about this job is that once I I got out on the ramp I have just loved being around around airplanes I love being around aircrafts I love the um the teamwork that happens and there is a different chemistry or connection between the woman and because typically we do work with a lot of males but I there is it’s very rare that there’s any type of disrespect out there um I I work with different teams all the time because I’m what I’m what you called a it’s not a hired on crew chief so what so I’m I’m a part-time ramper but I have my qualifications to be a crew chief so a lot of times they will upgrade me to crew chief if they if um the company’s needing more crew chiefs that day or let’s say um another crew chief wants to swap and work my part-time shift so I’ll work his crew chief line so anyhow I have the opportunity to work with a lot of different teams and I work with a lot of different people what I love about at the ramp too is that you get to know all these people from it in our station they’re from all over the world all different backgrounds all over the country um and it’s so cool because as you’re working around the belt loader I kind of think like you know how there’s you go down to the river like in olden times you go down to the W River and wash clothes and stuff like and you’re all sitting around that River chitchatting and talking that’s kind of I I feel like the belt loader is kind of like the river like everybody’s as you’re um doing your work you’re sitting there and naturally getting um getting to know people asking you know what’s the favorite your favorite trip that you’ve gone on and um but you really I really do love the teamwork uh about this job I love I I mean obviously my favorite favorite part is pushing and I would not be afraid to um try not to be afraid like like try to be like okay I can do this I can learn how to push because it is a little intimidating you have this massive I mean I I think I looked up how much um like a new Airbus or what what maybe I looked up a 737 a brand new 737 is $106 million so you are pushing you’re in contact with these with these massive aircrafts that are worth a whole lot of money but you know what it is so satisfying and so fulfilling like I would say be confident get out there and get on every training list that you can or what however that carrier does it we have training lists um that was one great thing that my mentor I had a great mentor right right from the get-go when I was training and he really encouraged actually there was another girl um with me and he really encouraged us to become crew chiefs to become crew chief qualified right away which meant we had to learn how to P push so immediately right from the get-go we started pushing um so I really loved that advice I would give that same advice to you it’s a great job okay it says what’s your highest level of Education this is from Sonic Goose hi Sonic Goose um what’s your highest level of education and why did you get into ramping so actually this is really this is really funny I I do have my um my bachelor’s degree but it is in PE and coaching Sports teaching emphasis um and it is also I have a driver’s ed minor isn’t that awesome so so but but I actually have a lot of children so I I have not really worked most of my most of my life I’ve I’ve supported and um kind of kept the home uh running and going while my husband went off and he he got anyhow so he’s working supporting the family but then as my kids have gotten older there is a bunch of women in our neighborhood a bunch of my friends as all of our kids have started leaving the house they wanted something to do and so one friend she started working at the airlines because she found out that you can get free flights and they have some great benefits and and she started loving it so then we started seeing her family going all over the place and we’re like oh my gosh what is this so now there is a total of well five and we have um a couple more that work with our sister company so there’s like six or seven eight of us in our neighborhood all of us women that go that work on the ramp and what I didn’t realize is I literally I like I said before I totally fell in love with the air airplanes I wanted I I still want to know everything about them so I love having this channel because I get so many like a lot of you are the aircraft mechanics or you guys work in um at Airbus in France um I love hearing tidbits and information there’s pilots who have gotten given me tips of um how to do things or I just love it I really appreciate you guys okay all right what is the next question okay MW hello hello Jessica I’m 53 and wondering if I should work at the ramp I have heard people say that the job can harm your spine due to baggage loading in the bins what are your thoughts thanks Mark okay so there are I I I have always loved to work out so I feel like if you um you do have to be pretty fit you have to be able to handle you you will get acclimated as you start working in the job like to to the load but I am I am 48 and I work on the ramp and I love it um I do I do definitely see so there are times that there’s occasionally when I don’t work out for a week I’m I want to make sure that I’m always working out because I want to have correct form when I’m lifting bags in the bin so they do kind of teach you um some correct you using your body the correct way um kind of the biomechanics of lifting things but you have to implement them that’s that’s a big thing you have to try and make sure