fecav8r

Any process you have misses out on qualified pilots. How do you rate the "most qualified"? Is a guy with 10,000 hours but a total ass more qualified than a guy with 2000 F-18 hours but the greatest guy in the world. That's why I like the face to face, referral system. I dont want to leave it up to a computer to pick them, and I don't think the Delta method of interviewing 100 to get 30 is good either. By the time our guys get to the interview they have already been screened a minimum of 3 times. We end up hiring about 80-90 percent of the guys/gals who interview.

RedeyeAV8r

What kind of statement is that? Doesn't the Company (and us) want the most qualified Pilot in the right seat? and eventually the left?? I jumped ship from another LEGACY carrier to come here and quite frankly I think the Company made the right decision...

So what if the Guy jumped ship.......He was brilliant (so was I in hindsight ), Don't we want smart forward thinking Pilots?

BTW, if you are referring to DAL guys who lumped out..................you will be hard pressed to find one that left with 1.2 mil................The lump sum was a 50% reduced from the calculated annutiy.....................

I think you will find most guys received in the ball park of 500-750 grand...............Not a insignificant sum, mind you, but not exactly a fortune after a 20-25 year career.

fecav8r

Again, what does it mean to be the most qualified? And when a guy leaves a lagacy, like you did, it probably wasn't with a lump sum under your arm. It's usually after a couple of years and you get nothing in return. The guy I met that had left AA had 1.2 in his bank account when he walked. I, for one, am not interested. Is he qualified? Maybe. Is he the most qualified. Don't know.

RedeyeAV8r

Lets just say.......

I guess we will disagree on what difference it makes if a guy left another carrier to come here. The question is not just if he is qualified but is he/she more qualified. If a pilot is current on a Widebody and has vast international experience and he has a FedEx sponsor what is your point?
Who cares if he has 500k to a million in his 401K?

My bet is that Fedex is the only airline you have worked at, your attitude exudes this...........??

If MGT is going to put new hires in the most complex Airplane to fly and land (at the MOST Challenging airports around the world)................Why not put the most qualified pilots in it?

I am all for the Sponsor Program, I agree with you that for the most part it is a good thing...............That being said with 4800 Fedex pilots on the list I am sure there are 50-100 Pilot candidates who have sponsors that have current Widebody international experience and who can pass our process.

I don't know what seat and what airplane you are in...............
but putting a NEW hire RJ guy or even an F-18 pilot directly into the MD-11 doesn't make sense if you have Pilots with 747, MD-11 and 777 experience. especially with our safety record........

Right now Fedex has the luxury of hand picking anyone they want to fly here.............that hasn't always been the case.

BigWatchPilot

fecav8r...that is in my mind a dangerous mindset, excluding VERY qualified pilots because of what they might have in their bank account. Enders would have a field day with our HR practices and how we "Pick" the most qualified pilots.

I agree with Redeye...and don't you think it would be a GREAT idea to bring in other ways of doing things...might be nice to have some DAL md-11 guys and some AA a-300 guys here to give their input on what we might be able to do to "change" the way we land out aircraft.

We shouldn't worry about someone else retiring with more money in the bank...it seems a lot of that goes on at ALL of the airlines...most of these messages are about who's got the biggest _ick, this week. Is it FEDEX pilots now that we are getting 777?

RedeyeAV8r

Maybe we should hire some UAL, CAL, DAL or AA pilots with 777 experience? As long as they are poor.............

fecav8r

OK, like I started out this thread, I'm just asking questions. I guess it's just normal that if you disagree with somebody here you just start lobbing credibility grenades over the fence. Easy to do on an anonymous forum. But I digress...
I am not trying to say that a guy that has money in the bank is any more or less qualified than anybody else in the pool. For that matter why don't we stop hiring from the military and the regionals all together and just hire people from the majors who want a job and have time in the airplane. And let's just make them Captains as well. I mean, who would make a better Captain than somebody from Delta who has spent 2o years flying Int'l. I mean if we want to put the "most qualified guys" in the cockpit. And I don't think Enders gives a sh1t about hiring him. My point is that the hiring process is getting us a very high quality product and it's not the new guys crashing airplanes. Look at the numbers. The latest tail strike was done by the same kind of pilot you want FedEx to hire. Very seasoned, very experienced, lots of hours in the MD. Yeah, there are a lot of guys out there who have a world of experience. There are also a lot of guys out there on the street that have a great deal of experience. Evidently the current regime has chosen the path we are taking. When he retires here in the near future, make sure your name is on the list of folks applying for the job, then you can make the decisions.

RedeyeAV8r

1. First off who fired any credibilty grenades? I disagree with you and have a pretty good argument and .....who got defensive??
You were the one who said
"Why should we hire some pilot who quit his first career when he has his 1.2 mil lump sum" I merely disagreed as that should make absolutley no difference with respect to experience. Many of the Delta Folks who were the last to lump out were Pilots in the early 50's.......They turned out to be the smart ones. They at least got something in the bank. More than the folks who were unable to retire or decided to stick it out.

2. As far as hiring straight into the 11, that is exactly what I would do. I would atleast interview any current MD-11 pilots from other carriers first. Then I would interview UAL, NWA and AA current intl heavy drivers. Remember these guys would be the "Purple Nugget Pool " bound straight to the 11.

3. As far as putting them directly into the CAPT seat, I'm all for it. They would be junior to everyone and every NB CAPT and all FO's and SO's on property would get WB CAPT passover pay.. ...except the over 60 Pilots.

3. As far as Enders report. They auditors couldn't believe the low seniority of the FO's and CAPTs on the MD-11. They suggested the PAY should have been broken out making the MD-11 the Highest paid aircraft there by letting the seniority system work, more senior people would bid it because it would mean more pay. They also suggested a move package to ANC....... They suggested that RFO should be a "BID" position similar to how UAL did it on the 747. The RFO would be similiar to a SO.....the pay rate would be less than FO and he would ride around the system fo a year or so watching how things were done.

4. As far as applying for the SCP job or any MGT job.......if one is a KNOWN STRONG UNION supporter/organizer, their Application is promptly placed in the round file.

MaydayMark

Although I agree with the the thought process here, it's not the FedEx way. I came from a (once great) out of business airline. Several times during my first two years, I marched myself into training or standards (or mgt.) and said, "We had a better way of doing this at xyz airline." To my surprise, everyone I spoke with had the same response ... "And look what happened to them?" They really didn't want my suggestions. I thought it was a really strange response?

Mark

FXDX

That, my friends, is the sound of the hammer hitting the nail squarely in the head.

Something to really think about in light of some of the things that have happened here in the last couple of years.