Fedex Rumor Update

[General Lee]

Thank you Nightflyer.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[active_herk]

General Lee,

I'll try and answer some of your questions, although I'm an ANC based guy and not LAX based. Taking a glance at the January LAX bid pack, I would guess about 10-20% of the flying is international (depending on whether you consider HNL and ANC international in which case it would be higher). They do more HNL flying than any other base at FDX. They also do MD-10 flying as do all the MD-11 bases. There are some out and backs in addition to trips. LAX is MD-11 only, no DC-10 based pilots, although you can see every different fleet type at LAX at one time or another. There are some around the world flights in the MD-11, and you see them at all the bases (LAX, MEM, and ANC). There aren't any around the world flights in the Airbus, although we do have an Airbus pilot base in Subic where they do Asia flying, and some Airbuses in Paris to do some inter-European flying. I'm not sure if you were asking about Alliance with regards to trips back and forth from LAX or Alliance in general. I do know we have scaled back Alliance some from previous years, don't know how much flying between the two points. Hope this helps.

 

[Huck]

How does LAX work reserve? Are you responsible for making it to both ONT and LAX? Are guys commuting in?

Don't worry I bet I'm junior to everybody here....

 

[NightFlyer]

Reserve in LAX is a three hour callout and you do have to cover both ONT and LAX. I've been there a few months now and haven't been called out to do an ONT trip yet. I live in Dallas and the commute is a piece of cake from here. I usually just jumpseat on FedEx from AFW, but a few times I've had to use American from DFW.

Take care,
NightFlyer

 

[General Lee]

Thanks Active Herk. I have always wondered about those FEDEX planes and where they go. Sounds like living in ANC would be fun. (I have flown there nonstop from ATL once or twice in the Summer---Humpy's was fun) I have read somewhere that some of your Asian trips were a little rough---like going form ANC to SEL, and then ONTO Osaka without resting....Any truth to that? I am sure all pax airlines/Cargo airlines have some bad trips. Were those hawaii trips from LAX turn arounds? It would be nice to relax a bit on the beach. I think UPS does turns from ONT. Take care...

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[PurpleTail]

The trips out of LAX have been descent so far, even being on reserve. No international trips yet but we'll see. The HNL trips are not out and backs, they usually have a 17-28 hr layover. The Asia trips are like flying for a whole different company...the hotels are nicer, the food is 10X better, the layovers are longer, and the ramp agents take care of your luggage and customs paperwork. Typical domestic trips are in the MD-10 and the international stuff is almost always in a MD11. Now the 10-30 are really nice and not that much different than the 11 but the 10-10 are a slow fat pig, what a waste of money IMHO.

I have been commuting out of LAS and Southwest has become my new best friend, Am West is also available but a distant second. I actually drove this last time and it was 4 hrs door-door from my house. I wouldn't want to do it all the time but on occasion isn't too bad. NOV and DEC are not normal months at FedEx due to the hollidays so we will see what happens after the first of the year when things get back to normal.

Cheers!

 

[General Lee]

That really is interesting. The INTL trips at Delta are usually nicer than the typical Dayton overnight too. There usually is a reason when the FO's could easily hold domestic Capt, but stay on the INTL side. A lot of guys like waking up at the Athens Hilton and looking out at the Acrolpois, or eating their favorite schvienze (sp?) Steak with spicy garlic sauce on top in Mainz (near Frankfurt). I hope to be there someday too----instead I'll take the "Greek Isles" hotel in LAS---which is close to a pretty good buffet at the Stardust.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[klhoard]

Re: hiring

How do you land a plane again?

Goose17

I've got a few more trips left this month so just swap onto one of my flights Goose, and I'll be glad to give you a lesson. . . . .

 

[active_herk]

Actually General Lee I live in the lower 48 and do the commute up to ANC. Its nice up there, but a little cold right now.

You're correct in saying there are some bad INTL trips, but for the most part they are better than domestic. I've never heard of an ANC-SEL-KIK (Osaka), but I have done an ANC-NRT-SEL. That wasn't much fun, and to be truthful, I haven't seen that in a while. The rules state that if we block over 8, we have to have an RFO on board (two full crews if we block over 12). I don't mind that, as long as its a single leg. It gets tough when you do over 8 in two and worse case three legs. It makes it hard for anyone on the crew to get any meaningful rest which is the purpose of the RFO.

As far as the LAX thing goes, when they go to HNL, they do a layover and then either return to LAX, or press on to SYD. Either way it isn't a bad deal!

 

[General Lee]

Sounds nice---SYD that is. Yeah, we have the same deal, anything over 8 hours we have a relief guy/gal. Everyone on the 757/767 including domestic is typed---and I read somewhere that we have 3,000 typed on the 757/767--all either flying INTL or waiting to....

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Huck]

It gets tough when you do over 8 in two and worse case three legs. It makes it hard for anyone on the crew to get any meaningful rest which is the purpose of the RFO.

At my last job, we used to do MIA - Manaus - VCP - Bogota - MIA with a heavy crew. Yeah, you only worked two of the four legs, but max cruise time was like 3 hours, and most guys didn't even pull out the bunks - ~24 hours duty sitting up! It's legal, so it must be safe, right?

 

[F-eagle]

Are the Subic Bay and Paris pilot bases, staffed by U.S. pilots? If so, how senior are those bases?
Thanks

 

[Mr Zog]

There are NO three leg RFO pairings at FedEx that I am aware of. The only 2 leg RFO lines I know of are EWR-STN-CDG, ANC-NRT-ICN, HKG-KIX-ANC (Fuel stop at Osaka), and sometimes the HNL-SYD does a fuel stop in Fiji. There may be a few other 2 leg RFO lines that I am not aware of. The Subic domicile is Pilots on the seniority list and it does go a bit junior. The Paris is not a domicile, they are Memphis based pilots who do a special bid every three months to do the European flying. All the international flying in the Pacific is done by MD-11s. The MD-10 does domestic only (including Anchorage). It may do Puerto Rico and Campinas also. I am not sure since that is a Memphis pairing and I am based in LA.

 

[F-eagle]

Thanks Mr. Zog,
Sounds like a good time to me!! Maybe one day.

 

[active_herk]

Mr Zog - I haven't seen any three leg RFO pairings in a while, but I do know we had some in the past. Luckily I never had to fly one, just saw it in the bid pack. Hopefully we'll never see it again.