MOAB and ANC??

[twiceskunkeddog]

For the FedEx guys out there... Based on water cooler talk/rumormill...

How many guys who are on-line/relatively senior/established would be inclined to take an ANC slot to get a wide body seat??

For example, when SLC became available, we knew that all the senior guys would go and that some junior captains would bid right seat just to go.

Pure unscientific opinion mining here...

Thanks,

TSD

 

[HoursHore]

There's enough movement right now that you can get a wide body seat within a Bid, maybe 2 if you want the Bus, either in MEM or ANC. LAX went senior last Bid, tends to go back and forth.

your training date will be a lot quicker for ANC, (maybe 6 months)

 

[twiceskunkeddog]

So I guess it is safe to bet that if 50-100 new positions open up in ANC that they won't get completely filled by on-line folks and they may have to fill it with Newhires??

Thanks,

TSD

 

[PurpleTail]

So I guess it is safe to bet that if 50-100 new positions open up in ANC that they won't get completely filled by on-line folks and they may have to fill it with Newhires??

Thanks,

TSD

Since the company is offering to PAY for the move that might be enough incentive to get more guys up there and not have to put new hires in ANC. You never know though with this pilot group...one pilots trash is another pilots treasure. That what makes this such a good company to fly for.

 

[CaptainMark]

historically though if you want anc..you can get it

 

[Falconjet]

In the last bid (Aug) there were 11 folks who bid ANC who could have held the MD-11 right seat in Memphis. That is out of a total of 39 seats that went to ANC. So about a quarter of the seats were filled with folks who wanted to go to ANC over MEM.

Will that trend continue? Who knows. There are folks who like Alaska who will go up there, but probably not that many.

The widebody right seats have gone very junior the last couple of bids because there have been so many newhires coming on that they might as well be on the bottom of the widebody seat list instead of the bottom of the 727 S/O list. If hiring were to slow down, those right seats wouldn't be open for the new hires to bid into.

I went from no chance to even holding the right seat of the Boeing after 2 years to holding the right seat of the Bus in 2.5, with the actual upgrade training coming at the 3 year mark. No hiring for a year and a half. Folks are now able to get -11 right seat in ANC within a year. YMMV, but it will probably stay that way for a while if the hiring continues.

Good luck, hope the interview went well!

FJ

 

[twiceskunkeddog]

Thanks for all the info...

I felt like the interview went well. I felt prepared (Thanks, Albie) and there certainly were some things that I would do differently knowing what I know now. But I felt like I left nothing on the table given what I knew going into the interview.

Seriously, the folks who conducted the various portions of the interview were absolutely top notch!! The HR folks were great. Everyone was forthcoming with as much information as possible (not too much considering the MOAB). And I walked out of that interview with a most favorable opinion of FedEx and it's corporate culture. Believe it or not, the interview actually made me want to work for the company even more than before (which believe me was TONS). The Gucci building with the Gucci cafeteria was cool too.

I just hope I did well enough for an offer of employment.

Thanks for the encouragement FJ,

TSD

 

[USNFDX]

Couple tidbits of info:

This coming Monday's new hire class will probably be the last until April, then 60-70 month.

They want to see where things fall out with the MOAB. By doing this they put to rest a lot of pass over pay issues. IE if everybody currently on the property can hold any right seat, then if they don't bid it, there is no passover pay if they hire people into right seats, at least for a year.

Speaking of MOAB latest word is 290 Cap 290 F/O Wide-bodies.

Also they have plan as far as hiring into the right seats. The company plans to "hand select" who they put in the right seat of the mad-dog. They plan on getting around the CBA seniority issues by having a Hiring Pool. They will pull those with heavy, glass, and international experience and place them in an Indoc by themselves.

Also heard that 757s may be back on, or the possibility of replacing the engines on the 727s. Maybe even a 3 engine for 2 engine swap..........

 

[Falconjet]

Sounds like if you are in the back of the Boeing and have any desire to escape within the next 2 years, you had better bid out now. I am guessing that only the really senior folks will stick it out.

FJ

 

[CaptainMark]

SWAFO says all fedex talk should go to the cargo board..any message for him/her?

 

[:-)]

I thought this was going to be a mountain biking string. Here I was, ready to find out what kind of fat tire trails were up in Alaska, and it's only about FedEx. What's up with that?:beer:

 

[GeorgeWBush]

Changes to the Training Letter?

Anybody know the tentative plan for the current training letter (from the Aug bid)?

With respect to the probability that new hires will soon be trained in the right seat of the MD-11 and Boeing -- how will that affect those of us that currently have spring or summer 2006 training dates in those seats?

Which option is most likely?

1. Train the current letter as is, injecting new hires as the training department is able to handle the additional load. This would not affect anybody currently holding a training date.

2. Rewrite the training letter after the coming Feb bid, giving priority to new hires for the next year or so and therefore qualifying a bunch of us (from both the AUG and upcoming FEB bid) for passover pay.

3. Something completely different from option 1 or 2.

 

[AlbieF15]

USNFDX's insights make sense. I have ZERO knowledge of any plan, but if I were hiring and wanted to maximize safety/ORM, minimize training costs, and amortize the training I did pay for I would wait until the MOAB settled out and then create a hiring pool. Each class would be filled at management discretion (avoiding CBA issues) based on company needs. The old Gemini guys, C17 drivers, and guys who flew the big iron at company X would flow into the class on X April, which would be 100% MD11. The chimps like me who knew they were international only by noticing the difference landscape under the tanker and the regional guys with Dash 8 and B1900 experience would flow into another class--before or after doesn't matter because seniority won't matter until the seat lock expires--into the S/O spot on the 727. We'd all end up on the list together anyway +/- a few numbers from each other, but at least initially those MDs might have a tad more experience that way. I know we've had guys go very quickly to the MD and be very successful, but as a guy with zero glass/minimal international/zero 121 experience the pass through the back seat was probably extremely valuable. At times I wished it hadn't been 2.5 years (see Falconjet's story--I'm senior to him but not by much) but it certainly made the flow into the 121 world a bit easier.

 

[twiceskunkeddog]

To Beat a Twiceskunkeddeadhorse...

Out of curiosity... How long has the most Jr Captain in ANC been with FedEx vs. MEM MD-11?

I also remember something in the news about FedEx negotiating away all the inter/intra-(whichever one is inside) China flying to an all Chinese carrier to get their foot in the door over there. Does their recent purchase of their chinese partner mean that FedEx will be doing the inter/ra-China flying now as well?

Thanks,

TSD

 

[Huck]

The chimps like me

Thanks for the belly laugh Albie. I needed that. Button-banana button-banana button-banana....

Junior widebody captain is Airbus in MEM, about ~1900 numbers from the bottom. MD junior captain is in MEM at about 2250 from the bottom. Anchorage is within 60 numbers of that.

I think we're precluded by law from flying too much intra-China, though I think we do a little on the MD.