Do you ever go and do a Drill or TP while on reserve at Alaska? If you do there"s your sign.

I interviewed 6/6 and everyone in my group got assigned a class date by 6/20.

New FDX Question
 

Does flying a regional jet at a Part 121 Airline count towards this, or does this refer to crew of 3+ international?

Thanks!


New Question:

51. Regarding civilian flying experience: Do you have at least 500 hours of multi-crew* flight time? *time required by regulation or required by aircraft type certificate to be multi-crew.

Yes/No

I think multi-crew in ICAO and FAA parlance in this instance is more than one pilot to operate.

Anyone getting interview invites..?

I got an invite on 1 July... Feels like a dream.

Awesome, congrats!

Don't get eliminated!

Just curious, but could you expand on what makes the FedEx system better with regards to commuting compared to a pax carrier?

We have many trips in which the operational legs start or end or start and end with deadheads to an outstation (not your domicile). FedEx buys you an airline ticket to and from your domicile to those starting and/or ending points. You are then allowed to cancel those tickets and buy a ticket from anywhere to/from those points. The only caveat is that if you spend more on your tickets for the month, you will make up the difference. There are slightly better provisions in the new contract with the bank money, but you don't need to get worried about that now.

So, as a commuter, once you can hold those deadhead pairings, you can airline, at the companies expense to your trips and then back home.

Also, if you live near an airport that we service, most of the flights are one leg to and from Memphis. This also makes commuting easier and quicker when you need to start or end a trip in Memphis. There are some cities such as Denver and Atlanta where we have a lot of pilots living. This can make those jumpseats harder to reserve.

There are many nuances but that should be enough information. It works well, so well that we now have a greater percentage of pilots that commute than live in domicile.

Single departure lines are perhaps the biggest difference from someone coming from a regional or even a major for that matter.

The MEM MD-11 and 777 bid packs have lines that consist of a single 12-13 day trip. You do one of those and you're done for be month.

Thank you for the explanations on that.

To be clear, if you hold a line that allows for dh to your trip, are you losing that time at home just the same as you would if you were a non-revving commuter getting to/from work?

You get paid full block for the scheduled DH from Mem to XYZ. If you are DHing to your home you get the hours sleeping in your own bed. If you live in DC and have a DH to EWR you leave when you can to get to EWR 8 or 12 hours before the operating leg. If you live in ABE and have a DH to LAX it may take you 8 block hours to get there but will only be compensated the 5 hours it would take to get from MEM to LAX. You have to check in when you are in position (100NM) to operate the first leg.

Nice to see a friendly face! They need to bring that show back. The rotating surfboard of death was before its time.

Right you are, Ken!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AZFlyer (Post 2156358)

Thank you for the explanations on that.

To be clear, if you hold a line that allows for dh to your trip, are you losing that time at home just the same as you would if you were a non-revving commuter getting to/from work?

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Maybe a different way to say it is:
You get paid for the trip as if you flew it as scheduled, actually deadheading out of and/or into domicile. Nothing you do during a deviation affects the pay.

If you have a trip that starts with a DH to the city in which you live, you stay home until you need to depart in order to report at your local airport one hour prior to the revenue flight. If that is 15 hours after the trip technically started, then you get 15 extra hours at home while you’re already “on the clock”. It’s not a normal practice to have a trip built with a DH right into a revenue leg in the same duty period. So, there is usually a legal layover between the deadhead arrival and the outbound duty period.

If you have a trip that starts with a DH to another city, then you do whatever is necessary to be in that city no less than 8-12 hours prior to report for the outbound revenue flight (18 hours for intercontinental DH). Depending on the circumstances, you may have to leave earlier than when the trip technically begins, or you may capture some extra time at home. Either way, the pay starts when the trip begins on paper. I think most guys leave themselves some backup flights as they would for a normal commute. The nice thing is there isn’t the threat of a last minute bump off the jumpseat since you have a ticket.

Fedex is hand-picking folks for the MD11. With carrier or heavy experience. You won't have a choice but to decline and risk picking from what's available the next day because the MD11 guys class up a day before.


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Have you heard anything yet? They wait until two weeks before class date start to notify you.


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I got an invite to the class on the 26th because they had someone drop out. As far as I know, the rest of the guys I interviewed with are still waiting for a class date. I got the call about a month out, so other guys in the class must have had even more notice than that.

Adler and FDXLAG, thank you, that definitely helps me understand your system better, though to be honest, I don't think I correctly posed the question that I was curious about based on your responses involving pay/compensation/required lay-over rest for this system, etc. (though it's definitely interesting intel).

What I should have asked was: Do the scheduled dh's affect the number of scheduled days off per month compared to a guy who doesn't have to do any commuting at all?

If you have to be in position 8-12 hours or whatever prior to your operating leg, my reading of this is that you are losing days off/time off at home just the same as a typical pax carrier guy would who is commuting in for his trip, but the upside with the FX system is that you're not sweating it out hoping for a free seat on board your commuting flight.

Am I in the ballpark now?:D

I've been in the airline biz for about a decade now, but I've only just started flying for the airlines, and I live in base, so the in's and out's of commuting in general are purely academic to me. I swear I'm not actually mildly retarded. ;) Thanks for indulging my curiosity.

