tomgoodman

I flew a lot of all-nighters from the west coast, which were probably the closest pax equivalent to cargo flying. Peaceful and hassle-free, but the sleep cycle was a problem. It was worthwhile in exchange for a long SFO or SEA layover, but most guys didn't want to do it all the time.

FR8TFLYER

Done the pax thing and now at Brown. Don't mind the flying here, but the management is the most screwed up thing I have ever seen. They run this place like you would a small business out of your garage, sickening!

SLPII

I just love it when a 20 yr old kid who is a "ramp sup" come up to the cockpit and tells the captain what to do, because he felt like he's "in charge" of the flight.

Gotta love it...UPS..whatajoke!

pig on the wing

The reserve gig at FedEx can be the cat's meow. I live in domicile which makes it really easy. Before the company instituted a reduction in our blg's I would bid reserve all the time and work very little. Now that we are assigned the same amount of reserve days for less gaurantee I choose to fly lines. Last Sept- Dec I flew only a handful of times and all were trips shorter than 4 days. Some months though you can work way too hard and would be better off bidding a line. One other downside is reserve fo's get stuck with a lot of line checks since these trips are required once a year for capts and tend to be on short 2/3 day trips that don't pay much--the scheduled fo drops the trip and it gets assigned to the reserves. Usually a non-event but there are a coiple of d-bag lca's with god complexes.

iarapilot

That pretty sums it up for me at FedEx.....almost. At least (I think) I have the best pilot job security in the non military world.

UPSAv8tr

2 words: four Billion. Thats what UPS has profited per year the last several years. Can ANY passenger carrier claim this? Love or hate this place, the security can't be beat ANYWHERE else in the industry. Before you mention the "furlough", remember, it isn't official (its been tried before and failed) and our membership will take care of our own if, in the end, they actually follow through. We always have.

whalecapt

As they say, "That's why there is vanilla and chocolate". This thread should tell the tail. One guy here didn't like flying freight but a whole lot of us do. I flew for a pax carrier prior to freight and I like where I am now a lot better.

As far as UPS, your life depends on the fleet your on and your seniority in the seat. You can do any type of flying you want. The A-300, DC-8, and 757 do the bulk of the domestic flying into and out of the night sort flying, usually week on/ week off.....your work day starts around 10 pm, fly 1-2 legs into the hub and you have 2-5 hours off. The longer hub sits include checking into your personal bunk room and sleeping a while, go to the cafeteria and eat, then back to the airplane and fly 1or 2 legs and hit the hotel. The duty days,(nights), range from about 7-12 hours. There are also hub turns, typically about a 1-3 hr flight out somewhere, a couple of hours on the ground, and a 1-3 hr flight back. The turns depart either early am or mid afternoon.

International is different. There are lines of all night flying in and out of the hubs in Asia, or Europe but also many "Fly one leg and go to the hotel" trips.
Generally, you can bid lines that are 4days on 3 days off for 3 weeks a month, then a week off, or week on/week off lines, 10 day on/10day off lines, or 2 week on/2 week off lines.

Reserve lines are either 2 weeks on/2 weeks off or 1 week on / 1 week off. There are both 90 minute call out and 24 hours call out reserves. You are on call about 12 hours a day and have to be able to be at the airport within 90 minutes of a callout or there are also 24 hour call in reserve where you call in once a day to see if you are scheduled for anything the next day.

I've done all of the different type lines and reserves at one time or another. I personally don't like the lines where you sit the night sort but there are some good deals to be had depending on where you live. The turns are nice but I wouldn't want to do them all the time. I needed to be around home a lot for a few months recently, and I bid the 24 hr call reserve. It worked great. I worked about 1 day on one of the week long reserve assignments and the other week of the month I worked 3-6 days for a total of 4-7 days flying a month. With the 24 hr call, I had plenty of time to jumpseat to work.
I enjoy flying international. 1 leg and off to the hotel in Hong Kong or Shanghai, or Europe for a 36 hr layover.....a nap and a shower and its time to meet everyone in the hotel bar for cocktails and then off to dinner.