okay oh am I hunching over don’t hunch over keep that back and that those shoulders back keep that core tight um make sure when you’re twisting how you’re twisting if you’re using your big like your muscles your um your quads and your glutes and stuff you want to use all those big big muscles first before you start tweaking your back and stuff so you do have to be cautious you do definitely have to be cautious of how you handle the bags and if you start feeling something like the tightness in your back or tightness in your low back you need to kind of maybe back off um see if you can change because on the ramp there’s lots of different positions see if you can change that for a while get that back all worked out um maybe do a lot of stretching like I always stretch I know it probably seems ridiculous but I always stretch like before I go into the bin just to get me all all ready and prepped um because it is a lot of it’s kind of like a workout you know every time you’re loading those bags you’re kind of doing like a little mini workout so um that’s a great question but I think you can do it you should go for it okay Captain Lyle howdy he said ever work the ER JS or crjs okay so er JS are and crjs are um are the there those are our two smaller Regional planes and for about I think was it four or six weeks I worked over at our sister company um that that manages all of our regional Jets and so for a for just a short amount of time I did work those and I totally love pushing those as well they have definitely different push backs the the way that they have um push backs and it’s opposite the way that you push those smaller planes is opposite than the way than the way we push our um our 737s our um in our airbuses so but I I did recently fly on an ember 175 and it was so comfortable it was it was a great plane like I I think um and they’re starting to put more of those into our our flights right now um so that they’re they’re wonderful planes so and the the little crjs they can get in and out of um certain airports that some of our bigger bigger planes can’t I know like I think it’s Aspen for sure um I think they fly in the crjs into um there’s some some airports have shorter runways or they have obstacles like like in Aspen they have like the big mountains that you have to be able to climb very quickly to get up and out of that airport so I know that that that’s they’re those jets are like vital to our Fleet so good question thanks Captain Lyall okay here’s one from Rick Campbell it says after the push back and disconnect what is the ribbon looking thing you hold up and show the pilots looks like about two feet long good question um Rick I appreciate that because sometimes I forget like when you’re doing stuff it just becomes second nature and so sometimes I forget that that you guys don’t know that that is actually called the bypass pin so the bypass pin right when we get to the to the to our plane like to do the outbound we our procedure is to immediately put in the bypass pin the bypass pin goes into the nose gear of the plane and it bypasses the hydraulic system so when we push it gives the ground crew the control of the nose gear um and it’s it’s like a really vital piece of equipment we should never push without that bypass P pin and so it’s so important that when the wing walker after we after we push and we’re completely brake set that that’s this hand signal brake set and our wing walker approaches the plane what they’re doing is they’re releasing the toe bar and removing that bypass pin so therefore giving the control back up to the pilots back up to the flight crew um and then they’re going to take it over and that that’s what that red flag is because the p is is very small so it’s attached to a a red flag so that as um so that when the wing walker takes it over to the other wing walker who’s holding the X and the x is letting the pilot know hey we’re still working down here don’t move the aircraft at all that’s what it means no movement of the aircraft stop like um and then that other wing walker walks over hands the bypass pin to that wing walker with the X and then that wing walker is showing the pilot hey look um I have the bypass pin for sure is taken removed from the plane so that you have that control back it it won’t damage the plane if you move now so then we show the we show the bypass pin and then as um the crew leaves and then um they will salute the captain and then um they will we the whole crew moves off and then whenever the captain is ready he will proceed forward so good good question hi Sarah okay have you ever ramped for an NFL team that flew into Phoenix okay so sometimes we do Charters I haven’t seen Charters lately but right when I was training it was awesome because my mentor was in Char of Charters was was in charge of Charters so it was cool because we did do a couple I don’t think we did an NFL team who what did we do I know we did um I know we did a uh Collegiate team I think the ASU did we do I I don’t know if it was the the Cardinals or not but I know that we did for sure the the ASU um football team and they the whole process of the way the charters work is different than flying commercially they they actually drive up um onto the runway in their in their large buses and then we have a crew that unload all of their equipment and everything thing put them in the cargo bins but we have stairs then that go up to the aircraft and that aircraft typically was we call it on our N1 Concourse kind of like so it allows