FedEx 727 Flex/LCA Meeting Notes
01-24-2007, 03:03 PM
#1
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Joined APC: May 2005
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FedEx 727 Flex/LCA Meeting Notes
Just got back from the 727 Flex/LCA meeting. Here's what I got out of it:
Pilot Data Displays (PDDs)--our laptops--they passed one around for us to look at. It's a Fujitsu Lifebook T4210. Looks pretty nice... the battery died by the time it got back to me. Tablet type, with the rotating screen. Had a stylus attached to draw on the screen, if needed. 300 will go out to LCAs in the Spring for 'field testing.' Rest of the line pilots get them 'sometime later.' Partitioned into 3 parts. One personal, one for the 'blue screen' CMI stuff, and one for PAT. The big drawback I see is that apparently the HDD is 80 GB, which, if divided evenly only gives 28 GB for personal stuff. I guess we'll see how it works during field testing.
727-100 dead in July
727 EFB--we're getting it. STC install April 2007. Could possibly change, but is funded for the 727.
I haven't checked, but supposedly the PAT now had LIDO FIV and NOAA approach plates loaded on them to keep SOs in 'loop' and just in case you have to go somewhere not in the books.
727 Iridium SATLINK ACARS--was funded twice and taken away--fully funded again. The contract was awarded Sep 06. Right now the crunch is Engineering is busy with 757 stuff, but there should be a prototype in the Spring. GOCC is VERY on board with this and putting some of their money in for this. Probably happen before an all GPS fleet.
727 on books until 2014 (probably 2 years after that, realistically)
For all fleets the big push is fuel conservation. We're paying $2.25/gallon. FY07 estimate for fuel costs is $2.7 Billion ($85/second). Potential to save $81.6 million--$29.9 million from Flight Ops. You'll be seeing a lot of fuel conservation stuff in the future. For 727 ops: the new FedEx standard is 2 engine taxi. Captain's discretion, but the standard is 2 engines.
JL talk (all this is written in Jell-O... don't hold him or me to any of this)
We get our first 757 tomorrow (form US Air). Tuesday it goes into modification. European domicile Summer 2008. 8 757's in Europe. The places looked at in Europe: Zurich, Paris, Lichtenstein, Frankfort, Prague. From a $$ standpoint, Prague would win, hands-down, but not a lot to do outside of the city. Right now the rumor-du-jour is Zurich is the front-runner.
Slowing down hiring a little. Stopped M&Gs. -100's going away, which adds some pilots with no plane. M&G's start in about a month. Goal is to keep the time from M&G to interview short, and also the time sitting in the pool short.
The 757's are coming from a leasing company, but it's all a secret because the airline that owns them doesn't know that they're going to lose their lease, yet...
Big big May-June
GSO open late 2008. EWR is maxed out. Will take some stuff form EWR. Doesn't sound like EWR is closing. We'll use EWR/GSO on East coast like LAX/OAK on the West coast.
40-45 guys/gals in hiring pool--generally FIFO, but not necessarily--should all be on property in 2-3 months.
Age 60: Sounds like it'll happen 1.5-2 years from now. The interesting point is what he said about the perceived downside. He seems convinced that B-plans will probably be outlawed, and there WILL be a penalty for retiring at 60. Some percentage hit to retire at 64, 63, etc... A quote (paraphrased) "If you're 57 and think that you'll be able to retire at 60 with no penalty, you had better think again." He said it's not a matter of if you'll be able to retire at 65, but how much of a hit you're going to take if you go early...
After lunch MD & ST came to speak. MD specifically mentioned this site and the threads about LCAs/FLEXs. So... he's watching, and I hope I get the intent right. The 'discussion' lasted the better of a couple hours, and there were definitely some heated opinions out there about the SuperFlex.
This comes from my LCA perspective...
Affects flexes more than the LCAs
Two issues to tackle. Both not really interrelated.
1. 'Perceived' lack of credibility of Flexs.
2. Seamless transition from schoolhouse to line
1. Perception is that Flexs are out of touch with the line guy/gal. Sleep at home every night, make gobs of money, and only fly/bump easy trips. To fix this we need to hire more Flexs so they can get out there and fly more. And fly the lines that their seniority holds. No more bumping ICT O&B's, unless they could have held that. This is not the Superflex issue.