The flying is more relaxed. Normally a van drives us from operations to the foot of the crew stairs at the airplane so no shleping bags through terminals crowded with obnoxious passegers. (I can hardly stand to be in passenger terminals anymore....the whole passenger airline expierence is so annoying that I avolid it at all costs.) When the plane is loaded, we depart.....if it is loaded early, we go early.

Most of the planes have 4-5 jumpseats with some having up to 10 seats. The narrowbodies are not too comfortable but the widebodies are decent with the 747's upper decks very comfortable, kind of like your own RV up there.

The pay is decent, FDX and UPS are still turning good profits so I don't worry about them going bankrupt. The medical and retirement benefits are good.

The management can be a pain in the butt, however once you close that entry door and are on your own in the airplane, it is a very pleasant job with a great bunch of pilots to work with. It's what you make it I guess.

There is usually 1-2 equipment bids a year, if you want to change airplanes or are senior enough to upgrade. You bid a flying schedule basically once every 2 months. If you are junior, you usually get stuck with the worst schedules. But you can bid VTO lines which are lines they make up a week or so after the bids close and fill those lines with trips that had to be dropped out of the first bid due to vacation or trainng conflicts, etc.....and scheduling also builds "reserve move up lines" if they have extra flying so that gives you a chance to get off reserve also. You can trip trade if you have something you don't want to fly in a line. This can be hit or miss depending on what trips scheduling is sitting on that are not staffed. Any trips not covered within 48 hrs of the flight are assigned to a reserve or scheduling calls guys on their days off and offers a JA (junior assignment) at time and a half pay. Of course there are all sorts of pitfalls in all this....sometimes it works out great and sometimes my schedule plans blow up in my face.

I had a week vacation on this 2 month bid and the way I bid my trips I ended up getting a month off. That is impossible to do at a passenger carrier.

SLPII

Don't brag too loud.

With what management here at UPS is throwing at us....it might not be as sweet here in a few years.

Hold our ground and don't blink first!!

abcmemphis

Golden Goose, you must be one of those guys who feels the need to wear the hat and blouse jacket while going to the grocery store.

As a relatively junior wide body capt, I tend to wave at the forklift driver as we both slip and slide in the winter, and drip sweat together in the summer out on the ramps. Then I climb a flimsy ladder where I, the mighty airline captain, continue with some conversation with whoever the loaders are hanging around, then climb into that crappy environment called my "cargo office". In my case its all purple. I'll share a quick ***** session about our French Bird and top management with the local mechanics, who are some of the best in the world. (The mechanics and I hate to admit it, most of the management team as well) By now, winter or summer, my tie is off, my hat is somewhere "lost with the CASTAWAY crew" and the FO and I are now BS'n about something really important. Like our pensions, raises, vacations and such, which thankfully are still in tact.

And even though we know in these hard times flying in the middle of the night for a reduced BLG with the potential for furloughs, we still realize, most of us anyways, that if we are going to have work for a living, flying cargo is not a bad deal with either us or those guys in the ugly brown uniforms. I was hired with 12 guys over 13 years ago. 5 of us left for greener pastures with the pax guys. I mean no disrespect to any of them or any of you who fly for the lagacy carriers, but I would'nt trade places with any one.

To say the worst airline job is better than the best freight job sounds a bit like a guy who has the T-Shirt but wished it still fit. For you to tell me my job sucks while I have friends who have lost retirements, pay, vacation, work rules, seniority in mergers, gone through bankruptcy and on and on is as stupid a statement and saying "lets have a B-Scale".

Anyway GOOSE, since I am still young and junior, it may just be I am not Senior enough to understand the brilliance in your logic. Maybe your wisdom will come to me as I age and begin to understand my job truly does suck. Just not yet.

SabreDriver

I'm fortunate at my company (World) to have both Pax and Cargo to pick from in any given month, on the MD-11.

It makes for a nice variety, but every time I fly a non-AMC pax leg, it reminds me of how much I like flying the Freighter, God Bless the Freighter