Anthrax

I was quite serious as well, I think. However, I do appreciate your thoughtful response, Little Cub. Beats the hell out of trite sarcasm, I think. And I do believe that the interest for this profession is waning in light of recent events. Bankruptcy and such, and boards like these where young souls can read of the myriad failures of commercial aviation. Go to dental school, I always say, and buy a Little Cub. I particularly like your point about abuse, and as the recipients of such abuse we become tolerant if not trapped. We are the spouse who years hence look back and wonder why we put up with it. Perhaps we will only remember the good times. That black eye was out of anger. It was even my fault.
Have another gig lined up. I like that as well. It's a personal philosophy of mine. It's comforting, for sooner or later, I believe, the corporate hand will reach out to slap the **** out of me like so many others before. Currently, the abuse is manageable, and mostly my fault.
I think.

Cubdriver

I actually deleted my second post because I was not sure which 121 carrier we are talking about on this thread and I did not want to annoy anyone. I hope the OP finds a solution that saves their job and at the same time maintains a reasonable (and legal) degree of safety.

DLax85

....... +1

HazCan

It would be nice if ONE of these no-load managers we have at FedEx would admit one shred of culpability in any of our incidents. Here's their weekly emails: "You guys suck and need to be more professional, be more rested, be better pilots, get it together..., etc, etc, etc. While you are doing that, we are going to keep shoveling more **** at you, keep ratcheting down the schedules and continue these comms because we are certain they are helping you."

Love,

VP of Scooby Snacks

JamesNoBrakes

Yeah, not completely realistic solutions, but you also have to somehow put your foot down. Make your plight known, take a stand, etc. There are many ways to do this and while it takes creativity, it is possible to do it.

Busdrivr

Maybe PBS will solve our fatigue problem. Seems that's what the company thinks.

pipe

I'd love to see what would happen to pairing construction, legality, etc. if ALPA would insist that the company use a historically accurate sort down time for the night hub turn - as opposed to the known falsehood upon which all of our schedules have been built. That alone would cure a lot of fatigue ills.

Pipe

MD10PLT

Ok we all know FedEx doesn't have the best safety record. However, I contend it's not as bad as it looks. Here's my thesis, we all know the MD-11 doesn't fly right, so take these accidents out of the picture and our record isn't much worse than other airlines.

With that said, does anyone else find the timing of all these "straighten up and fly right" messages curious. It seems to me they all started right after the ASAP/FOQA programs started. Just a thought, has anything changed or do they just have a better picture now, with all the increased data?

JNYVEGAS

We all know the MD-11 doesn't fly right? Speak for yourself Kemosabi! Almost 12 years on the plane and I have not found it to be "not right." You see how many events are being written up in ASAP that really don't belong there? Have we become a force of CYA and write up everything that comes up in flight, where ASAP isn't appropriate? Looking at the list of recommendations posted earlier, we are mixing issues. If you are fatigued call in fatigued. Don't pick up DPs because we ought to stand united with the scheduling group....good luck in Memphis with that happening!! Picking up a DP doesn't make you fatigued and dangerous. If you make an error that is fatigue related, write it up as such and figure out if you are really rested to do your next duty assignment. Throwing barbs at an inanimate object as one of the causes of our woes is not the answer.

DLax85

What is the "inanimate object" you speak of...??

Why are DPs labeled DPs?

I'm pretty darn sure because the SIG feels they are fatiguing --- especially if they were allowed to be combined with other trips in normal line discussion

The fact DPs exist shows that there is a clear disconnect between what line pilots, via the SIG, find fatiguing and what the company finds fatiguing