One year as a Nuggett, what I learned
08-05-2007, 09:18 PM
#1
Line Holder
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Posts: 37
One year as a Nuggett, what I learned
Well guy’s, I just hit the one year anniversary and thought I’d try to spark some conversation and maybe a few lessons learned from the other Nuggets. Having come with what some might say was the minimum qualifications in the “heavy, glass, international” experience, some of this may be obvious to a lot of you. However, I think someone who does the RJ/military to 727SO to MD-11 could benefit from some of this conversation. Here are a few lessons I can recall off the top of my cranium.
The ops section at ANC is on the second floor. Yea I’m kind of kidding here, but the first time I saw ANC was heading out for an RFO trip to Hong Kong with the taxi ride to Shenzen. Be sure to ask a lot of questions about stuff other than flying while in IOE.
There is no checkout program for an RFO. See above. I almost lost $100 getting to Shenzen. Every trip has it’s quirks. If you don’t know exactly how the process is going to work, ask someone senior. Everything at FedEx is scripted out but they will not tell you the script unless you ask.
The Sim in Long Beach sux. In my opinion this thing barely meets the qualifications to serve as a trainer for landing. It would better be served as a procedural trainer. So, if you have lots of heavy time and basically only need the procedural training, you would probably not have much trouble. However, if you don’t have a lot of heavy time and need a good sim to learn the difference between fast movers and heavies, this thing could be problematic. Think twice about going there, if you have a choice. I say this after flying the real thing, the sim in Memphis and ANC. I’m sure others will disagree.
If someone comes up to you and says they would like to practice their English, you are about to be taken. Saw this one in Asia and Europe. Cost me a lot in both places. You would think I would learn.
When shopping, the price you pay should be around 1/5 of what their opening price was. I know others are better at this than me, with my limited experience, so feel free to correct/instruct.
If a girl asks you to buy her a drink. Be advised you are about to buy a drink for every girl and non-English speaking person in the room. When the cops show up you will not win the argument.
Never start a tab at a bar with more than 5 people in it. See above.
The MD-11 has big wings. This becomes noticeable when you enter ground effect. From my aero class I believe this is around 1 1/2 – 2 time your wingspan. Why is this important? You will notice your aimpoint shift or the jet kind of start to float around 200 ft. If you’re on your game you, will correct—no problems. But if you’re tired, in the middle of the night, you may adjust a little late. Now you have a faster than normal sink rate coming over the overrun, just as the auto-throttles pull the power. It’s always better to ahead of the jet than behind it.
If the auto-pilot isn’t doing what you want, punch it off. I know this sounds obvious but I thought these auto-pilots were better than they are, (I’m sure it was operator error). Four times flying the line and twice on checkrides I had to punch the thing off because I couldn’t figure out why it was doing what it was doing. Hand flying is so much easier sometimes.
Flame away, but remember this is only meant as a “hangar fly” thread. Lets hear some of the other lessons learned
The ops section at ANC is on the second floor. Yea I’m kind of kidding here, but the first time I saw ANC was heading out for an RFO trip to Hong Kong with the taxi ride to Shenzen. Be sure to ask a lot of questions about stuff other than flying while in IOE.
There is no checkout program for an RFO. See above. I almost lost $100 getting to Shenzen. Every trip has it’s quirks. If you don’t know exactly how the process is going to work, ask someone senior. Everything at FedEx is scripted out but they will not tell you the script unless you ask.
The Sim in Long Beach sux. In my opinion this thing barely meets the qualifications to serve as a trainer for landing. It would better be served as a procedural trainer. So, if you have lots of heavy time and basically only need the procedural training, you would probably not have much trouble. However, if you don’t have a lot of heavy time and need a good sim to learn the difference between fast movers and heavies, this thing could be problematic. Think twice about going there, if you have a choice. I say this after flying the real thing, the sim in Memphis and ANC. I’m sure others will disagree.
If someone comes up to you and says they would like to practice their English, you are about to be taken. Saw this one in Asia and Europe. Cost me a lot in both places. You would think I would learn.
When shopping, the price you pay should be around 1/5 of what their opening price was. I know others are better at this than me, with my limited experience, so feel free to correct/instruct.
If a girl asks you to buy her a drink. Be advised you are about to buy a drink for every girl and non-English speaking person in the room. When the cops show up you will not win the argument.
Never start a tab at a bar with more than 5 people in it. See above.
The MD-11 has big wings. This becomes noticeable when you enter ground effect. From my aero class I believe this is around 1 1/2 – 2 time your wingspan. Why is this important? You will notice your aimpoint shift or the jet kind of start to float around 200 ft. If you’re on your game you, will correct—no problems. But if you’re tired, in the middle of the night, you may adjust a little late. Now you have a faster than normal sink rate coming over the overrun, just as the auto-throttles pull the power. It’s always better to ahead of the jet than behind it.
