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-   -   QOL w/ Night Hub Turns (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/fedex/99809-qol-w-night-hub-turns.html)

Chris Knight 02-07-2017 09:59 PM


Originally Posted by Albief15 (Post 2296461)
Avoided hub turns generally for 13 years with good success trading trips and working my schedule. It can be done, and you don't need to move to MEM to do it. However, if you LIKE IND, ANC, or MEM then it certainly is an option.

I sort of surrendered and moved to domicile, just not MEM. The FDA life isn't for everyone but sort of combines the "living in base" with "long international layover..."

Only warning is that if your family likes it prepare to sell off all your ****. You may be there a while... I am now condemned to traveling across the ocean to ski the rockies or visit family, but the goods outweigh the bads in our case. YMMV. Several HKG and CGN slots should be opening up if interested.

Oh..and I still despise getting in at midnight and trying to wake up at 2-3 to launch again. NEVER learned to like it. A trip than ends at 0200 or starts at 0400 is fine for me, but the "turn" part of hub-turn is always miserable to me. I work hard to bid around it, and when I can't I break out a calculator and figure out how long I'd have to work in the AF or another job to make the money I'm making that morning. Then I get my coffee, say a little prayer of thanks, and get to work...

CGN is intriguing.. As for the Memphis area.. Some nice spots out east, but it doesn't match my current area of residence, except for cost of living.. I hear CGN is mostly night hub turns, I am wondering if sitting reserve minimizes exposure to that schedule.

BlueMoon 02-08-2017 03:00 AM


Originally Posted by Chris Knight (Post 2297154)
CGN is intriguing.. As for the Memphis area.. Some nice spots out east, but it doesn't match my current area of residence, except for cost of living.. I hear CGN is mostly night hub turns, I am wondering if sitting reserve minimizes exposure to that schedule.

Ran into a friend a few months back that did CGN. He is now in HKG. He said reserve in CGN went senior and he couldn't touch it near the bottom of the FO list when he was there.

dckozak 02-08-2017 04:27 AM

Back to the original question from the OP; Any night you have to stay up all night after an extended period of off days is going to be tough. Usually it is Monday PM/Tuesday AM due to system form, but it could be any night. As someone else said, you don't hear a lot of complaining, more likely, you'll just experience the quite of two pilots digging deeper into fatigue as they fly towards the end of their duty day. I don't think anyone really enjoys it, but night flying does offer similar advantages to a driver on the roads at the quietest time of the day, little to no traffic!

Gilligan13 02-08-2017 04:08 PM


Originally Posted by Albief15 (Post 2296461)
Avoided hub turns generally for 13 years with good success trading trips and working my schedule. It can be done, and you don't need to move to MEM to do it. However, if you LIKE IND, ANC, or MEM then it certainly is an option.

I sort of surrendered and moved to domicile, just not MEM. The FDA life isn't for everyone but sort of combines the "living in base" with "long international layover..."

Only warning is that if your family likes it prepare to sell off all your ****. You may be there a while... I am now condemned to traveling across the ocean to ski the rockies or visit family, but the goods outweigh the bads in our case. YMMV. Several HKG and CGN slots should be opening up if interested.

Oh..and I still despise getting in at midnight and trying to wake up at 2-3 to launch again. NEVER learned to like it. A trip than ends at 0200 or starts at 0400 is fine for me, but the "turn" part of hub-turn is always miserable to me. I work hard to bid around it, and when I can't I break out a calculator and figure out how long I'd have to work in the AF or another job to make the money I'm making that morning. Then I get my coffee, say a little prayer of thanks, and get to work...

How do you avoid night turns? Does FedEx allow reserves to pickup open trips if there is any?

Fdxlag2 02-08-2017 05:13 PM

Yes. You can usually drop r days and pick up extra trips. The 76 is not good for this as open time, to me, appears slim. And if you are a 76 reserve guy you will get called out on a lot of the really crappy 75 trips.

Dadof6 02-08-2017 07:01 PM

When I have to do night hub-turns, or start an early a.m. flight, I try to get a combat nap in the afternoon/early evening. Makes a huge difference, at least for me. Good luck!

UnusualAttitude 02-09-2017 06:35 AM


Originally Posted by Fdxlag2 (Post 2297744)
Yes. You can usually drop r days and pick up extra trips. The 76 is not good for this as open time, to me, appears slim. And if you are a 76 reserve guy you will get called out on a lot of the really crappy 75 trips.

As an FO this isn't totally accurate. I have never been able to drop an R day as a 767 FO. That being said, haven't flown a 757 since September. They seem to try and save you for 767 flying if possible or maybe I've just been lucky.

-UA

*02/16 hire
07/16 activation
Reserve every month after
48k

OKLATEX 02-09-2017 06:48 AM


Originally Posted by Gilligan13 (Post 2297699)
How do you avoid night turns? Does FedEx allow reserves to pickup open trips if there is any?

If you are asking does FedEx have Aggressive Pick Up while on Reserve, i.e., at a certain time period prior to show time for the trip, a reserve can pick the trip they want to fly instead of taking what scheduling assigns? No, we don't have that, wish we did, United Airlines has something like that.

You can drop reserve days and pickup a trip as mentioned or try to manipulate your first fly preferences to avoid a hub turn. Depending on how short staffed Scheduling is you can be successful with that to avoid hub turning.

FXDX 02-09-2017 07:27 AM


Originally Posted by Gilligan13 (Post 2297699)
How do you avoid night turns?

Work somewhere else.

Gilligan13 02-09-2017 11:17 AM


Originally Posted by FXDX (Post 2298070)
Work somewhere else.

Albie makes it sound like it's rather easy. For the 777 peeps are reserves used a lot?


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