QOL at FedEx in Domicile

[Kezwick]

Just curious about what type of trips to expect at Fedex if I lived in MEM ...are they 3,4day trips?? or is it a mixed bag of week on week off...Have a young family and was trying to get a bit of info on what it's like if you are able to live close. Any info on what reserve is like? I know it all depends on what equipment you fly.

 

[nitefr8dog]

If by some miracle with 1700 hrs and no military experience you were able to get hired at FDX....which probably is one on the highest paid best run airlines/companies in the world...I think it would be years if ever you could hold MEM. If my memory serves me correct HKG in the junior domicile. Check on APC. JMHO

 

[Kezwick]

it's been 10 years since i updated my profile...thanks for the info

 

[nitefr8dog]

it's been 10 years since i updated my profile...thanks for the info

Again APC has alot of info...A former employee/friend with 15000+ hrs and 6000 pic DC9 turbo jet was just hired without military. He was low time compared to the rest who interviewed "civilian" only. FWIW

 

[OzBushWhacker]

Wow your a nice piece of work. Fedex is certainly competitive but plenty of people have been hired with less than that. They probably had more of a winning personality though.

 

[nitefr8dog]

Wow your a nice piece of work. Fedex is certainly competitive but plenty of people have been hired with less than that. They probably had more of a winning personality though.

Don't shoot the messenger! Just passing along what a recent new hire told me! And trying to steer him to the sites where most.... if not all of this info is available. Low time and a little touchy?

 

[OzBushWhacker]

Nope. Just wish you old farts that think one needs several space shuttle landings under their belt to be competitive would take take your dentures and retire already...

 

[nitefr8dog]

Nope. Just wish you old farts that think one needs several space shuttle landings under their belt to be competitive would take take your dentures and retire already...

47.....early retirement is at 55 with a 30% hit. I think I will struggle along gumming my steaks for a couple more years. But thanks for the concern.

 

[OzBushWhacker]

Enjoy those truck stop steaks old timer and don't be hassling me on the way into Walmart.

 

[AdlerDriver]

Just curious about what type of trips to expect at Fedex if I lived in MEM ...are they 3,4day trips?? or is it a mixed bag of week on week off...Have a young family and was trying to get a bit of info on what it's like if you are able to live close. Any info on what reserve is like? I know it all depends on what equipment you fly.

It won't be years until you could hold MEM. Junior seats there are the back seat and right seat of the 727. We have new hires a couple of months ago go to both of those seats. You can't get forced to take a HKG or CGN spot, but they may be offered to you in an opportunity to take an earlier hire date.


MEM domestic trips tend to be similar in all the aircraft. The international stuff can be much longer and varied, so since you seem to be interested in be around home more, I'll assumed you would bid domestic (when you have a choice). As a new hire in a 727, 757, and even A300, you will most likely fly "hub turns".


Those are one day trips or two day trips. They consist of a flight to an outstation (or series of flights), a layover, and a flight back to MEM. Time away from base (TAFB) is usually between 15-20 hours.

The am hub turns are the longer ones, BUT they are a one day trip. The trip footprint takes place over just one calendar day. You depart MEM sometime between 0100 and 0400 and return that same night around 2200-midnight.


The pm hub turns follow the same pattern, but you leave MEM between 1400-1700 and return the next morning around 0700-0900. These go senior because it's day flying.


Both of these types of trips pay 6 credit hours unless you get a heinous one that has some long flights that total over 6 hours and then it will pay whatever you fly. Typically, the total flight time for a hub turn is under 4 hours total and a good one (like to ATL and back) would be under 2 hours.


A typical schedule of hub turns will string a series of them together starting on Monday and ending Friday or Saturday. So, on your calendar, you'll have a series of individual trips starting and ending each calendar day. Monday night when you arrive in MEM after your first trip ends, it will be around midnight. You will then hang out for a couple of hours until the show time for your next trip. You'll then fly another hub turn trip arriving back in MEM Tues night, rinse and repeat the rest of the week. If you had day hub turns, you'd arrive in MEM at 0900, your trip ends and you wait until around 1500 that day to start your next trip - repeat, etc.


Typically, you'll have this type of schedule in a week on, week off format. It's pretty typical for all the trips to be identical and go to the same city each week.


So, as a junior guy flying am hub turns, you will basically be gone for 5-6 days even though, on paper, the trips you're flying are one day trips. You just don't have time to go home on the am type and your wife and kids probably won't want to see you between midnight and 0300 anyway.

There are other variations of this type of schedule involving deadheads and outstations that I can get into some other time if you're really curious.


There is one other type of trip that can allow a MEM pilot who lives locally to be home a bunch. It's called an am out + back. The typical trips of this variety leave MEM at the same time as the am hub turns, usually in the ballpark of 0300. You fly one leg somewhere (usually ~2 hours or less), have an hour to 1.5 hour sit and then fly back to MEM. You're usually back by 0800, maybe 0900 at the latest. These trips also pay 6 credit hours since that is our minimum pay per trip.


You can get a whole month of these in your line and basically fly them week on, week off. You can put your kids to bed (and yourself as well) around 8pm, go to work at 0100 and be back (in some cases) early enough to wake them up or put them on the school bus. Grab a nap later that morning, hang with the wife or mow the lawn and start it all over again that night.

Some guys love these. Personally, I couldn't do it but to each his own.

There are oddball trips that fall into the true 2, 3, or 4 day category and these can be used as fillers if the week on, week off doesn't quite get over the monthly guarantee. The more junior lines tend to have less of a standard "pattern" and can be a little more spread out. If you're local, that might not be a bad thing, it just means more driving to and from the airport.


Reserve is a crap shoot. 15 days on in a 4 week month and 19 days on in a 5 week month. The schedules vary from 15/19 days on reserve in a row to blocks of 3 or 4 scattered through the month. There are times the reserves are getting abused and go well over guarantee, resulting in huge paychecks. There are other times they get you for just enough to make it hurt but not enough to pay you more. There have also been plenty of times that guys sit home all month and barely turn a wheel. If we're properly staffed and it's not peak (i.e. leading up to Xmas), reserve can be a very good deal for locals.

Let me know if you need more into. I hope that helps.