the bus to come in in and not in the middle of everything not in two or three on the other concourses but it was on N1 and um anyhow so it was nice because they have like we the the all the players and and the staff and everybody go up these chair uh these stairs and all of their equipment is loaded but it kind of just bypasses the whole public um public concourses which I think allow them to get on and be able to move quicker through the process so um but that was really cool I loved it so I I hope we get Charters back soon I hope we get more teams so okay Captain’s Table MDR Hi how are you hello says did you ever consider the route of flight attendant and all over the ramp I imagine bags might be easier to deal with than customers okay so that’s that’s a really good point too um when I when I started I knew that so because my friends had been there at the ramp I knew that we so the the reason why I didn’t go flight attendant route was because they are kind of like the same thing with the pilots which I actually considered being a pilot as well but the same issue came up is that they are like four days on three days off they’re they’re gone overnight um often and that was something that I knew that it it didn’t quite work with my family and so I knew that I wanted to be home every single night so that’s why I chose the ramp and actually when I was I I actually applied for the ramp a fleet service agent and also um the gate so I and it was like I think it was during covid but so those two positions so I actually got hired for those two positions but I had to choose one and so since my friends were down on the ramp I chose that and also um during covid I thought that that would be challenging to manage all that emotion with the customers I’m sure that there’s you know there seemed to be like a lot of frustrations during that time and I did actually think about that I thought okay you’re right bags don’t talk back you know so um yeah so there’s always this like there’s always these pros and cons to each position and there’s a lot of work areas in our company that all work together like we have Gates we have the ticketing counter we have um people that work up in the Admirals Club um that the guest services we have our flight Crews we have our flight attendants um we have uh baggage resolution office like there’s all these things all these components that work together and so I’m always like okay should I should I try that because again I love learning I love like understanding how everything fits together and it’s amazing the more you kind of dig into things you’re like this is just an amazing jigsaw puzzle that seems to work um and when one like Cog goes out of place you can see the ripple effect like just this last week there was a lot of weather so weather issues in Dallas weather issues on on the east coast and there was just this this ripple effect of um of Pilots then not being in Crews not being where they needed to be of planes not being where they needed to be because they were grounded and stuck in other places um then then that just goes in the passengers now have been waiting and they’re trying to get on these flights and going to other destinations so it’s so interesting to watch and see and learn um kind of understanding how how intricate all of these pieces fit together and that we are like this big team trying to get everybody to their destinations and their bags and their Cargo in their Freight safe and happy that’s our number one goal so hi Jose it says will you start an Instagram okay good question I do have an Instagram it is I just started it and I um I think we just shared it on there let’s see okay yeah all right yes so good question all right oh there it is there it is okay A1 uh sorry eight 813 Aviation it says my 19-year-old son is interested in doing this how do you progress from an entrylevel job just starting out on the ramp okay that’s a great question too this is a great job I feel like especially his at his age um there are a lot of places that he can go with it what what is also interesting in all of the airline industry it’s all about seniority um as flight ATT that’s another reason why I didn’t become a flight attendant is because the senior PE I I would be working probably a lot of holidays a lot of weekends a lot of um like on call so it just wasn’t vibing but as a 19-year-old that means that he can progress they’re like becoming a lot of our rampers transition into becoming um mechanics Aviation mechanics they pay great um it’s a great working environment if if he is at all interested in aviation it’s very fascinating um so and then also from there too you can you can become a manager you can like so so how it kind of works on the ramp is that you can you can be an agent and um you can stay an agent the whole time you but as your seniority grows then then your pace scale increases and you get better bids and your time off and all this kind of stuff your vacations get longer as you as you stay on the ramp so um I know transitioning I think from our ramp division to like our our um mechanics they they talk all about seniority how like if that transfers and all that kind of stuff so I would say hey go for it this is an awesome job um I love it I I think it teaches good work ethic I think um and and it is really important about being on time like I have I have several kids that age right now and this would be a great job for them um they have somebody to to that they’re responsible for like planes go out at this time