There are 5 in the March bid pack. Not sure if there are any in training right now

The Far North Flyers
 

Come to ANC as soon as you can! It's a small base with a great group of pilots who fly mostly Asia trips. Being based there, every trip you take will have international override pay and the Maddog is a fun airplane 99.99% of the time!
Cheers and welcome to the party!
fbh

Very few (if any) hub turns too!

Way Up North...
 

That sounds like and awesome gameplan. If a new hire isn't offered an MD-11 in indoc (popular rumor is that only folks with KC-135, C-17 and F-18 backgrounds get that as an option...), how long would it take a new hire to be able to make the move?

Related...how many pilots up there commute in from other places?

I guess there must be varying shades of "hub turn" definitions out there. Does it have to be an actual sort hub to qualify? No actual "ops" area, popcorn, recliners or nightly squadron reunion means it's not a "hub turn"? If you don't leave the flight deck or the shadow of the aircraft turning the turn, does that mean it's not a hub turn?

If you fly somewhere, land, wait a couple of hours for them to swap the "stuff" in the back and fly somewhere else.... isn't that essentially a hub turn, or am I missing something?

ANC guys routinely fly:
KIX-PEK-ICN
ICN-CAN-ICN
KIX-HKG-TPE
KIX-NRT-TPE
ICN-NRT-KIX
HKG-KIX-TPE

There's also BLR-BOM-DXB and the JIB turns out of BAH are back.

While no cargo gets unloaded and they're usually quick turns, the flights between TPE and CAN with a tech stop in CRK are still rampant throughout the bid pack.

On the Euro side of things there's CDG-CGN-CDG.

On the 777 we're routinely flying from Japan to PVG and back as well as some of the same hub turns the ANC -11 guys fly in Asia and Europe. In addition, we're doing MXP-CDG-STN, MXP-FRA-CDG and even have a three leg night CGN-CDG-MUC-FRA.

My point is that going to the ANC MD-11 or 777 to avoid hub turning my be an option if your seniority allows, you're not going to avoid them simply by virtue of being assigned to those aircraft. There's not a fleet at Fedex that doesn't have some form of hub turns in their bid pack, IMO.

ANC is a great base, but it's gone pretty senior lately. It's a small base (~100 FOs), so movement is glacial. My seniority at 13 years is basically the same on the 777 in MEM as it would be in the ANC right seat (~55%). There's a well established group of guys who live there and probably will stay until they can hold the left seat. Commuter/local ratio has probably remained a pretty even split as of late.

If you're on the -11 and prefer to fly international, commuting there as a line holder is probably worth it if you can hold a single trip line or secondary. Maybe two commutes a month if you can get at least one deadhead trip. No crashpad or commuter car required. One or two nights a month in a hotel before trip(s) at $50/night in the off season (9 months a year). Two leg commute on company aircraft through IND or MEM often involving a 777 for the long leg with an unused bunk. Depending on where you live, Alaska Airlines has discounted tickets via our global travel usually under $500 (covered with the $ you save on local car/crashpad) for first class that either go direct or via SEA.

Commuting to reserve in the right seat would not be a viable option long term for most people, IMO. Crash pads were usually more expensive there, digging a car out of the snow that may not start during the winter months looked painful. Guys do it, but they usually either have no choice or other reasons that override the downside for them personally. YMMV.

So, while you may want to keep the ANC option in your cross-check, my guess is that it might not be an option for everyone who may consider it unless something there changes pretty drastically.

FedEx First Year Info for New Hires...
 

With everyone talking about bases I had a question for the seasoned aviators here.
I recently read a very good post about everything new pilots should think about getting from bags, to pens, to shirts and shoes. I was wondered if there was anyone out there that could recommended a laptop or tablet/ keyboard combination that is an overall good fit for the commuter type. Needs to be small enough to fit on a tray table but big enough to be able to review or edit documents such as word/PDF etc. Definitely needs enough storage to have lots of movies and digital books. Please PM me if anyone has a good recommendation.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If an iPad won't cut it, I've seen quite a few guys with Microsoft surfaces. Also my fiancé got a new MacBook (not a pro or the air) and loves it. It is very portable and uses Microsoft office on it for schoolwork. It however is limited in the memory department for a laptop for its price.

I'm looking at options right now...
Fry's has some amazing steals depending on your location (must pickup in store). 15.6" Lenovo with 500GB and 5GB for <$300 new or <$200 if its open or refurbed. The iPad is great but I've tried traveling without a laptop for years and the few times I really needed one, the hotel "business center was 50/50 on meeting my needs".

We have apple products at home, but dropping $$$ on a new/refurbed one for this new hire is NOT happening any time soon.

See you all soon!

I traveled with a MacBook Air for years. It was light weight, easy to connect to Internet almost everywhere in the world. Packed easily in my backpack and the "charger" is compatible with both 110/220V without any sort of converter.

My original v1.0 2008(?) MacBook Air was a bit slow but the new ones have much more ram and faster hard drives. I purchased mine before the advent of the iPad. I liked the "big" 13" display.

The bad? The MacBook Air does NOT have an optical drive (so you'll need to buy an external drive, I did) and/or download software from the Internet.