Originally Posted by
kronan
TonyC,
1st welcome back and thank you for your service.
Some thoughts regarding this issue, not all of which in response to your post.
Weren’t you still a block rep in January? I’m assuming you were aware of the companies January letter. And I’m hoping you’ve read the most recent letter outlining the ramifications of managements decision to abrogate two of the soft parameters that have served us so well. (It also helps explain the disputed pairing email as well as the disputed pairing text released on the day the bidpacks were produced)
I’m certainly not privy to internal MEC/LEC discussions as you were, but I’d like to think we’d both agree that the psychological 1-2 punch of bidpacks published, WTF, then a this is Why WTF is stronger than a January message of things are going to go to hell in April. The extra Day Sorts gonna be wildly disruptive unless we can force management to see the error of their thinking.
(And how many would read/think of it? We still have people asking what happens to a block of R days if a C/O trip or training touches it.)
As to 117, a lot of the trips/lines I’ve deleted would fit within 117. 0230 to 1030 is within the 9 hour duty day of 117. Certainly didn’t do a detailed, day by day check of the DDH pairing-so possible might trigger a different 117 issue. But the Duty Period that had me saying oh hell no to a slew of lines would fit.
PAX carrier 117 versus us isn’t a valid comparison. Domestic Pax carrier flying is hugely concentrated to day/evening hours. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen a legacy bidpack, but their lines tended to be 2-3 days on with 2-3 days off. Strings of single day trips, back off the clock in domicile (and off the per diem/ hotel $$). More like our O&Bs versus the majority of our existing flying.
FedEx management has thrown out every hard earned lesson about fatigue, and using system form as an excuse to do so. It’s really about FedEx wanting to have their cake and eat it too versus staffing properly to make it work, in a safer/more reliable form
First, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with asking what happens to a block of R days if touched by c/o or training, or any other question on how things are done here. Unless you feel that all 5000+ pilots should be all knowing all the time from day one on the property. So let’s just stop scapegoating people who simply care enough to want to know but don’t know how to find the correct official answer.
With that said, the comparison with passenger in regards to 117 is absolutely valid. The reason why is because pilots from each are all humans who, with know scientific research, experience the same sleep physiology. Some parts of 117 are not conducive to efficiency or a bigger paycheck. But that is a different discussion.