period like we have our whole goal is to get them out on time um we do not so the if we go late and if it’s our delay if it’s Gates delay all this kind of stuff we never want to to add to the delay because then it’s that ripple effect again and so um yeah I think it’s a great great job for for kids uh yeah so okay oh my gosh let me see if I can pronounce this name bergo Electronica bergo Electronica it says hi Jess how often weekly do you push a widebody plane if you do of course kisses from braz brail oh my gosh it’s 11 it’s 11:26 there p.m. oh my gosh thank you Brazil thank you so much for staying up so late okay so that is I’m on the training list for wide bodies I want to push a widebody I love the triple sevs I love so are the two the two wide bodies that we fly are the Triple 7 and the 787 the Dreamliner I would love to push those I have not had that opportunity yet I’ve ridden with people who push them um so I would love to push those bigger planes I just I want the bigger the better you know like so um one day one day hopefully I’ll get i’ll get called down off that training list and I’ll be able to push those but okay Martin Medina hey Martin okay how different is pushing differ sized planes from a 737 to a20 to Triple 7 and a350 and so on okay so general rule of thumb I don’t know if you have ever had boat trailers or horse trailers or trailers that you it typically it’s the same thing with planes the shorter the axle or the shorter um the the plane the squirrelier it is um the more maneuverability the more sensitive it is to every time you you turn it’s very reactive to that turn so it I have been told that the bigger the planes the easier it is to to push because um also when you’re pushing planes like a 737 is different than an any of our air buses because our air buses sit up higher so when I am looking at the main gear I can see the main gear the entire time and typically I’m basing off so so the main gear right I’m I’m trying to split my line in between that main gear so I can see that clear off of our airbuses the entire time now the 737 it sits lower except on our 737 we have some Maxes um but even then it’s not I mean they are higher but so the 737s are just a touch more challenging because you cannot see them but as soon as you start your turn then I’m kind of looking at where my tail is going to be so um so that kind of resolves itself a little bit but so typically like the a319s they can get really squirely real quick I typically always push them I call it shallow I turn a little bit too quickly so they’re on this side of the line which I think I explained in another video sometimes I I would rather push too shallow than push too late and have them go across that Center Line where other traffic is coming in so that’s a good question okay hi Sarah again okay it says if you don’t mind me asking how are situations where bags arrive late or when delays happen does that affect your schedule on the ramp okay so we have a whole division devoted to um delays so like it’s it’s called expedite where all of our so any type of delay so let’s say that um we have W like like just this last week we we had weather issues so we have passengers that didn’t make their connecting flights or their connecting flights didn’t go out so then we have all of these bags go to expedite and they are rerouted and typically they will ask the customer or or decide if the customer is going to be able to make it to that would they rather have the bags there first and I mean it’s it’s a totally um that expedite position that expedite worker that’s their call but a lot of times they want the bag to get there prior to the the passenger um I think PE a lot like me personally I would rather have my bag there waiting for me than um than getting there and have having to wait for my bag so that’s their ideal sit situations is to make sure that or to get the bag on the actual flight of of the customer of the passenger so it can be very challenging but we have some great great knowledgeable expedite workers out there and just know we have a whole Division and then if your bags are late um it’s called the BSO there’s a baggage resolution office that they typically take those bags hold them let you know hey we have them here or they’ll try and root them to wherever they can but it’s that is challenging that is but but personally it doesn’t affect us as rampers um we will still work our same hours because they’ll have another whole crew they’ll have some more crews coming in once we’re done so if those those flights go out late they’ll have other Crews pushing those those flights if they’re if they’re past our outtime so it typically doesn’t affect our schedule very much okay hi MW does the wing walker have a special signal for you with their sticks to tell you to immediately stop the push yes example if there’s another plane or vehicle behind the one you are pushing absolutely yes so so it’s really important that um our we as push back drivers are very attentive to our wing Walkers our wing Walkers do a very important job and just like that you said um if all of a sudden something happens they are immediately putting up that X so with their with their wands and when that exis is push is is put is set up I’m immediately trying to stop my push so and remember with a plane with an aircraft it’s very heavy so that momentum is already and I don’t want to jam on those brakes I want to make sure that I’m I’m stopping the plan because I know that the typically the um flight