Oh brother!! You guys are too much! You're living in lala land.

MG2
B-777 (ret.)

 

Wow. If it's not single seat, single engine and capable of accelerating in the pure vertical, it's just an income generator to me. My income and the company who owns it.
Back to why people stay on the 75.... Hometown flying is a big one. I've flown with several guys who sleep at home every night. They are senior guys with their high five tucked away, all the international adventures filed away, and now they stay close to home to maintain their health and work on hobbies. There isn't an easier job at Fedex than flying day lines in and out of your hometown airport. Conversely, there isn't a worse job than some of the junior 75 lines, bouncing through towns at night that shouldn't even have airports. The senior side of that explains why some guys stay on the 75 when they could easily go somewhere else. And the junior side of that explains why some guys would rather hang out in a widebody right seat than move to the left of the 75. I've been extremely junior on the 11 and very senior on the 75. I like flying around the world but given those two options I'd take the senior life on the 75 in a heartbeat. It's the healthiest I've ever been flying at Fedex.

 

One of the challenges with this bid is that pilots excessed off of a WB 2 years ago can now bid back to a WB at 40'ish percent. That is a hard reality to absorb as it just doesn't make sense...add to that the length of this training letter and the water is even muddier.

 

I hope I don't regret this.....but, Im gonna take the partial pay raise from WB FO to NB Capt. My seniority will drop from 50% on the MD-11 FO to about 55% on the 757 Left Seat.

I hope it makes the job more interesting and puts in a little more coin in the pocket. I can hold the MD-11 Capt MEM or Capt Airbus MEM....but the seniority will blow----hoping to avoid commuting to MEM for Reserve and eating Christmas dinner at Corkys. If movement up the Master list continues....3-4 years down the road, I will make the jump to 50% on the fat airplanes.

Good luck to all.

 

As a commuter, that is exactly how I would it. At 50% 57C you'll find plenty of DDH opportunities if that's your preference. You opened up a good discussion.

Welcome to a different airline within FedEx.

 

Rock...good point on hometown line. I've never had one, and closest FedEx city was 90 miles....which on a hub turn might as well be 900 miles. I didn't become an airline pilot to stay in my own bed every night, but I don't fault those who do. Good gig for those who can do it and want that life.

And I had a jet that would go straight up once...dug it. Like little ones with props. Still like these big ones too, however. But I am a bit of a plane geek...

 

I never flew an airplane that goes straight up, and I still enjoy a sense of awe at what we get to do for a living. I don't necessarily have my own poetic verses to back it up, but I really love what I do, and see the 757 as an amazing machine I am privileged and fortunate enough to operate. I felt the same in light GA singles and twins, turbo-props, and commuter jets (maybe not the Airbus though ). Much more than a J-O-B to me.

Along those lines, took my son to watch "Living in the Age of Airplanes" yesterday at an IMAX, 2D. Narrated by Harrison Ford and cinematography by National Geographic. Happy to see that FDX has a nice little segment in there as well. Very cool film. Puts our 200,000+ year human history, and what airplanes have meant to it, into a really neat perspective.

“The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.”- Wilbur Wright

“The Wright Brothers created the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages, ideas, and values together.” – Bill Gates

 

My $.02.

I made the move from senior 777 F/O to 70% 75C. I'm now in the mid-40% range starting to get week on week off DDH, supposed to make it to 30ish%.

I'm making the move to the 777 left seat at 100%. The reasons are 2 fold. 1.) I'm tired of hub turning even with the short legs. It just doesn't work for me. I like the international life much more 2.) I plan on retiring, good Lord willing, in 10 years. This will be my last training cycle and I'd rather get the process started sooner rather than later.

I've gone from 3 to 4 commutes to 2 commutes but its getting much harder to do that. The 75 bidpack a lot of options and I just don't like them anymore. I'd just rather sit reserve on the triple than hub turn in the 75.

 

Welcome back


My $.02.

I made the move from senior 777 F/O to 70% 75C. I'm now in the mid-40% range starting to get week on week off DDH, supposed to make it to 30ish%.

I'm making the move to the 777 left seat at 100%. The reasons are 2 fold. 1.) I'm tired of hub turning even with the short legs. It just doesn't work for me. I like the international life much more 2.) I plan on retiring, good Lord willing, in 10 years. This will be my last training cycle and I'd rather get the process started sooner rather than later.

I've gone from 3 to 4 commutes to 2 commutes but its getting much harder to do that. The 75 bidpack a lot of options and I just don't like them anymore. I'd just rather sit reserve on the triple than hub turn in the 75.[/QUOTE]

 

Thanks, it feels like I'm going home!