Originally Posted by
AK Hawg
... The "outlandish" requirements are the transocianic and the 500 hours heavy time which keep the fighter and regional guys out of the fight. ....
Just submit your application and don't sweat the rumors or other UPS HR issues you can't control.
To say that UPS is ONLY interviewing heavy jet, international pilots, excluding fighter or regional guys for our ANC base just is just NOT TRUE. I have recently flown with and/or trained new-hire ANC MD11 FOs that ONLY had 737 time at a "major", or single seat military fighter time. It's all a mix of younger and older (31-55 years) pilots, civilian and military. I would be ignorant to say that the company doesn't place a premium on heavy jet, international time though.
There are many unique factors here at UPS that you don't find elsewhere. For one, we don't get paid by weight, so there are unfilled FOs vacancies in all fleets, narrow-body to wide-body. Pilots here bid seat position based upon their personal QOL requirements, and don't necessarily chase the almighty $$....
Look, UPS manglement decided to open up the ANC base, and SURPRISE, it's gone very junior for both Captains, and especially FOs! Now they've decided to accelerate the base staffing, and find that we are VERY SHORT FOs in both SDF and ANC. There are a lot of junior Captains in ANC (who may or may not have much depth in international experience), and the company is taking a safe conservative route of initially staffing ANC with over-qualified/well-qualified candidates...
I just flew a leg from HKG to ANC, and my FO was hired this spring, on his first trip off IOE. My IRO was hired only last September. Now I've been a Captain here for ten years, and both FOs were well-trained, safe, and capable....but it's a new experience for us to have "new-hires" in the right seat/IRO position of the MD. When I took my 3 hour break in back, I felt very confident both "new" FOs could keep us on the magenta line and monitor the cpdlc reports.
For the past six years in the MD11, our FOs have usually been ones transitioning from another UPS aircraft, usually with some int'l experience (the domestic guys don't bid over-because they're scared-we tell all the senior guy how terrible int'l flying is).
We didn't start hiring FOs into the MD right seat until the September 2006 class.
As a line pilot, I think the company is doing the right thing and adding additional requirements for candidates to fill the UPS ANC FO vacancies. JMHO