attendants are up giving their um their their safety um dialogue to the to all the passengers about you know the the oxygen mass and flotation devices and stuff like that so they are standing so I know that when I’m pushing they are standing so I don’t want to do anything that’s but of course we don’t ever want to cause any type of accident but that’s exactly what I’m looking for that’s also to when I’m pushing really tight to the terminal I like am really glued onto watching that wing walker so that I am backing up and I’m not close once he does The X that’s when I’m stopping because I don’t ever want to hit that terminal with my aircraft so yeah Wing Walkers are super important um so okay hi Douglas what’s the strangest cargo you’ve ever loaded okay we just well I don’t know if it’s strange we just loaded a bunch of aquarium fish which was crazy like I’ve never seen that before but we do like lobster do all types of fish we do um I don’t know if I said this in a previous in a before but we do like there are places that have these medical facilities that are research centers so we do do like body parts um or organs I mean organs are great like transplant like donation organs those are our highest priority that we have they always will go on the flight first because we know that they are life-saving um there’s there’s so many oh we’ve transported baby chicks before like like there’s just in there just chirping all the time um lots of lots of interesting stuff yeah super interesting so strangest that’s good okay okay have you ever ever you push or know someone that pushes a 757 old plane they still fly in the United States okay so I do know some of our old crew Chiefs um have pushed the the 5 sevs before when I when I got hired on they have eliminated that plane from our Fleet so we don’t fly them in our Fleet anymore so I have never had the opportunity to push the 5 sevs but I have lots of older crew chiefs that have been with the company for a long time and they have I think aren’t they like I thought that they were like longer like more like pencil shaped like um anyhow you’ll have to you’ll have to tell me but have never have I’m wondering if you have and and how they vary NY City Aviation says hi Jessica do you Ro routinely get training at other large airports such as JFK so in our company they we are trained specifically for the station that we are located at so my station is Phoenix so I’m trained um by Phoenix rampers by Phoenix trainers and and it’s station specific now there are General things that we all across um all of our stations across the country and across the United um the the the world they have um similar practices and but like our DFW which is our Hub they they do things a little bit different because they have um they don’t Marshall in their planes it’s all done electronically and so there are things that are different from very from Station to Station I just went to JFK a little while ago and and it was fascinating to watch the rampers and a lot of things I’m like oh yeah we do that too but the way that their ramp is set up and their concourses are totally different than the way um we have it set up in Phoenix and so it was cool to watch the differences but also to see the similarities so yes we never unless we transfer to that station then you do have like I think a twoe training period um to kind of get into their system and learn their ways of that specific station and then you can go and be a a full transfer so good question okay Cadet Clark 1996 Aviation okay how would you describe your Airlines work culture well I love my team right now so I’m on a very specific team but um I feel like down on the ramp there is this there is this give and flow and I think it all depends on how the individual looks at it because I I love getting to know people especially in our our industry like people are from all over the place and I feel like if you pause and take a moment and kind of learn their story and talk to them and we all have we’re all working the same job um and we all understand it’s you get this like camaraderie because you understand okay that was a heavy load oh my gosh that just totally wiped us out or we had so much cargo or we had so much mail so we I really love it I I love the teamwork I love getting to know people we have great people out there um there it’s just a really hardworking group of people and so I I I love it okay TC it says how much training do you need before the first ever push back that is a good question as well because here at our station we do not have any type of um simulator I know in Dallas there’s a push back um simulator but there is no push back simulator here in Phoenix so we actually start out on live flights and on my Instagram you can see some of my earlier pushes um you’ll see I’m I’m in an orange vest that means I’m training but you you actually start on live flights so you are with a push back instructor um and he he is right there typically also when when you we’re starting just barely pushing he wears the headset he’s talking to the pilot and he typically communicates hey just to let you know we’re training down here so we’re going to be going really slow we start off very slow um we yeah so he’s then directing so he actually has the headset talking so then the person that’s brand new new on the tug is not having to multitask is not having to worry about because we have um very specific things that we need to let the pilot know and so you’re not worried about that dialogue or anything so