DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
July 30 2003 14:21 ET by Luke Kolin
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The following message was sent to the DVA staff approximately three weeks ago. As my time pressures have accelerated somewhat lately, it is only reasonable to inform all of you of my situation.
I will probably be sending this to the pilot community within a few weeks, but you deserve to know earlier.
As some of you may be aware, my wife and I are expecting our second child in September. In late April, our unborn child was diagnosed with an open neural tube defect - spina bifida. In layman's terms, this means that the lower part of the spine did not close properly during the first 30 days of pregnancy, and there is an opening in the lower back as well as nerve damage. The practical implication of this is that my daughter will be lucky to walk more than a hundred yards at a time, let alone run. Thus far, she has shown excellent lower extremity movement. All the doctors say that in utero mobility is not an indicator for antenatal abilities, but movement is always better than no movement - since that's always bad news.
This will affect my participation with DVA in an unknown way. What I know right now is this - she will be born via C-section around September 20th, and will undergo spinal surgery within the first 24 hours of her life to close her spine. Since Lynne will be recovering from a C-section, the 96 hours after her birth will be very busy for me. I'll have my in-laws in town, but between my wife and my two daughters, I'll be somewhat busy. The medium term looks significantly better. My employer has given me two months' leave after the birth, meaning I'll be home a lot more. After the first week, I'll probably get bored, so October looks like a good month for me to get a few things done around the site. I will be returning to work around Thanksgiving and I should have a good idea around January how things are working out.
The bottom line which I wish to emphasise is that the financial and emotional commitment that I have had to DVA for the past 2+ years remains intact. There are no plans at this time that would adversely affect the operations of the airline. I am extremely proud to have a great staff in place, and I anticipate that operations can more than successfuly survive any momentary absence.
There will be absences, however. There's going to be a fair bit of time in doctors' offices, hospitals and other places that no parent deserves to go to. None of you need apologise to me at any time for making inquiries and requests. You are not bothering me by doing so. At the same time, I will not apologise either now or later for simply ignoring you if I'm too busy. I have a built-in internal hierarchy of requests; connectivity and site status issues are #1, but other requests may take a few days (like they don't already?) if I'm too busy with other things.
Before I release this to the pilots, let me thank you in advance. When I look at a number of different virtual airlines, I think we are extremely fortunate to have such a dedicated group of staff members such as yourselves. I know you're going to do a great job without me.
Going forward, I will be finishing up our manuals and the EchoFlight charts. After that, things are a little in the air, but I remain firm in my belief that we have a great staff that can carry on in by absence.
Cheers!
Luke
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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