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AFFILIATED WITH THE A.F. of L. 
"SCHEDULE WITH SAFETY"

AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION
INTERNATIONAL
3145 WEST SIXTY-THIRD STREET
CHICAGO
TELEPHONE 
HEMLOCK 5015

October 4, 1941

TO ALL MEMBERS
Read Your Association Mail
and 
Know What's Going On

Dear Member: 
   
It has been more than four months since I last wrote to the entire membership. On more than one occasion since that time, I have been on the verge of dictating a membership letter, but changes always occurred in the air line piloting picture which presented such an unstable situation that it was not possible to say much of anything of a definite nature, at least, until more stable trends again prevailed.
   
To say that the last four or five months have been one of the most hectic periods through which the Association has gone, is putting it mildly indeed. To begin with, the ferry pilot question has been continuously in the forefront and finally there came the proposal to make air line pilots available for ferry service by extending their maximum permissible flying time from eighty-five to one hundred hours a month. Specifically, a request as made for from eighty-five to one hundred ferry pilots and fifteen instructors.
   
All the councils were canvassed for their suggestions and decisions on the high-light questions involved, and the largest Central Executive Council meeting ever held reviewed all the answers received. In the main, the membership appeared to be co-operative, provided that proper conditions of employment, insurance, and salaries could be reasonably guaranteed. 
   
Practically all the local councils, the Central Executive Council, and Headquarters were against raising the eighty-five hour monthly federal limitation to one hundred hours, the principal reason being that it was felt that one hundred pilots could be easily spared from the air lines on a prorata basis, without raising the monthly hour limit from eighty-five to one hundred. It was also felt that, rather than tamper with the eighty-five hour federal law, it would be far better for the pilots to forego their annual vacations during the emergency, thereby making a great many more flying hours available. The consensus of opinion seems to be that the cart was before the horse on this entire proposition and it was far too dangerous to the best interest of the air line piloting profession to be tampered with promiscuously.