Originally Posted by busdriver12 (Post 1981627)

I should have read the initial post more carefully. But that's a little odd, vacation only pays about 62% of your average duty period? So when I put that in my calculator, it looks like they are only paying you about 21.6 full days of vacation at the max. Three weeks, that's not right.

Though with the type of trips that some of us fly, we might need our vacation a lot more than you guys!

Originally Posted by ShopTalk (Post 1981331)

An oversimplification in many regards. The dynamics of Fedex pilot scheduling and the total contractual pay rules are extremely complex. The simple fact is that the gross erosion of FDX work rules under the "Optimizer" over the last 10+ years (which in my personal opinion rises well above the level of deliberate physical and mental abuse of pilot employees), is now filling body bags with Fedex pilots on a regular basis. Ask Fedex how many of it's pilots went to bed in a hotel and never woke up in recent years, or about the many pilot suicides. Many years ago I chose Fedex over the option to go to Delta. I would not make that same career decision today for scheduling related health reasons, and I never recommend a career at Fedex to any pilot anymore, although virtually none at 2nd line carriers ever express an interest anymore anyway.
Example: Think about being sent to work on Tuesday at 2am for a 6 or 7 hour shift, then again at 7pm that same night for a 6 hour shift, and then again the very next afternoon on Wednesday at 2pm for a 6 hour shift. That's reporting for GRAVEYARD shift, NIGHT shift, and DAY shift, in a 36 hour period and maybe only making about 9 hours pay for 3 different work duty periods while destroying your health. This happens FREQUENTLY in Secondary and other Lines. What other employer does that to their employees and gets away with it?

Originally Posted by busdriver12 (Post 1981373)

Suicides? Many of them? I haven't heard of a one. Perhaps you could PM me who these many pilot suicides are.



You are either exaggerating, or not a FedEx pilot. We have some ugly pairings, but in twenty years, I've never seen a pairing like you describe, that pays only 9 hours, nor works as you describe. And you say this happens frequently?

Though we have some ugly trips at FedEx, one lovely thing we have is an active trip trading system with the computer. If it's ugly, and you don't want to fly it, if staffing is good enough, you can drop it. You can often trade it for something better. In twenty years, I have never flown a trip like you have described, and I can only think of a few that I haven't been able to drop or trade off of.

I find it curious that this is your very first post. We have had a number of first time posters posting odd things in our TA forum in the last couple of days. Wonder why.:confused:

Originally Posted by ShopTalk (Post 1982905)

I don't get paid to educate a naive senior FDX pilot on the reality of lower seniority pilots secondary lines as they exist when issued to junior pilots. I never said "pairings," I said secondary lines... pay attention. Additionally, if you are so naive as to not be aware of the many pilot deaths in hotel rooms and by suicide, I just can't help anyone that naive. Get a clue and do some personal research.

Originally Posted by ShopTalk (Post 1982905)

I don't get paid to educate a naive senior FDX pilot on the reality of lower seniority pilots secondary lines as they exist when issued to junior pilots. I never said "pairings," I said secondary lines... pay attention. Additionally, if you are so naive as to not be aware of the many pilot deaths in hotel rooms and by suicide, I just can't help anyone that naive. Get a clue and do some personal research.

Originally Posted by Molon Labe (Post 1981407)

My goodness Curly! You certainly get around!!!!

Originally Posted by Rum Runner (Post 1982916)

I'm FDX pilot that often gets secondary lines. I too, have never had any of the pairings/lines that you describe or heard of these suicides and deaths that you speak of.

Originally Posted by Carl Spackler (Post 1983152)

Apologies to the FedEx guys here. ShopTalk is not a FDX pilot, he's a well known guy here that works hard to lower our expectations as Delta pilots. ShopTalk is just his latest screen name. Your contract at FDX is very damaging to his thesis, so he has to find ways to say how bad you've got it. It's all he's got.

Carl