Pilots accuse federal mediators of UPS favoritism
     LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The head of the Independent Pilots Associ-
 ation on Thursday accused federal mediators of siding with United
 Pareel Service in a move that could scuttle the company's latest
 contract offer.
     IPA president Bob Miller made the comments after the National
 Mediation Board issued a statement this week saying a mediator would
 not allow pilots to strike UPS until early next year.
     "I believe it's extremely unfortunate that the board chose to
 take this stand at this time and create what could be a backlash
 against their actions," Miller said.
     The board's statement also outlined steps that could lead to a
 strike if UPS pilots rejected a contract offer the freight shipping
 company made on Sunday. The statement would seem to reassure ship-
 pers that a work stoppage would not disrupt the company's busy
 holiday season after a 15-day Teamsters strike this month.
     A mediation board spokesman declined to respond to Miller's
 contention that he and many of the 2,000 pilots think the board is
 siding with UPS.
     The board issued a statement Thursday explaining its role in the
 Railway Labor Act, which governs negotiations between UPS and its
 pilots. "At times, the parties and the board have seen their respec-
 tive obligation differently," the statement said.
     UPS spokeswoman Cindy Read said she believes the mediation board
 issued the statement as a clarification on the timeline if the con-
 tract offer is rejected. The outcome is expected to be known by late
 September.  "The national mediation board is an objective third
 party," Read said. "Their role is not to take sides."
     Miller said Sunday that he would remain neutral about the pro-
 posal and let UPS pilots vote on the contract. During a news confer-
 nce on Monday, however, ho denounced UPS for laying down the offer
 without additional negotiations.
     The board's statement said that if the contract proposal is
 rejected, a federal mediator would recess talks until early 1998
 unless prospects were good to fine-tune the proposal to gain rati-
 fication from the union's rank-and-file.
     UPS pilots have been working under a previous contract since it
 was scheduled to expire in December 1995. The two sides disagree on
 how much the latest offer would raise pilots salaries.
     UPS said the offer would raise captains' pay about 32 percent,
 from $153,000 to $202,000 a year during the five-year contract. The
 average co-pilot pay would be boosted from $84,700 to $132,000 a
 year, a 56 percent increase, and the average flight engineer would
 receive a 94 percent pay raise, from $48,392 to $94,000.
     The pilots disagree with how the company arrived at those fig-
 ures. The union contends the pact actually would raise all pilots'
 salaries by 19.8 percent over the life of the contract.
 Knoxville News Sentinel 29 Aug 97
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 Early lesson recalled to win paper airplane contest
 August 14, 1997 Web posted at: 10:51 p.m. EDT (0251 GMT)
     SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Aeronautical engineering students at
 Sydney University honed their skills Wednesday in a contest to see
 who could build the best airplane.
     There was a catch, however: they could use only paper, glue and
 string. And the proof would be in which plane flew the farthest.
     Tristan Timmins and his team nearly won with a novel, twin-
 fuselaged version that soared almost 82 feet (25 meters).
     But the winner was 21-year-old Dae-han Choi, who stole the show
 with a plane built from a single sheet of paper. He said the secret
 was in folding the paper into many small triangles, creating a long
 narrow craft.
     He learned the trick, he said, when he was in primary school in
 Seoul.
 So much for the importance of a high-priced education....
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        Plane diverted because of oil pressure problem
     August 28, 1997 10:55 p.m. EDT  COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- A
 Continental Airlines plane en route from Newark, New Jersey to
 Nashville, Tennessee was forced to land in Columbus, Ohio, Thurs-
 day morning because of an oil-pressure problem.
     The 61 passengers and five crew members aboard the Boeing 737
 sustained no injuries, said Continental Airline spokesman Dave
 Messing. The plane landed safely at Port Columbus International
 Airport.
     Flight 1251 was diverted as a precaution after crew members
 noticed oil pressure was falling in one of the two engines. Pilots
 reduced power and landed in Columbus just before noon local time,
 approximately two hours after take-off.
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