Busboy

Who are "they"?

So, what you're saying is the company doesn't really care if we divert...as long as it's saving them fuel?

OK then...

MD10PLT

Sorry, but I disagree. At this point in time I see no need to hurt the company. I fly fast when necessary to get the job done.

However, I do see an opportunity for a win-win situation. Generally flying slower saves gas, so when you take off 10 minutes early on a 8+ hour flight why not slow down. The company will save lots of money on gas and we get a little more money.

I'm surprised this hasn't come out as an official message yet.

I have no problem with the fuel sense program, we're all in this together to make money and if it helps I'm all for it, within the limits of safety. I do however, expect the union to bring this up during the next contract negotiations.

Daniel Larusso

To a degree, that's probably true. While the face of this stuff is pilots and dispatchers both on the line and in management, at the end of the day it comes down to bean counters. The way these types thinks is often quite contrary to the way most of us think, and there is likely an acceptable divert number relative to the fuel savings gained. That's likely not going to be admitted to us, because there is no gain in doing so.

It is curious that they didn't discover this when they did their reviews of how other airlines operate. Most of them have some sort of 'guideline matrix' on how to best handle these situations. Ie, if you're xx minutes late/early into a hub do this with CI or Mach, if you're xx minutes late/early on outbounds do this, etc. Perhaps it would officially relinquish too much judgment authority to us peons?

HazCan

I'm in the green for 817 lbs. in 2008. Like the FAA, I'm here to help.

Haz

pilot141

"They" are the fuel sense bean-counters. Fuel savings from the Fuel Sense initiative goes into the positive column; diverts (and all that wasted fuel) do not count against these numbers.

FlybyKnite

So there is no correlation between fuel sense and diverts or a leave early but arrive on time policy. There was also no [immediate] correlation between reduced potable water supplies and burned-up coffee makers either.

So who's in charge of connecting all the dots anyway??

Busboy

Ahhh yes. Of course, the "fuel sense bean counters". Is there a VP of fuel sense bean counter? How would one contact these individuals?

You guys are smokin some pretty good crack if you think this compnay doesn't care if even 1 airplane diverts due to lack of fuel reserves. Or for any reason, for that matter. I guarantee you that someone must answer for that.

Maybe, its the "low fuel divert bean counters".

pilot141

I'm not smoking anything. I'm just relaying what was said in recurrent when someone asked about where diverts go in the big Fuel Sense scheme of things.

I sure hope that someone somewhere connects the dots, but the answer that day did not inspire confidence.

JethroFDX

Not that there is enough chest beating around the FedEx property I really don't care about my fuel sense history.

Just do your job. Do it by the book or when necessary use common sense.

If the history helps the n/c (who work for us, YOU READING THIS GUYS?) then good. If cutting fuel is gonna compromise safety....I'm not with it.

Everyone is really gonna be thrilled when the alternates are removed.


Rant mode is now disabled.

kronan

Hey, if you divert early, doesn't that save several thousand pounds of gas?

Just imagine how much money we could save the company if everybody landed somewhere short of memphis