Leaderboard

Ok, you asked. Fedex 777. Mission is to make the company billions and for me grab some of the crumbs to the tune of $250K a year as a co-pilot(First Officer). Typically work 12-14 days per month either all at once with the rest of the month off or week-on, week-off. Much of that work time is soft time (i.e. not actual flying hours). Typically, I'm paid for 80-90 flight hours each month, but it's rare for me to actually have air under my ass for more than 50 hours each month. Since I'm an FO, many trip are as a relief pilot which involves deadheading around the planet in business or first class to various locations where I will meet up with the crew and act as the "free agent" third or fourth pilot on a long haul flight and then part ways. For the last 10 years straight, I've made the highest level in American Airline's frequent flyer program annually and have 1.5 million miles to use for family leisure travel. I can choose how I orchestrate my passenger deadhead flights using the company money available and any extra $$ is available for various travel expenses incurred in conjunction with any trip. Next month, I will be picked up at my house by a limo (paid for by Fedex) and driven to O'hare to begin my journey to Tokyo. My trip is due to start on a Thursday but since I'm not going to follow the deadhead schedule, I will stay home on day one getting paid. Friday, I will fly from O'hare to Tokyo in a lay flat business class seat sipping single malt and maybe catch a movie. From there, I'll take the bullet train to Osaka and have about 48 hours off before I have to work. My only flight on this trip is a 4-hour leg from Osaka to Guangzhou, China. Once I arrive in China, I'm done. I have a quick 12-hour layover and then I'm scheduled for 3 day deadhead sequence to get back to Memphis. Since I don't want to go to Memphis, I'm going to stick with the original plan of a private car driving me to Hong Kong which will get me to my first flight out. Thanks to my frequent flyer status, American has upgraded me from business to first class on my HKG to DFW flight. Once at DFW, I'll hang in the lounge until my flight back to O'hare. Once back to Chicago, another limo will take me home, dropping me off on Wednesday, 5 days after I was picked up. Since I shaved some time off my trip home by deviating, I'll be on the clock for almost 24 hours after I get home. For my trouble, I'll have about 30K more frequent flyer miles and my paycheck will be about $10K fatter (before taxes). Now the rest of the story........ About the time I'm landing in China after the 4.0 from Osaka, my family will be doing the Christmas morning routine. Being an almost empty nester, that's okay and gives someone with little ones a shot at being home. Hardly as noble as it sounds. I'm just a lazy MFer. Getting paid 10-grand to deadhead in style back and forth from Asia so that I can fly a single 4 hour flight is a fair trade off. That trip plus another for the first 6 days of Dec make up my month. So, that's one snap-shot of the Fedex 777 thing. Believe it or not, I've had better months, but this will definitely be a good one. The bad ones can be tough but with a little seniority, the good far outweighs the bad. Our bad doesn't hold a candle to the long days those of you still doing the job for big blue deal with. So, when you decide to bail, come on over - the water's fine. I usually get a paid commute via private car and first class international deadhead every month. There's lots of "Q" in the QOL and I definitely recommend it. Also, WTF is a "stewardess"?

Lotsa hate from these boyos...

I've been at United for eleven years this month. Currently a 737 Captain at LAX. Held the left seat at nine years and currently am sitting reserve at home in SoCal. I flew the 737, 757, 767 and very briefly, the 787. I have loved every minute of this job. Great coworkers, generous pay and benefits, more time off than anybody I can think of that actually has a job. My former 787 FO peeps on reserve have all grown Grizzly Adams beards. I flew with plenty of prior service folks when I was in the right seat, but it's been a real pleasure to work with a younger generation who are a little bit closer to my age, fresh off their military careers and not yet bitter and angry with the industry. And with the leadership we currently have, I am cautiously optimistic they never will! I have been very fortunate to fly with consistently high quality folks from all aviation backgrounds. I am grateful I upgraded as soon as I could. Even with the temporary commute I did to SFO and the vagrancies of life on reserve, it's been a total pleasure to be in command again and set the tone at work. I can highly recommend the ECIC prep, it really took the stress off and allowed me to just concentrate on communicating. Spend the time and money, it's worth the peace of mind and there's way too much money at stake to leave things to chance and not to come loaded for bear. Checked and Set is an excellent resource too, Charlie Venema is just as sharp as Aaron. Anybody who's got a question about UAL they'd like answered should feel free to drop me a PM. If you're in LA, let me know, we'll get together and I'll give you the fifty cent tour of the flight office. I'm immensely proud of our company and our relationship with veterans. In addition to former military pilots, I've flown with former NAVs, FEs, controllers, tank company commanders, Delta force, black-shoe navy submarine commanders, grunts and even shoe clerks. Haven't had a bad day yet.

API 1, 2, 9, flying on the line 3 &4, fly no more 5 will keep you alive 6 & 8, the flying's great

Truth.....

In other words, the staff work would be too hard?

Yep. Everyone locally here at base x was pissed that CSAF/HAF dropped that change so late. The FS/OG/WG had already worked, routed, and rack/stacked the PRFs for the year.

That's because the PRFs suspense date to the Wings were before the CSAF/Air Staff policy release.

Dear God yes.

Don't you go dying on me!

Leadership is one barrier; MAJCOM civilian staff dinosaurs are another, arguably more stifling roadblock. In one really forward thinking MAJCOM, the two star was briefied on an iPad TOLD app, pretty low cost. Totally on board. He leaves the room and the MAJCOM Department civilain says that won’t be happening because back in his day he was faster with a slide rule than any computer and that’s the way we’ve always done it. One sector has innovated since that dinosaur flew AF airplanes One has not Edit: in case you’re curious, the slide rule is more than twice the cost of an iPad.

Preferred COA: use bro-level individually issued iPads and leave all the min-req'd paper in the jets. Make students/Lts update paper.

I read somewhere that the UCMJ charge the asshole was convicted under didn't translate exactly over to the civil laws that help prevent abusers from passing background checks for a gun. So you may see a change to the UCMJ to help fix the glitch. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, thousands of billable hours are being spent reporting crimes to civil databases. I can't wait to see MyIDcare ping a bunch of nearby sex offenders. Out