FDX - More over 60 info from CQ
 

Had ground school and got a how goes it from the chief pilot here in ANC.

Very good info on how the company's doing, a few good analogies on the health of the company and a statement of no f-ing on PC's watch. Not sure why he dropped the F bomb in the letter, but he was pretty clear that was PC's intention.


I specifically asked about the over 60 individuals who had the misfortune of becoming disabled just prior to their 60th birthday, the example used was say... a shoulder injury. I asked about the miraculous progress some would be making after the rule change. Will they be returning to the front seat directly?

His answer was an emphatic "NO". "PC has stated that the only way to the window was through the panel, no exceptions." They will complete S/O training, then if they can hold it with their seniority they can bid to the window, but if they did not make it through S/O training "they would be retiring"

Pretty clear, and he mentioned JL by name as being affected by this ruling. He didn't elaborate on the who can fly together and who was a required crew member etc, over all a prety good presentation.

So that's the intel from the front office from yesterday.

blast away guys...

Can you elaborate on what was said about the state of the company, the future, etc...
tx Los

Poor, poor FoxHunter ... he might really have to go to s/o training. At least in the mean time he's getting s/o pay. I think I like that. :D:D:D

Ahhhh Yesss....Poor Poor Foxhunter.......now, if he has to qualify on the panel......then I would assume he cannot be awarded anything on any bid until he does so, meaning no front seat until bid after this one????? Poor Poor Foxhunter.........:rolleyes:

Well the jist of it was we're in a matureing state. The domestic business has matured and now we're fine tuneing it. Up to this point our company has been "running" to keep up with the growth, now we've got a chance to walk for a while. Stil growing, but a breather, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. A nice analogy that put the growth in perspective.

Our earnings are at 8.8% for Express and 13% for ground.. considering the size of each of the departments that's about reasonable was his impression. These umbers are in the magazine that came out a few weeks ago for those who want the actual figures.

Company is solid, bean counters are counting beans, rampers are ramping, managers are... well, the boxes are moving. Expansion in the international theater is ambitious to say the least. Opening two domiciles, closing another, downsizing and moving the Subic operation to Clark for service of that market, two new airplanes in the stable and the complications that accompany all these changes. A daunting task that is progressing well. The change to the 777 was due the delay in the 380 that would have left a 2 year gap in necessary lift that we couldn't live with.

Like I said, an informative briefing that seemed to cover a lot of questions that I'd had. A few issues on hiring into the domiciles that is still up in the air... one thing mentioned that anyone bidding the FDA on probation should plan on living there.

That's about all I can remember. :rolleyes:

Do you guys think your domestic flying will tend to shrink in the future, ie sending more volume by ground, like here at UPS? Definite int'l growth, but the domestic market is saturated, and with the cost of fuel not coming down, trucks have to look alot better to the bean counters.

That's not exactly right from what I could gather. If you bid a front seat and you are not a qualified S/O, you will have to complete S/O school, then as I understood it, if you have the seniority to hold it and a vacancy exists and you are available on that training letter you may go to that class date. I think the implication was letter may stretch out for a year or so. Guy's that have to complete s/o class will have a few other variables before they move up front.

Like we say about the airplanes, when it's painted purple with frieght on it and a crew headed up the ladder then it may be so... We may have to see how all the peices fall on this one.

but it will be fun to watch all the guys scrambling and jockeying for position.

That is until ol' DW and his cronies take up the fight at the union. I'm sure when he hears this there will be a few "secret dinners" with the company.

wouldn't be a conspiracy theorist would ya? ;)

Thank you,:) sir

glad I could be of assistance~ all part of the service! :D

Jagpilot,
If you wouldn't mind elaborating a little on what the issues are on hiring into FDA's and what the Chief Pilot (?) said in training about the possibility of new-hires.
I imagine the real questions/answers will come once the bid closes in a few weeks.
Just trying to stay prepared...
Thanks.

I get that management said that you will have to qualify as an s/o first to come back up front. But it seems to me that since they are trying to cut costs so bad, that this may fall by the wayside. I will believe it when it is "painted purple and sittin' on the ramp......."

Secret ALPA dinners.... should we stake out Owen Brennan's or are they going somewhere else now? :rolleyes:

The guys out there will be falling under his jurisdiction. His take on it is if you get hired to the FDA, which will be a decision made by the bean counters, you will need to live in domicile. Once you have been around the company and know the "system" and have a little judgement on liveing out of domicile you can stray more from that policy. But while on probation it probably won't be a good idea to set yourself up for a fall by trying to commute to asia.

Not to mention the fact that if you don't live w/in 100 miles you get none of the seed money or the $2700/month.

HKG on $50/hr, that sounds like fun!!!

TSD

Thanks jagplt,

Well, I can't imagine how anyone would think of commuting to Asia. That would pretty much take all the enjoyment out of the job, not to mention most of one's time off. I think I would rather get another flying job, if I was that unwilling to move. But I guess there might be those who try to do it...

CDG might be within commuting reason, but from everything I've heard, the lines won't allow it (unless you're willing to jumpseat back to spend 24 hours at home, then turn around and do it all over again :eek:).

Did CQ mention that they WILL be hiring if the FDA's are unfilled? It seems like that was what you guys were hearing in RGS a couple of months ago, but it seems to have changed lately to we will not hire for quite a while... period.

I know it's all speculation for now, but appreciate the food for thought :o

Thanks for the reply.

