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Mr. David L. Behncke President
Air Line Pilots Association
3145 West 63rd Street
Chicago 29 Ill. January24, 1949.

Dear Mr. Behncke,

Enclosed please find a copy of a letter I wrote to the chairman of our schedule committee. No doubt you have surmised that the alleged check pilot culprit is myself.

Please let me assure you that to the best of my knowledg [[knowledge]] I am not guilty of any C.A.A. violation ( I can't afford to Be ). The only thing that I might be criticized for by the company if they knew, was that I am using my check pilot status to keep down my flight pay losses to the Association. In view of the fact that flight time limitations do not apply to check pilots, I have been very successfull in keeping my flight pay losses to a minimum. Needless to say, I cannot advertise all this.

This subject has come up before. In fact the issue is raised every time I go off some where and manage to get a full months work. However this time it is safe to assume that this move is instigated by the forces of reaction. The forces of reaction are sweeping in as I predicted in my letter to M. Kilgore of Januare 1o[[understrike]]th[[understrike]] [[10th]] 1949. The Executive Council in its handling of the Barnitt case, yielded to our potential " Ding- Dongs ". They weakened, wavered, turned and ran with their tails between their legs. Since I refused to weaken, waivered, turn and run, we now have the first instances of the reaction sweeping in. My only hope in this fracas is that you hold the chairman of the Council and the chairman of the schedule committee accountable for going to the C.A.A. because of a pilot squabble in our Council.

With best wishes and kind regards, I am

Sincerely yours,

Michael A. Gitt