Velcro Captain

I heard from a friend based in CGN that they had 8 fatigue calls during the month of January. Don't know if that was caused by the Optimizer Vortex, the Polar Vortex after it crossed the Atlantic, or a combo of both.

FDXLAG

Likely caused by pilots fulfilling their obligations to their families, their profession, the company, the people living around airports, and themselves, by not flying fatigued.

Nightflyer

Got the union message, but no details.

Can anyone PM me what happened?

He was one of my students in a former life.

CloudSailor

Very tough, absolutely unreasonable, Disputed Pairing (redundant), was the root cause...

CloudSailor

I would venture to guess that in the short term, as we continue to be less-adequately staffed for FO's (we are already there), they will build pairings that begin in MEM with a deadhead over to fly in CGN, then deadhead back to MEM. Or, they could also offer Voluntary Short Term Vacancy (I believe that's the term). But, in the long term, as more FO's leave (several more by the end of this summer), I would imagine we will need to hire into CGN. Just my guess though, I have no facts to back that up.

Not sure about the CGN base financials, but I would also guess that it has to be more profitable than Special International Bid Awards (SIBA), which were used for guys to come over for three months at a time of nice double-deadhead schedules with great layovers.

Very cool video, thanks erjpilot.

tankerpuke

Thanks for the VERY informative post CloudSailor! Information is much appreciated!

Albief15

We did SIBA for years. Not sure a few tickets are going to be enough of a cost to start the hiring machinery.....

CloudSailor

I agree... as long as there are enough spare 757 crews to send over to CGN from MEM, while getting half the productivity out of them (when compared to CGN-based crews).

CompetentFool

Sailor - what are the required circumstances for the F/Os to return? Does there have to be a posting or can they just come home after their two years is up?

gearhorn

It's a mixed bag as far as who leaves and when. Some do go right at the 2 year mark but they seem to be the new hires who came over more for the job than necessarily for the experience. Most say they would have stayed but the passover pay issue (which has recently been addressed) sort of forced their hand. It seems to me that most of us (including myself) are leaving around the 3 year point. Not because we're not having fun but because we've checked the boxes we wanted to check and it's time to move on. A few plan on staying the full 4 yr. 9 months but not many.

As for commuting, there's very few things I could think of that would be worse. Somebody said only top 10% could do it. I'm top 10% in the right seat and I still don't think it would work very well. I could go on but I would highly discourage it unless it's for a short term transition or you only need to be home a week per month.

It's a very unique experience and you need to be in a certain place in life to make it work. If you can, it's really awesome. But be prepared for some major ass-pain with the move, complete and utter lack of company support with but also flying in a base that's unlike any I've been at before (5th of my career). We support each other and do a much better job than a manager ever could. Sure the schedules themselves suck but everybody knows everybody over here which is unique in this profession and kinda cool. And then we all travel our butts off when we're not sitting in biergartens.

Not sure what more you want to know but hopefully that helps a bit. Pay, schools, rent, lifestyle, etc. there's a lot more and I could write a book but if you have a specific question, fire away.