CS,

It would seem that if they do put newhires into the FDA that they wouldn't have to do it until the end of the training letter (potentially awhile away) so you may have some time. Hopefully by that point this will have settled out a bit and you won't have to go unless you want to. Pure speculation, but I could see a clean up bit that would try to entice a few more near-dead retreads to take the offer to get a window seat. There were a bunch that couldn't hold it on this latest go around.

Who knows, but the best of luck to you,

TSD

Maybe, but I don't think the training letter for F/O HKG will be that long, and that is the only people they would have to put in front of a new hire. IMHO:).

TSD and FDXLAG,
Thanks for the updates.
We'll see what the bid's reality is on Monday the 18th. It'll be interesting to see how close it resembles the practice rounds.

jagplt, that may be his take on it, but this ain't the military. If someone chooses to commute, and are willing to give up the $2700, then they have every right to do so. I agree with you that it probably wouldn't be the best idea, but guys could do it.

For those poolies that are considering whether or not to accept getting hired into an FDA, I would even say that it will be easier to commute from the West Coast to HKG than it is to Subic. And there are several guys based there who commute from the U.S.

If the sample HKG bidpack is accurate, there will plenty of week-on, week-off lines, along with large blocks of R-day lines. Not so different from the current Subic bidpack, except for crappy quality of the trips, and the lack of short trips.

As to how to get to HKG from the US, it's not really that hard from the Bay area. Skyguide shows that there are 4 direct flights a day on Cathay (0005 or 1205 takeoff), United (1157 takeoff), or Singapore (0005 takeoff). and, we have a flight that goes to NRT (0245 show time) that could be your backup for the Cathay or SIN 0005 flights, and can connect to HKG pretty easily.

So, it's doable, but as you said, you'd be hanging it out there as a probie if you didn't make a check in.

Throw some mil leave in and week on week off becomes once a month.

Lag,

I would have to wonder if I could walk into the squadron regularly and also be keeping all my security issues updated while living in HKG or Guangshou. It certainly is an "interesting" time.

You know this kind of chatter will invite the "hey...that's abusing mil leave" calls. At the same time...having a guy willing to hang it out for a part time job and nickels on the dollar to serve his country serves both the nation and the taxpayer pretty well. For the last 5 years, the US got a mission ready deployable F15 pilot for less than 50k a year....more like 30k most years....with no expenses of retirement pensions, medical benefits, etc. So the guys that do serve, while they may not help the bottom line of a particular company certainly do help the nation. In the Air Force or Guard, however, it is hard to always give enought--especially if you are associated with an active duty unit. My experience the last few years trying to do both was that you basically end up ****ing off two organizations at times--but you have to accept that is part of the job. Sure was fun while it lasted...

Funny thing is I made the choice to quit wearing two hats about eight months ago. I had the chance to do some non-flying stuff, but thougth I'd finally concentrate on my airline gig for a while. My back said F-15 flying was probably out, and the latest groundings of the F15 fleet vindicated that decision and have meant fewer sorties and chances for the guys who stay in...so it was the right thing to do. However, when I clicked "yes" on my online retirement app, it sure felt wierd. When I got my flight records in the mail two weeks ago, even though I had flown my last F15 flight almost a year earlier, it was still an very emotional moment. Only those guys who have walked away can understand that finality.

Point to all this? Anyone who is hired into an FDA and does some Guard or Reserve work will probably take some heat from the company at times. You'll also probably have more a$$ pain than you can imagine at your unit when you are updating security issues and trying to schedule your work around commuting across the oceans. You'll make a lot of folks irritated...

But as for me...I salute you. I did it....for six years...and had it easier than most but some days it was still DAMN hard. I'll buy you beer and say "thanks for your service". Thanks for taking the heat from your unit. Thanks for rolling with the punches from the company. It won't be easy. But you can wake up, look in the mirror, and say "I'm still on the home team" when the world goes to crap...and for me that was still the absolute best part of staying in the ANG these last six years. I won't miss the early a.m. briefs, the gradesheets, the ORIs, or the painful ancillary training squares, or having to get admin help to log on to a computer every time I can back to the squadron because the passwords nazis were out in force. But I'll miss knowing that I was an officer and warrior, and that now I am just another retired schmuck cluttering up the commissary.

Just curious - are you talking about jumpseating on those commercial flights?

I just looked in the $5000 FDX-ALPA calendar, and there's no mention of jumpseating on Cathay Pacific internationally.

I've always stuck to FX jumpseats in Asia - are we allowed/welcome on others?

If so, where's the info on "how to"?

All very good points and you know much more about the subject than I. I'll bet there might be one or two jobs that would work. I hope they wouldn't be claiming Hong Kong as their official residence. As far as people talking; as long as it is legal and moral, wgas. I certainly don't think it is abuse. Anybody still serving has my respect; a lot tougher now then in my day.

NWA and UAL both are available for jumpseating out of LAX and the Bay area (seat in the back required of course). Cathay does NOT have a reciprocating jumpseat agreement with any airline. In fact, they make their own pilots pay for an ID90 for any flight they want to travel on while off duty.
You guys are brave to consider that commute (I thought PHX-DEN got old :eek:).

Yeah, Cathay would require a deviation bank - my bad. Not sure about Singapore (maybe a Subic guy could enlighten us), but a United seat in the back should be available. Remember, I said it was doable - didn't say it would be easy.

And Albie has a good point about Reserve and Guard security clearances. Living in China or Hong Kong (which is now technically part of China) could prove to be very problematic for those guys with Secret and above clearances.