um yeah so it it And before I ended up doing like a solo push I probably pushed like 50 times before I ever did a push by myself so typically I always had a push back instructor um with me until I felt completely comfortable they make you push out of all different types of gates um and then they have another trainer who actually passes you off and make sure that you are um you have the competency to to push those aircraft by yourself okay ATF what is your all-time favorite airplane you know what okay so that’s a good question I really like the Airbus the the 321s um I feel like well okay from a I guess here here here’s here’s what you I kind of want to uh clarify the Airbus 321 as a ramper loading it um is very it’s taller the bins are taller so you can kind of so you’re on your knees and you can kind of stand up straight um the bins are are sectioned differently so that’s also nice um I like pushing them because I can see all the way to the tail but I recently flew the trip 7 um triple I think it was a trip 7300 to JFK it was awesome that was such a beautiful plane it was a be very comfortable it was just it it I felt like it floated it was so nice um yeah so I love flying on the Triple 7 okay Jacob Jones love the channel oh thank you Jacob have you ever had a time where you get the plane loaded with bags and then a storm rolls in and the flight gets canceled yes we do have actually we had that this last week um so so sometimes what H you have to do is once you’ve loaded a bag you know you’ve loaded the whole plane and then um then you get notified that hey actually this there because you know like here in Phoenix typically we don’t have too bad of weather where they actually get cancelled um it’s very rare because of our our weather type now when lightning happens they’re they can be delayed but what happens is that our other destination they were cancelling flights they couldn’t receive any aircraft so yes so then what we have to do is we have to unload all the um all the bags once they figure out where that flight is going to do or or when that flight is going to load so then we have to unload all those bags put them back in the carts and then we will either take them to expedite or um they typically have a a plan so they’re going to say oh there’s a gate change you actually need to take them to this gate um but typically a lot of times too they’ll have a like the crew that loaded and unloaded they’ll have another crew that goes and loads the other plane hopefully so good question hi Chris it says do any co-workers have a pilot certificate of any kind private instrument commercial multi-engine glider or any of other FAA certificates yes we have um several out there that are either in um flight school right now we have several several with their private um several with their instrument commercial um we had one recently that got his multi-engine and that he got hired on with a regional so yeah he he just recently did that and that was awesome so yeah lots of rampers transition from being a ramper to a pilot so alrighty let’s see okay Sarah hi Sarah again um says how does baggage claim work with getting bags from the plane to the customer very good question so um we call those local bags so when a flight comes in and there are there are two we either call them connecting bags and they’re connecting to another flight or they’re locals they’re staying there in Phoenix their final destination is Phoenix so we have a local Runner and that person will um as they’re coming off the belt you’ll see I don’t know if you’ve seen in some of my other videos there’s a couple of carts around and they all have a different job one there might be one or two three connects Runners it depends on how many connect people there are and then there’s also a local Runner and it depends on like some of our flights only have like four or five locals and there most of them are connecting flights some of our flights this is their final destination so we have like 75 or 100 or 125 locals um it kind of depends on the time of the day as well so from there we we fill our carts um we stack our local bags and we always we always separate them into priority bags and um and normal bags because the priority bags always go onto the local belt first so that they come up so after we take our carart we um there’s a whole big intricate conveyor belt system but with locals what they do is we put them on this um on certain belts that go up from the basement or from from wherever we’re um inducting them and they go to the conveyor belts the round um conveyor belts up in the terminal so we we scan them we always scan them put on those priority bags first and they go up a big conveyor belt and they go up into the belt system up above into the terminal it is actually fascinating so okay hi David I work the ramp at a small airport in Emy I should know Emy Maine okay thank you um we vary in flights from two RJ turns a day in the winter and eight turns a day with Mainline in the summer do you notice any seasonal changes of flights load Factor absolutely um that is that’s wow that’s a that’s a big swing huh to two turns to eight turns that’s a huge swing but I can understand in Maine you probably get a lot of weather you get the snow and rain and Ice um here in Phoenix we we tend to go down when the summer heats up so we always go up during holidays but our our load Factor right now is actually just transitioning down we were at a higher load Factor typically in springtime we have a higher load