I guess you're in the ball park. There are some nuances to the various scenarios, but there are times the DH trips have the potential to get you some extra days off. But the main thing to correct you on is that you're usually not losing days off with the DH trips.

The footprint of the DH trips include the DH and the time required to be in position prior to operating. Look at that time period like the first leg of a trip beginning in domicile through the end of the first layover. You're just not operating the first leg (and if you live where the trip deadheads to, you're already at the layover). So if your schedule was Mon-Sat, week on/week off for a month, you'd have two 6-day trips (12 days of work) scheduled that month. Say the two trips were identical with a front AND back deadhead. If you lived in the city you were scheduled to DH to Monday morning and DH from Saturday night, then you would have most of Monday off before going in that night and be home Saturday morning with no further duties. Are those bookend days technically "days off"? I guess it depends on you. Most guys will be trying to bank some sleep before going in Monday night and will probably be messed up most of Saturday coming off a week of nights. But, you're home, getting paid. So, some might say they only worked 8 of the 12 scheduled work days, since they were home most of Mon/Sat for each trip. On your calendar, the trip will go from early Monday to late Saturday, so you decide.

If you're deadheading to/from another city with the same schedule, you're correct. You're probably not getting extra days off. However, you're not losing scheduled days off either. You're getting into position on the days you're actually scheduled to work rather than using real days off. So, the above scenario would still result in 12 days of work with little to no time away from home that isn't true paid work time.

Commuting to MEM to start a non-DH trip may require burning part of a true day off, unpaid, the day before the trip starts just like a pax guy on a non-commutable trip. Clear as mud?

That actually cleared everything up for me quite well! Thanks for taking the time to explain it. It sounds like a valuable aspect of your contract that is worth sustaining.

I've still got a good bit of flying to do before I'm competitive for a gig like FedEx, but learning about these sorts of details is valuable as I continually shape my long-term goals around the intel I gather.

Cheers!

Huge thread, so forgive me if this has been answered. On the application, it asks about willingness to accept either the Hong Kong or Cologne FDAs for a minimum of two years. If I choose no, am I ruled out? Both commutes would be near impossible for me, and my wife has a serious medical condition which precludes us from moving. We must stay where I live currently as she needs a reliable support structure in place since I am of course gone for long lengths of time.

pressoff,
Nobody can force you to take a fda assignment, it just might delay a job offer (no guarantee since we are short in every seat). Good luck!

Which aircraft should I bid??
 

I'm starting class @ FedEx July 12. Today was my last day at SWA. I live in PHX and I'm looking to commute for now. I'm not nailed down to PHX, but I plan on staying (long term) in the 4 corners states since they are home to me. I'm hearing all fleet types are short of pilots. I'm not eligible for the Md-11, so considering an initial commute from PHX, which remaining fleet type would provide the best quality of life for a commuter from the southwest? (Most rapid movement up the list in the right seat?)

I flew the 757 at another carrier previous to SWA and miss the plane. I wouldn't mind being assigned that aircraft. Last 4 of my SSN are quite low, so I'm guessing a 757 assignment is a very real possibility.

Thanks!

Welcome. Go to the "I quit SWA" FB page when you get a chance. Lots of guys I know are asking about leaving SWA to go other places, so I started a place guys and gals could swap info without the prying eyes of SWA HR....

Thanks Albief15. Request sent.

Congrats The Duke, how long was your app on file before getting invited for interview?

Depends how long you want to be on training pay and how long you want to extend your probation. Some 777 and Airbus guys are finishing IOE before some of their classmates start 75/76 training.

Would you expand this thought for some of us duller sticks in the pile? Is probation based on hours versus a calendar period? Pros and cons?

Probation is based on your time to complete the training course in your assigned/chosen airplane.

So if you take longer to get through training, you will extend your probation.

The good news is that 2nd year pay clock starts the month of Basic Indoc.

Approx. 1 year, but I did not update regularly until several months ago. I did about 4 or 5 updates in the span of about 1 week and then got the invite, FWIW.

I only really know one person at FedEx, he was my sim partner from SWA. He was my lone reference, but I think he helped get my foot in the door. He has already been awarded 757 captain at FedEx and activates in 2018.

Although not the duke- I'll reply as well. I had an app on file for 4 years and started updating monthly about 4 months prior to the call to interview- zero internal references.

Thanks guys.. Update a little more frequently then...what'll hurt..

I heard directly from the source that otherwise qualified apps (when pulled) get dumped if they haven't been updated in 45 days. Of course this could change, but I would update at least once a month.

I know for a fact they look at update frequency. I would do it a certain day of the week every week.


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FedEx Hiring
 

I update every couple of days for months. Regional lca. Nothing.


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Application
 

Hi there everyone. Can anyone tell me where to apply for FedEx pilot position? I do not see it on the website

Question about Pilot Credentials in general and FedEx specifically (I tried a few different forum search keywords with no luck...apologies if this is out there and I couldn't find it):

Where/how are professional development-type training and education items listed? Things like AF Safety school, professional military education like SOS, formal flight training upgrades, etc? Airline Apps makes it obvious, Pilot Credentials not so much. Thanks in advance for the help!