AirGuardianC141747

To be specific: The FedEx restructuring labeled as Drive and Network 2.0. More concerning would be the latest initiative “Tricolor” to create focus on three specific areas of operations to further utilize or maximize operations. Any thoughts from those at Purple on how this may affect QoL overall? May have little impact on higher seniority, but the low hanging fruit may feel some pain - or not. Just gathering info for my fellow flyers who were leaning towards Purple path or perhaps Purple, Orange and White Path now.

A ton of restructuring going on and efficiency measures being implemented within the cargo industry. Granted, some were self inflicted with the cash cow expansion, but there is much going on with optimization of the box hauler outfits. Actual cuts, keystroke cuts and boneyard routes are increasing this year. Some replacements for sure, but nothing pertaining to extreme growth at this time.

Ryan Air also cleans the aircraft once at the end of the day. Imagine that… It might have been at the beginning of the day if at all…

Just like someone else had found before me on their model above - I found a set of Atlas Air Decals for my model which sat at my desk expressly for one of our “Supreme Leaders” at the wing who wasn’t happy a bunch of us bailed to Giant well over a decade ago. Granted more than half have moved on, but I enjoyed the frowns back in the day.

Exactly, grounded for life = not even as a passenger (just me talking.) As villains say: “You know too much!” Uber with passenger cage only perhaps. Personally, don’t care whatever you’re going through there are always signs when we need to pull up. Precedent is everything especially for an action that was coherently executed even if it was supposedly mushrooms or anything else. Consequences/accountability are what’s lacking these past few years. Rant of fact over.

Sounds like a very accomplished career well spent in the correct seat vs desk time. Well done. You may miss the viper, but not the runaround, queep and Tom foolery. You will miss your squadron mates, but you have witnessed how things change rapidly and nothing will be like yesteryear. Now you will be on a salary minimum guarantee with expandable income based on multiple contract sources and play according to your schedule requirements. Whole new world.

Out of curiosity - Are you a year out from retirement or commitment? Either way congrats on capitalizing on the opportunities available and very good timing whether it’s the check of the month club or being caught and now released. Welcome to a whole new world of personal benefits and adventure. Easy compensation, easy life and quality time at home or abroad or both. AA like the other Majors has that variety that you can find your niche immediately or with some time served. Narrow or Wide = options if needed. *Hopefully you don’t have to remind yourself of previous work to realize you have a sweet gig 🤗

Haven’t seen this distance between two waypoints…ever. Ya’ll may have, but it was new to me. Well, it’s Canada soooo…. CPDLC rocks… and delayed fuel score saved ink.

Just playing catch-up reading this thread. Nothing new regarding the EM jamming, but I will say it has become rampant due to the war issue as mentioned. Flying Westbound a couple of weeks ago just under the “No Operation Zone” passing over the Black Sea from Georgia to Bulgaria the jamming was rampant. Used VORs to ensure everything was copacetic and it was. *Apologies for the circle back, but I actually had to work a bit earlier this month to get back for Turkey early. The next two months will be very lean work escaping the holiday mash thankfully. What an ugly time to flesh peddle.

YGTBSM. That’s also looks like one of those light show yo-yo’s, better to distract the operator away from their current environment. What a stick it too you gift!

Makes sense. Kind of like FedEx. If it’s not an exceptional TA the company wins every time. You sign it now and company gets the reduced rates, benefits or bare minimum gains. If you don’t sign the company remains at current rates and savings so it definitively delays the process longer maybe even 2 years or more. Just a cyclic event nothing new.

Might as well strike right now as airports are hotels already. Although not their fault, can’t imagine many smiles to aircrews aside from your gate your serving/maybe. Summer Slog Scare Fare Fest every year - known holiday mess forever, but it pays the bills. *Pool time, it’s too hot just to be grill’n. Can’t imagine this weekend goat rope.