2. Superflex. NOT MANDATORY. Only a small percentage of Flexs will be super. Admitted the recent ads were worded poorly, and interpreted wrong. They will only be super if both parties (the flex and training/standards) both agree. These superflexes will do standard flex stuff and also give some IOE to then come back to training and fix the training to more accurately represent what goes on out on the line. There will also be some Super LCAs, which will only be qualified to give LOFTs in the sim. They will mostly be doing LCA stuff, but will occasionally come in to the sim and give a LOFT for the same reason as above. Make training replicate line flying more closely. No more "we don't do it that way out here on the line" on IOE.
Also heated discussion about Flex pay. I'm not too familiar with how they get paid, but apparently this contact took a good bit of money for them. I'm not getting into that issue. Too long and complicated, but needless to say, the changes were bad for the LCA, but good for the line pilots. Makes everyone earn equal pay for equal work. i.e. if a flex wants to earn 6 CH in a day, he/she has to strap on an aircraft and move freight. In the SIM, they earn what a line guy does: reserve day guarantee.
That's about all I can remember and all I care to type...
Later..
Pilot Data Displays (PDDs)--our laptops--they passed one around for us to look at. It's a Fujitsu Lifebook T4210. Looks pretty nice... the battery died by the time it got back to me. Tablet type, with the rotating screen. Had a stylus attached to draw on the screen, if needed. 300 will go out to LCAs in the Spring for 'field testing.' Rest of the line pilots get them 'sometime later.' Partitioned into 3 parts. One personal, one for the 'blue screen' CMI stuff, and one for PAT. The big drawback I see is that apparently the HDD is 80 GB, which, if divided evenly only gives 28 GB for personal stuff. I guess we'll see how it works during field testing.
727-100 dead in July
727 EFB--we're getting it. STC install April 2007. Could possibly change, but is funded for the 727.
I haven't checked, but supposedly the PAT now had LIDO FIV and NOAA approach plates loaded on them to keep SOs in 'loop' and just in case you have to go somewhere not in the books.
727 Iridium SATLINK ACARS--was funded twice and taken away--fully funded again. The contract was awarded Sep 06. Right now the crunch is Engineering is busy with 757 stuff, but there should be a prototype in the Spring. GOCC is VERY on board with this and putting some of their money in for this. Probably happen before an all GPS fleet.
727 on books until 2014 (probably 2 years after that, realistically)
For all fleets the big push is fuel conservation. We're paying $2.25/gallon. FY07 estimate for fuel costs is $2.7 Billion ($85/second). Potential to save $81.6 million--$29.9 million from Flight Ops. You'll be seeing a lot of fuel conservation stuff in the future. For 727 ops: the new FedEx standard is 2 engine taxi. Captain's discretion, but the standard is 2 engines.
JL talk (all this is written in Jell-O... don't hold him or me to any of this)
We get our first 757 tomorrow (form US Air). Tuesday it goes into modification. European domicile Summer 2008. 8 757's in Europe. The places looked at in Europe: Zurich, Paris, Lichtenstein, Frankfort, Prague. From a $$ standpoint, Prague would win, hands-down, but not a lot to do outside of the city. Right now the rumor-du-jour is Zurich is the front-runner.
Slowing down hiring a little. Stopped M&Gs. -100's going away, which adds some pilots with no plane. M&G's start in about a month. Goal is to keep the time from M&G to interview short, and also the time sitting in the pool short.
The 757's are coming from a leasing company, but it's all a secret because the airline that owns them doesn't know that they're going to lose their lease, yet...
Big big May-June
GSO open late 2008. EWR is maxed out. Will take some stuff form EWR. Doesn't sound like EWR is closing. We'll use EWR/GSO on East coast like LAX/OAK on the West coast.
40-45 guys/gals in hiring pool--generally FIFO, but not necessarily--should all be on property in 2-3 months.
Age 60: Sounds like it'll happen 1.5-2 years from now. The interesting point is what he said about the perceived downside. He seems convinced that B-plans will probably be outlawed, and there WILL be a penalty for retiring at 60. Some percentage hit to retire at 64, 63, etc... A quote (paraphrased) "If you're 57 and think that you'll be able to retire at 60 with no penalty, you had better think again." He said it's not a matter of if you'll be able to retire at 65, but how much of a hit you're going to take if you go early...
After lunch MD & ST came to speak. MD specifically mentioned this site and the threads about LCAs/FLEXs. So... he's watching, and I hope I get the intent right. The 'discussion' lasted the better of a couple hours, and there were definitely some heated opinions out there about the SuperFlex.