Factor um so yeah you’re right there is there is a SE change to the load factors okay RJ in the OC says why does the pin need to be shown to the captain after the push back so because the you cannot push with that plane so he cannot start and go with that PIN in um it’s like all about aircraft damage we don’t ever want to create any type of aircraft damage so if um he needs to see that that by pass pin has been removed the hydraulic system is now he has the control of the plane so he needs to actually see that bypass pin so um that’s our procedure and I I think that’s yeah that’s our procedure and it’s very important to make sure that these planes that cost so much money we don’t ever want to have any type of delay and anytime there’s even a little something even something that’s just off a little bit we will always stop the flight so if he doesn’t see that bypass pin he won’t leave so and also the wing walker should never put down the X until they have that bypass pin hi Shanta it said did you ever consider become being a commercial pilot so right when I got hired and I started falling in love with with these aircraft I for about nine months I researched extensively becoming a commercial pilot and so my age is a factor in it because I know that commercial pilots have to retire at 65 um but for about nine months I went to but we have a bunch of flight schools here so I went and did a lot of research there I have friends who are going um who are training to become pilots and Commercial um commercial pilots and it just didn’t fit into my family life um into what I’m foreseeing for the next 15 years ofar life like uh I I didn’t want first of all you know about seniority here in in the industry so I didn’t want to be as I’m getting older to still be working on like Mother’s Day and um Christmas and all that kind of stuff so it really was about the schedule and about the the time that I would have to put in to make sure that I got the return on investment um but I still oh my gosh I still would love to be a pilot um so one part of our job is called it’s being part of the tow team and you get a break ride so that means when they’re towing a an aircraft from like the hanger to a gate um you have rampers up there that are break writing that are up in the in the cockpit and they have to learn how to do all these specific things to to get the plane back into the OR from The Hanger to the gate and so um I have looked into being on the tow team because I would love to be up there I just I just love these planes so that’s something that still kind of is in the back of my head but I know that I am like my clock is ticking so okay hi TC okay is it harder to work at nights due to the limited visibility I would say absolutely um Everything Changes at night and it’s most of my videos are done during the day I have a I have a day shift right now but um it definitely does like when I swap out with other crew chiefs or I I need to do some videos at night because all of a sudden you can’t see the lines kind of like the guidelines that we go off of um the reflection of the lights on the runways the there’s dark areas here and there yes everything changes at night so it it adds a little bit of complexity to it um it is interesting though because the way the pilots the way you disconnect and stuff from the plane like they’re they flash their lights at you there’s there’s different signals now at at night time and also at night time it’s really cool I know that this is kind of juvenile but I love that the wands light up they’re like lightsabers like the wing Walkers look like you know Jedi out there so okay all right so I think oh Jacob okay we have another one from Jacob have you ever had a time where you push back um a plane and all of a sudden they have to return to the gate so yes we have had that that is definitely a scenario that we have encountered um it can be there’s a myriad of reasons that that could happen maybe somebody got sick or is unwell or had an an incident up up in the aircraft um and the and the pilot is saying okay I need to return back to the gate um that that is definitely a scenario sometimes if if we push and let’s say that the pilot it was already a delayed F flight and the pilots are on certain they can the FAA requires them to have a certain amount of sleep and so they can only fly a certain amount of time so let’s say that they time out or um there yeah there’s a whole bunch of scenarios but yes we have had that situation where they have had to return to the gate and it creates this whole you know this whole ripple effect again but okay Sarah are you working at the same gate or different Gates each day that is a good question so some stations they’re called gate staffed so they work at the same gate um day in and day out there’s a a rhythm to each gate you’re right at our station we do not we get assignments we get assignments per Concourse so like if I bid an an N2 team so Concourse number two team that means that all of my flights will be somewhere on that Concourse but it can be at different Gates um we do have we you can bid these there there other teams that are like traveling teams that go to different concourses so good question okay all right so we are gonna let you guys go enjoy your Sunday thank you so much for being on thank you for all of your questions you guys are I I love it I love um discussing with you and I hope you guys have all enjoyed this and stay tuned we will have another video for you and I will see you on the ramp see you