NutKase

Can some of you guys in the know, i.e. employees of FedEx, with time on their hands explain in detail all the ins and outs of the bids, contract negotiations, acronyms used on this board for bases, planes, domiciles, seniority, passover pay etc.

I'm knew to the airline industry and am currently still in the military, trying to get spun up on what my life might be like at a major, specifically FedEx.

I'll update this first post as questions arise with specific questions and links to threads from where they come.

Thanks, NutKase

Deuce130

Where to start???

Pilot domicilies: Where pilots are based out of. Memphis for the MD-11 (the "Maddog"), A300/310 ("Bus"), DC-10, B-727 ("the Boeing," "Slaveship"). Anchorage and L.A. for the MD-11 only. Most flights originate out of the domicile though not all. Reserve (being on call, kind of like "alert") is sat at the domicile as well.

Negotiations: Who the f knows. It's at the NMB (national mediation board) right now. Labor disputes are an unknown to us mil types, but they can get ugly, I guess. Fedex ALPA, our union, is focusing on Scope (Fedex pilots fly fedex freight, company cannot outsource our jobs,) and healthcare. Pay is part of it, but not the major part. UPS guys are mad at us for that right now. Hopefully we'll all get whatever we ask for.

Seat Bids: A periodic bid that allows pilots to move seats. For example, a guy can go from being a second officer on the boeing to a first officer on the bus. Or from a first officer to a captain if he can hold it. Meaning if the most junior Boeing capt is seniority number 5555 and a guy has a seniority number of 5554, then he can hold it. If it's 5556 then he won't get awarded that seat. Right now, the Bus is going most senior, the right seat of the Boeing and Maddog most junior, besides second officer of course. Right now, Fedex is having seat bids around every 6 months or so, but that's not expected to continue.

Passover Pay: What you get if a guy junior to you activates in a seat that you bid for and we're denied training for before this guy. For example, you're waiting for training in the right seat of the Bus and the company hires a guy directly into the right seat of the bus and you were not given the opportunity to train before him. Also applies if a guy volunteers to be an instructor in a seat and stays in that seat rather than go to a higher seat. He's doing the company a favor and therefore gets paid for the seat he can hold. Not really something a new hire needs to worry about.

Seniority: A number assigned, beginning at 1, from the earliest date of hire to the most recent. The guy who's been there longest is the lowest number, the shortest the highest number. Seniority is everything. You bid for seats and trips by seniority number.

Hope that helps and that it wasn't too confusing.

NutKase

Duece130,

That's a wonderful start. Thank you. As I said, I'll post specific questions as they occur and hopefully this will help me and others.

NutKase

NutKase

So a most junior new-hire who might be lucky enough to get an MD-11 might be domiciled in ANC? Or, is this not possible? I know I'm missing a lot here but I'm trying to catch up.

Also, are there pay scales for now available for the planes and seats? Hec, I don't even know which planes have SO's... I know the 72 does, but...

NutKase

dckozak

What you really need to know is what type of Scotch your buddies already working at Fedex like.

Beertini

Let's see....I think there is a website that lists some of that information...what was the name of that site...umm...maybe the very site to which you are posting?

http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/a...2005030344.htm

Beertini

Ranger

Possible, just not likely. At least not today. The system chief pilot just put out a letter addressing this very issue. They have been and are still discussing how they will handle the training if they have to put brand new, off the street folks into the right seat of the MD-11. Could you hold ANC under those circumstances? Probably since that letter also mentioned increasing the crew numbers up there by about 100. And believe it or don't, LAX also goes fairly junior in the right seat of the -11. I regularly fly with people who have been with the company for about 1 1/2 years and are based in LAX. That means that a few of them went to training on the -11 in their probation year. I'll leave it up to the prognosticators out there to figure out whether or not that's a smart move.

HSLD

Many terms used in aviation are so familiar now that it's hard to remember a time when we didn't know what the mean.

If you could do us a favor and post the terms that you want defined in the Knowledgebase Helper Forum. That way, we could define the term and post the answers in the soon to be published knowledgebase (on the main site).

HSLD

LOL, Thanks!

http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com

Seems like I've heard of that site I guess it's time to put links over there from this forum huh?

FedEx1

Yeah tell us what you want to know. Half the time I don't even know what all the dumb acronyms stand for. It's a whole new language.