I am going to look at something else and will likely ask for a long term LOA so I can get the heck out of this place for a while. I can't think of anything more miserable than commuting to Anchorage for the next few years at half pay.

I can see myself looking in the mirror one day and realizing that I missed all my kids birthdays and ball games while I sat in a crashpad in Alaska or on some stinkin jet for 37.5 hours of pay for the month!

It sucks the life out of you here.

 

I am glad you came back.

When I got hired here 2.5 years ago I was sent to ANC, kicking and screaming! In fact I have been screaming for close to 2 years now, but I really love the job. ANC is a great domicile, with great crews and supervisors. Sure AK is far away and gets cold in the winter, but for 3-5 years it will be home. I was one of the vocal whiners about my hatred for the state, but guess what, it grows on you. In 2012 I am pretty confident I will be able to bid to somewhere in the lower 48 and let the future new hires take my spot in the great white north. I consider this all some more dues to pay.

I am sorry that you are having such difficulty in your career here, but when you accepted this job, you also knew the junior domicile was ANC. In 2006 I knew that if I got hired by UPS, I was coming to ANC; I still accepted the job. By the way, I have flown less than 200 hours this year and am going on a trip for the first time since May - without any vacation. Bottom line, I am home a lot, and so are my fellow ANC based pilots. Plus, we spend very little time in the SDF sort while drawing a pretty nice paycheck!

Our timing sucks, as since we began our employment we lost the 727, 747 and DC-8 fleets as well as age 65 and the poor economy. I don't blame UPS for any of this, as they could not predict these events.

As for our future hires, let this be a lesson for you. If you do not want to spend time in AK then DON'T apply, because clearly you will be miserable!
The good news is that we shouldn't be losing any more airplanes any time soon, and age 65 will have become a thing of the past. Upgrades will be long, but the pay and benefits are still top notch. I would recommend staying away from the SDF sort, but that is my opinion. Besides that, the flying is interesting, and linear; very few out and backs like you see in the passenger world and we still have many round the world trips which are a blast. Good luck!

 

I am a little confused. If you are bidding RDG, can't you just sit the 8 days of reserve per pay period and collect 40 hours of pay? How is spending only 8 days a month at work for $72000 a year with full benefits and retirement misery? To each their own...

 

Have you seen the RDG schedules? Not everybody is going to hold 8 days of reserve on RDG. In fact they are much worse than that and as a commuter I could/will be commuting to ANC just as much as I would have as a non-RDG bidder.

I think you example is best case scenario but you are still not even factoring in the commute which will add 2 days on each end of that reserve stretch likely.

I would love a part time job WHERE I LIVE so I could go and do something else, but the problem is I will be commuting to Alaska for that part time job.

You probably don't understand since you live there and don't have to commute. And no I cannot move there now since we just bought a house here in SDF.

 

Why would you with all the changes going on buy a house anywhere, since you are in the bottom 20%.

 

I decided to check the MD-11 VTO lines and counted all but 3 of the RDG lines had only 2 commutes for the whole bid period!!! I think you are making a bigger deal out of this, but I sympathize with your frustration regarding your move to SDF. I still have a home in the lower 48 that I have rented out because I couldn't sell it almost 3 years ago. It is also my opinion that we won't be furloughed, but it is only my opinion... I truly am sorry that this is causing you and your family such duress, and I hope that you will find some contentment with the job in the very near future (and I'm not speaking of furlough or resignation!).

 

So my accountant/financial planner, wife, parents, etc. all advise that buying a house is the best idea, but you insinuate that I am some kind of idiot for buying one. Yeah, what a crazy idea to buy a house in base!

I guess I don't have a crystal ball like you do.

 

It doesn't take a crystal ball. You have made some poor choices by listening to people who know nothing about the industry in which you work.
Which base to buy is the question to ask.

 

Ok, now two things here really don't add up.

How is it that this will be your second displacement which will put you in Anchorage, where the first displacement put you in Louisville?

Second, how is it that you claim to have bid RDG and will have to commute to Anchorage when you obviously haven't been displaced yet?

What fleet are you on right now anyway?

Lastly, I don't know one single IPA pilot that would whine so much like this and have this 'poor me' mentality.

I smell a rat here. I think he's playing games.

 

I feel your pain... but I will trade my unemployment with you.....nuff said.