This comes from my LCA perspective...
Affects flexes more than the LCAs
Two issues to tackle. Both not really interrelated.
1. 'Perceived' lack of credibility of Flexs.
2. Seamless transition from schoolhouse to line
1. Perception is that Flexs are out of touch with the line guy/gal. Sleep at home every night, make gobs of money, and only fly/bump easy trips. To fix this we need to hire more Flexs so they can get out there and fly more. And fly the lines that their seniority holds. No more bumping ICT O&B's, unless they could have held that. This is not the Superflex issue.
2. Superflex. NOT MANDATORY. Only a small percentage of Flexs will be super. Admitted the recent ads were worded poorly, and interpreted wrong. They will only be super if both parties (the flex and training/standards) both agree. These superflexes will do standard flex stuff and also give some IOE to then come back to training and fix the training to more accurately represent what goes on out on the line. There will also be some Super LCAs, which will only be qualified to give LOFTs in the sim. They will mostly be doing LCA stuff, but will occasionally come in to the sim and give a LOFT for the same reason as above. Make training replicate line flying more closely. No more "we don't do it that way out here on the line" on IOE.
Also heated discussion about Flex pay. I'm not too familiar with how they get paid, but apparently this contact took a good bit of money for them. I'm not getting into that issue. Too long and complicated, but needless to say, the changes were bad for the LCA, but good for the line pilots. Makes everyone earn equal pay for equal work. i.e. if a flex wants to earn 6 CH in a day, he/she has to strap on an aircraft and move freight. In the SIM, they earn what a line guy does: reserve day guarantee.
That's about all I can remember and all I care to type...
Later..
Last edited by Sluggo_63; 01-24-2007 at 03:10 PM.
01-24-2007, 07:08 PM
#5
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Joined APC: May 2005
Posts: 1,273
Originally Posted by md11freightdog
Any info on the Subic base moving to China? Crew base in Guangzhou or SIBA? Any chance of replacing the airbuses with MD-10's?
01-25-2007, 04:29 AM
#9
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Joined APC: Sep 2006
Position: Vertical
Posts: 144
Originally Posted by md11freightdog
Any info on the Subic base moving to China? Crew base in Guangzhou or SIBA? Any chance of replacing the airbuses with MD-10's?
As I remember, Airbus' are coming out of Asia, and more MDs going in, which affects Asia domicile planning. I don't specifically remember MD10 mentioned. This, along with upcoming Europe domicile, Airbus coming out of Europe, uncertainty of exact arrival time of 757s and retirement of 727 -100, and age 60 rule affects planning, which is why hiring will slow down until later this year.
China domicile: Nobody knows if crews want to be domiciled in China, nor if China would allow that (probably not). Options are being reviewed. Subic to stay open as mx base.
Sounds like some things were discussed yesterday that weren't discussed in our meeting.
01-25-2007, 10:35 AM
#10
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Joined APC: Apr 2006
Position: MD-11 CA
Posts: 150
[/B][/B]
Airbus' probably in Asia for another 4 years.
I think it's safe to say that no Subic crews want to be domiciled in China.
Originally Posted by FDX aviator
In the meeting a week ago this was discussed.
As I remember, Airbus' are coming out of Asia, and more MDs going in, which affects Asia domicile planning. I don't specifically remember MD10 mentioned. This, along with upcoming Europe domicile, Airbus coming out of Europe, uncertainty of exact arrival time of 757s and retirement of 727 -100, and age 60 rule affects planning, which is why hiring will slow down until later this year.
China domicile: Nobody knows if crews want to be domiciled in China, nor if China would allow that (probably not). Options are being reviewed. Subic to stay open as mx base.
Sounds like some things were discussed yesterday that weren't discussed in our meeting.
As I remember, Airbus' are coming out of Asia, and more MDs going in, which affects Asia domicile planning. I don't specifically remember MD10 mentioned. This, along with upcoming Europe domicile, Airbus coming out of Europe, uncertainty of exact arrival time of 757s and retirement of 727 -100, and age 60 rule affects planning, which is why hiring will slow down until later this year.
China domicile: Nobody knows if crews want to be domiciled in China, nor if China would allow that (probably not). Options are being reviewed. Subic to stay open as mx base.
Sounds like some things were discussed yesterday that weren't discussed in our meeting.
I think it's safe to say that no Subic crews want to be domiciled in China.
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