If the auto-pilot isn’t doing what you want, punch it off. I know this sounds obvious but I thought these auto-pilots were better than they are, (I’m sure it was operator error). Four times flying the line and twice on checkrides I had to punch the thing off because I couldn’t figure out why it was doing what it was doing. Hand flying is so much easier sometimes.
Flame away, but remember this is only meant as a “hangar fly” thread. Lets hear some of the other lessons learned
Last edited by Nugget#69; 08-05-2007 at 09:23 PM.
08-05-2007, 09:37 PM
#2
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,196
Someone could make a lot of money (OK, maybe at least some) doing what you just did. Those are all good points, and none of them can be found in company manuals. This site needs more of your kind of post. Thanks for contributing.
08-05-2007, 09:54 PM
#3
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2006
Position: leaning to the left
Posts: 4,184
Good stuff. I think if there was just one piece of advice I would have for a newbie...It would be that there is never a dumb question. But, there are a lot of dumb answers. Especially when it comes to scheduling and expenses. Verify, verify, verify before you do it or spend it.
That may be more than one piece of advice?
But, on a more personal note...Did you vote on the LOA, now that you're not a probie? You can get all the advice you need on that, right here on APC. About 800 pages of it
.
That may be more than one piece of advice?
But, on a more personal note...Did you vote on the LOA, now that you're not a probie? You can get all the advice you need on that, right here on APC. About 800 pages of it
.
08-05-2007, 10:30 PM
#4
Proponent of Hysteria
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: "Part of the problem." : JL
Posts: 1,053
Same here. I thought after reading the subject, this post was going to be about how if you've been here less than 10 years, etc...
Somewhat surprised to read it's about how to flare and how not to get taken by bar girls in SE Asia. (although those are both valuable lessons)
Make sure to get your Vote in if possible. You don't officially get into the Alpa system as a member until they have a meeting and input you in the computer. Hopefully you have time to get a Vote in.
Somewhat surprised to read it's about how to flare and how not to get taken by bar girls in SE Asia. (although those are both valuable lessons)
Make sure to get your Vote in if possible. You don't officially get into the Alpa system as a member until they have a meeting and input you in the computer. Hopefully you have time to get a Vote in.
Originally Posted by Busboy
Good stuff. I think if there was just one piece of advice I would have for a newbie...It would be that there is never a dumb question. But, there are a lot of dumb answers. Especially when it comes to scheduling and expenses. Verify, verify, verify before you do it or spend it.
That may be more than one piece of advice?
But, on a more personal note...Did you vote on the LOA, now that you're not a probie? You can get all the advice you need on that, right here on APC. About 800 pages of it.
That may be more than one piece of advice?
But, on a more personal note...Did you vote on the LOA, now that you're not a probie? You can get all the advice you need on that, right here on APC. About 800 pages of it
.Last edited by skypine27; 08-05-2007 at 11:36 PM.
08-06-2007, 03:58 AM
#5
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2006
Posts: 2,227
If the auto-pilot isn’t doing what you want, punch it off.
After awhile, punch off the autothrottles too. I had a captain ask if I was going to do this once - nice calm VFR day landing. I looked suprised and he said, "You DO know how to fly, don't you?"
A/T's are deferrable - yet I've seen maybe 4 guys do an A/T-off landing for practice at FDX.....
08-06-2007, 05:56 AM
#6
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2005
Position: 777 FO
Posts: 931
Originally Posted by Nugget#69
[FONT="Times New Roman"][FONT=Arial][SIZE=3] Everything at FedEx is scripted out but they will not tell you the script unless you ask
08-06-2007, 06:00 AM
#7
Beaches and Sand
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: Chasing Surf
Posts: 368
One Autothrottle off landing ended in a tail strike and it will never fly again. By the way, before you shoot the messenger, I've only done about 1000autothrottle off landings in the DC10. I'm only saying this because I can already feel the flames coming my way and I'm saying be very careful and know your audience, your day, etc before you climb that tree.
Great post though. The whole practicing their english thing cost me about 50 bucks and I ended up with metal taps on the back of my 150 dollar shoes. The cops will ensure you pay up or so I heard.
Great post though. The whole practicing their english thing cost me about 50 bucks and I ended up with metal taps on the back of my 150 dollar shoes. The cops will ensure you pay up or so I heard.
08-06-2007, 07:36 AM
#10
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: FedEx
Posts: 666
Your sponsor and your ALPA mentor would be a great resource to use to ask these kind of questions to as well. After nearly a year as a mentor for a new hire class I have only been approached one time for a question. Don't want to supplant the sponsors, but the ALPA mentors would be more than happy to "school" you on things that you have questions about.
Good on you for offering up the tips for the newbies. Hopefully we'll have some more on the property soon that can learn from some of your adventures.
FJ
Good on you for offering up the tips for the newbies. Hopefully we'll have some more on the property soon that can learn from some of your adventures.
FJ
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
