Mustang1992

I’ve noticed that most new hires are getting a mix of bases. What aircraft is pretty much guaranteed MEM base?

coryk

Airbus and 757.

Mustang1992

Thanks. Any pros and cons on flying the airbus and 75?

HvypurplePylot

No oven....

coryk

Never flew the Airbus, but spent 3 years on the 75 as a newhire. You’ll gain the most seniority over the shortest amount of time— while the 75 may not have the best flying overall, with said seniority you can have a very comfortable QOL, local or commuter. Plus no seat lock, so when the next bid rolls around, you’re free to move about as you please. Another plus, is it’s a Boeing, which is the future of FedEx. It’ll make you next training easier, especially if you move to the 76, which is just a couple days of differences training.

Braniff DC8

MOGuy, if I may. Nothing against FedEx and it’s fine folk. Great company and great group of pilot’s.

Night cargo flying will wear on you after years! It WILL take years off your life. The life expectancy of cargo pilots is like 10 years earlier than pax pilots. You won’t escape it. Sitting reserve in the middle of the night versus the day is huge.
Long haul flying starts to wear on you HARD after about 50. HARD!
Commuting to cargo is a nightmare as they usually park on oppsite sides of the airports. This adds a lot to stress. Uber late at night, good luck!
Pass travel is SOOOOO much better at a pax carrier as is jumpseating. Buddy passes etc.
You’ll tire of vending machine food!
More bases as well at UAL and this means better jumpseat and pass travel.
Volatile you say at pax carriers??? Fred will possibly replace his pilots with drones as soon as he can. Our lifetime, prob not but Fred and his pilots have had a hard relationship as well.
Having done both, I would stear you to UAL. It’d be just better overall and longterm, at least for your health.

Best of luck. Either way You’ve won a golden ticket and a lifetime supply of chocolate, it’s just how long that lifetime will be.
Say HI to Willy.

BuckeyeFlier

I would honestly like to see your life expectancy data and statistics.


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whalesurfer

Care to back it up with any statistics? You won’t because they don’t exist.

Not at purple but at brown so apologies for butting into y’all thread but as a former pax pilot I figured I should give my thoughts.
i agree with you on many issues, night flying isn’t for everyone. However, you’re forgetting that purple is a huge company and they have many fleet types and a plethora of trips to choose from. I have a bunch of friends over there, former pax pilots like myself and I know they have lots of day trips (primarily postal contract) and of course tons of night trips too.

Commuting on their own iron is super easy and getting to the other side of the terminal isn’t as tough as you make it out to be.

Drones? Really? in 25-35 years probably single pilot operation (with a copilot on the ground remotely backing the captain up) and in 40 years, sure, drones.
..but when it comes to cargo it’ll come to pax carriers within a year or two. Think passengers won’t fly without a pilot onboard? Nah, if they can save a dollar or two they’ll snap up those tickets in a heartbeat.

Again, some of your concern are valid, night flying isn’t for everyone. ..but it ain’t as bad you’re making it to be.
My best friend is at UAL (3+years) and he’s got apps with us and with purple. He knows their schedules and he knows ours as he has friends at both cargo carriers he's applied to. So not everyone agrees with your perspective.

Coffeepilot1

Ok I’ll play along with your game, let’s say drones replace pilots at FedEx UPS. You think United, DL, AA will be safer because? There’s a lot more pilots at the pax carriers which mean a lot more money to save on lower yield. Anything can happen in the future but to think pax stuff is safer is naive. If it comes it will hit the whole industry.

Thrust Hold

1) I sleep through my Reserve period in the middle of the night. It's actually when I get my best/most sleep.
2) Long haul flying is an option. Very lucrative (more opportunities at FDX and UPS), but optional.
3) Why would you have to commute to the other side of the airport? Commute into MEM on company metal or deviate from a DH and Uber/Lyft to the hotel.
4) Pass Travel is for losers. We get all of our Airline miles from our DH's. I buy my wife's tickets with miles, FedEx will buy my ticket any time within 3 days of an assignment and we make enough to buy tickets if it actually comes down to it.
5) Why vending machine food? We get catered.
6) Etc....................