Good point on downplaying certain aspects of the jobs as we all have our justifications. Either night flying isn’t so bad, sorts are OK, pax aren’t a problem, FA’s are pretty good for the most part, terminals are easy and not too crowded, TSA and KCM is a easy benefit, etc. Overall, constant nights suck, Sorts suck, Pax suck on or off the plane, some FA’s as well as bad Capts and FO’s suck, crowds suck, checkpoints suck, switching planes suck, etc. We all have our priorities and mitigate or sacrifice ourselves to BS to ensure our desires are met. Whether it’s the $$$, schedule, base, home time, travel opportunities, type of flying I’m sure we can all agree that no one wanted to fly Pax or fly the Sort as a dream come true. It was something else, we are just dealing with it. Some do better than others no doubt. Although I do very well it’s obviously the lifestyle (Rt seat senior) and not the coin that keeps me away from Sorts, Pax, Domestic Groundhog Day, undesirable long trips away (better trips and a couple of weeks max or split up), etc. *I sacrifice left seat pay as I could not pick any extended time off, great globe trotting trips and highest paying trips as needed. Flying around hardly in uniform (T-Shirt, etc) and never being confined away from your bathroom, sleep quarters, bags and consumables is priceless. It’s not the pax as much for me as that dang door. As you age you will understand. Everyone’s priorities are different so I planned ahead and got lucky for me specifically.

After talking to a few of my Purple friends it seems the rip between the younger or those with more than 7-10 yrs remaining and those with 7 years or less being closer to retirement (approximately) has undoubtedly occurred with said contract. Say No for a better deal with a possible 2 year delay vs take the increase and run out the door. Understand the issues for both and overall it’s not that simple, but realize the company wasn’t stupid in their strategy for winning either way. *Also, folks were starting to trickle to the Majors etc., but it has become more apparent as some aren’t even showing for indoc so I was told. The current push from a few others within purple walls is for those with less than 3 years on property or maybe a bit more is to bail. Hiring has obviously halted so there most definitely will be some exodus. Too bad as we were hoping it would be a great contract and drag others up. Delta did well, but a lone wolf doesn’t help much versus a pack in this industry. Patiently waiting for the former leap frogging events of yesteryear. Fedex maybe turning into a different creature despite their incredible effort during the Rona. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. F. Smith’s replacement is a piece of work from an outside view.

Wow, that’s a very fortunate outcome. Later on after the issue at hand, it seems another controller takes over which is common practice after such an event. Thanks for sharing both the flightradar24 and the audio.

Ha, totally reminds me of British Airways Flight 268? LAX to LHX (London Heathrow) across the Atlantic. Compressor stalls or something shut one down and continued all the way across the big pond on three engines. Certified yes, dispatch said go ahead, ended up in Manchester I think. $$$ drove that decision making process. Can you believe saving some cash regarding fuel dumping, but really a $250K plus fine for European airlines new regulation delaying five hours or something might have been incurred. 2005 quite a awhile ago… *At least SmartWings had some concrete options. Not saying it’s smart!

Good point. Besides JFK, ORD, LAX, MIA and many others - try overseas adding to the confusion to include language barriers. I guess some outfits/aircraft will not let the FO taxi like we do in the 74. Captains may have the authority, but I will not hesitate to stop a bad situation if it comes down to the wire. Staying alive to explain is better than the worst alternative.

Just get the ride and you can be the Pied Piper of what you seek so I’m told. (Do not be the one from Germany)

True, but with his bamboo eye socket spoon, wooden fork and paper straw spitballer complete with a “bullet button.”

Good for your buddy! Before email life was simpler in a few ways. Wished I never had email when it first started out in the military so the bosses had to actually have the cojones to give me orders or directives in person vs shucking them out like a pez dispenser with no forethought. I know it’s been the norm for a long time, but those first few years were miserable coming back to work after a break and those who rarely worked passed the buck to those who did… Worst leader ever: “Didn’t you get my email…?” Douchebags!

Guarantee it would sink rather than float, make your own assumptions. This would start a rash of new earthquake Tunnel Beach T-Shirts. Reminiscent of the “Menlo Beach” T-Shirts decades ago when I visited Menlo Park in the late eighties. Residents were sarcastically hopeful the “Big One” San Andreas fault line would hit and they would have beach front property with sky high value. *Desert Hot Springs, San Bernardino, Wrightwood, Palmdale, Gorman, Frazier Park, Daly City, Point Reyes Station and Bodega Bay might have some good investments if you choose the correct side of the fault line for the “Big One.” (Lived in San Bernardino many moons ago and doubt prices would go up much)

Pretty sure we are all on board, especially when it comes to the getter dun know how this country has proven in the past. Definitely can surmount the issues of accomplishing this endeavor like most everything else, but timing is everything. Debt, debt, more debt what the heck it’s all credit with nothing to back it. Look at the past trillions spent and the latest FY 2023 Omnibus Bill. It is just that - another bill to pay and the narratives within do not support much of anything that is truly productive like dedicating a chunk to rail we are discussing. Currently mentality is NO WHERE NEAR any of the aforementioned “remember when we…” backbone we had during those times. Soft times, soft men or whatever… *Our cabinets are full of the self serving vs forward into the future types we need to support ideas on this thread and many other areas beyond. The cesspool is deep in the circle of so called trust we have elected. **I do like train travel, just not ours. I appreciate great service on board airlines, just not ours. We can’t even begin with baby steps such as great service… that’s just training for the most part and a focused minor investment in comfort/amenities crushed by bean counters; whereas, digging tunnels is actually heavy work, a true mental challenge of know how and commitment coupled with some peril to be sure. Nothing really truly rings out as “remember when” in the past two or three decades. What does that tell us? Remember when “Candy Crush” first came out? Heck, I don’t know never played it. Easily distracted by $ and shiny objects.

Brabus mentioned the stacked lines aren’t the new normal and makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is that the KCM (for me and every 5th person in line with me (ORD) has been tagging a lot of crew members for security checks. Never really complained before and you still just cut in front of the pre-check folks, but it ramped up 200, 300% in my case. Maybe it’s just me or the funny name. Germany laughs at me when the sniffer doohickey goes red from wiping my luggage. Definitely don’t use any of it at the range, but they rock their heads from side to side and mumble - Americans… Maybe its the hotel soap?

Current environment trains won’t work just based on pricing (today) which is evident regarding the post above. In order for it to work you need to have infrastructure in place for nearly a decade with frequent scheduling practices that work and the kinks worked out. Normally everything gets cheaper with higher availability or access, etc. We don’t have any access comparably to some Asia or Europe within the good size states themselves. Rode 1st class from Eastern Spain to Madrid a couple of months ago (little over 3 hrs by car). Great seat, one decent meal, feel free to roam about with only one stop in between at well above 225km per hr or about 150mph and 80 mins later presto in Madrid easy leases. Beautiful ride easy going for 87 euro, but it would take a decade or more to get a few going right with this economy, leadership, you name it.. Doable, yes - but like the man said it ain’t happening, at least not anytime soon.

Europeans have done a lot long before now and some high speed rail is actually dated and refurbishment is happening. Bullet train in Japan I rode on when I grew up there actually looked like a bullet compared to most any other high speed system of today. It has morphed over the decades. Bottom line as mentioned before by others, Europe and most of Asian countries are quite small. All of Japan fits in the state of Montana as we were taught during my high school days there (Japan). Now add the population to that state and that’s when the reality of a “system has to change” statement applies. Perspective is everything and one can only gain so much via the internet vs actually living it. Europe is full of “pocket cities” and the countries are once again Small in comparison. Average of 3 days to drive across the US, just see how far and how many countries you can pass thru in that timeframe. Watermelon to a bunch plums comparison.