February 7, 2012

The 1^st Quarter regularly scheduled FDX MEC Meeting will convene on Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. at the Embassy Suites in Memphis (1022 Shady Grove Road). The MEC meeting agenda can be viewed by clicking here. 

Concurrently with the MEC meeting, the Memphis Local Councils (7, 22 & 26) will hold their joint local council meetings on Wednesday February 15, 2012 convening at 10:00 am at the Germantown Centre.

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To bid or not to bid - That is the question.

When confronted with this question, it has been a practice for many pilots to just simply bid “highest paying line without carryover” considering that carryover is not paid while in ITU training per Section 4.I.5.c. of the CBA.  However, it is important to consider that although you will not be paid immediately for the carryover, those credit hours go into your general make-up bank.  This will enable you to eventually pick up trips out of open time at your convenience and be paid for those hours – possibly at a higher rate of pay if you upgraded. 

If you have any questions or concerns, feel fr*ee to contact Contract Enforcement at 901-842-2210 or 901-842-2211 or send an email to fedex-enforcement@alpa.org.

Capt. Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), issued the following statement after announcement of the passage by the U.S. Senate of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (H.R. 658), a long-term, multi-year Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization conference report.

“The U.S. Senate’s vote today to pass full, long-term Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization marks a significant accomplishment for the U.S. airline industry and its employees. It allows this country to pursue vital aviation safety research, develop new technology, and modernize the air transportation system while helping to ensure our ability to compete globally and foster economic growth and jobs.

“After 23 short-term extensions, the funding and policy direction provided by this legislation will finally allow the FAA to act decisively to move the United States toward a state-of-the-art air transportation system and position us to meet the challenge of competing with European and Asian countries that are already modernizing their systems. In addition, enhancing this nation’s already high standards of aviation safety and building efficiency will help ensure that millions of airline industry employees around the globe can count on good jobs, now and in the future.

“There’s no doubt that this bill could have been improved by omitting provisions unrelated to aviation safety, but that compromise was necessary to set the stage for today’s passage and to garner the very real benefits that this multi-year reauthorization holds for the traveling and shipping public as well as for airline employees and the U.S. economy. This bill contains important progress on aviation issues ranging from stopping laser attacks on aircraft to protecting safety data and ensuring flight deck doors are installed on all-cargo aircraft.

Fellow FedEx brothers & sisters,

As many of you know, we started a Foundation a few years back to support kids with life-threatening medical conditions pursuing their dream of playing sports and other activities. Many of you have already made a big impact of spreading the word, writing articles, etc. in support of the Foundation.

I wanted to let you know of our 1st Annual Golf Tournament in Phoenix on April 9th to raise funds for these great kids and families. Below is ALL the information and how to register. This course is a private, BEAUTIFUL course!  It will be in PRISTINE shape as later that week will be their annual "Member/Guest" tourney. For $85, it's a GREAT value! Just for that price it would be a steal to play it, but you will also be receiving a golf shirt, balls, dinner, and other goodies.  

Click here for more information on how to register.

Thanks for your support,

F/O Jan Tavrytzky

JetBlue
CASS Carrier

JetBlue offers unlimited open cabin seats. NO LONGER are the cabin jumpseat available to OAL crewmembers.

§ It is highly recommended to pre-list for the jumpseat by calling jetBlue Pass Riding Line at 888-538-2997.

§ If unable to list prior to arriving at the airport, it is best to list at the ticket counter or the “Just Ask” Service Desk (if available) prior to showing at the gate.

§ Once listed for a flight, an OAL pilot can check-in for that flight up to 24 hours prior. The check-in time is the “time stamp” used to set boarding priority. “First to the gate” criteria is not used at JetBlue, so take your time. Check-in can be done via Web Check-in on www.jetBlue.com or by utilizing the airport Kiosk, visiting the ticket counter, the “Just Ask” service desk or the gate for the departing flight.

§ Pilots must still check-in with an airport operations crewmember at the gate no later than 10 minutes prior to departure for Domestic flights and no later than 60 minutes prior to departure on International flights.

§ Riding the jumpseat is at the Captain's discretion. Upon boarding, all pilots are expected to introduce themselves to the Captain and request permission to ride, even if assigned a cabin seat.

§ Appropriate attire (business casual or uniform), airline crew ID, current medical certificate, airman certificate are required for review by the Captain if utilizing the jumpseat (Passports are required for CASS verification by the Gate Agent).

In response to numerous requests, the R&I Committee will begin publishing the total number of pilots who retired each year. In calendar year 2011, 93 pilots retired. This number does not reflect leaves, deaths, or terminations.   

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IFALPA has published two documents – The first issued by the Air Traffic Services Committee deals with the changes to SID/STAR phraseology which come into force in Canadian airspace from 9 February. The second is a Briefing Leaflet which details the differences found in TCAS v7.1 and the system's accelerated implementation which begins in March.

To access your copies of the publications please follow the links below:

12SAB021 - New SID/STAR phraseology in Canadian airspace

12ATSBL09 - TCAS 7.1

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If you do nothing else this week, PLEASE commit these two things to memory: 

1. An ASAP report fulfills the requirement of an FSR (stomp stomp stomp) and has the added benefit of what the FAA refers to as "Certificate Enforcement Incentives."

2. You have ONLY 24 hours domestically and 48 hours internationally from the END OF THE

DUTY PERIOD in which the incident occurred to file an ASAP Report.

These two items will save you lots of headache and heartache. If you don't have your computer or if you can't log in, CALL THE ASAP HOTLINE at 901-224-5203 and leave your name, employee number, flight number etc. within the deadline mentioned above. After this, you have 72 hours to file your ASAP report.

As always, call the ALPA Safety Office at 901-842-2204 if you have questions.

The Safety Committee is looking for a 777 and a 757 FMT (FOQA Monitoring Team) Member. Experience with computer programming is not required, but would be extremely helpful in our efforts to improve the program. A basic understanding of data analysis and spreadsheet and data manipulation is desired. Anyone with an interest in participating in the FOQA program and qualified in either seat on the 777 or 757 is invited to send a resumé to Fedex-SafetyChair@alpa.org. This doesn't need to be a formal document - simply outline your experience and your desire to participate in FOQA.

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A study presented at the October meeting of the ICAO North Atlantic Scrutiny Group (SG/5) has revealed that a significant number of lateral deviations on the North Atlantic were due to a misunderstanding of weather deviation procedures by pilots. Clearly this presents a potential for loss of separation events; especially when a large number of aircraft divert from track to avoid build-ups of severe weather.

The procedure for weather deviations is described in Chapter 13 of the NAT Doc007 (formerly the NAT MNPS Manual) and is set out in the bulletin on the Flight Safety Page of the ALPA Web Site here: http://fdx.alpa.org/Portals/26/docs/Safety/natwxdev.pdf 

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On February 9, 2012 at 0901Z (0001L), the airspace in and around Anchorage AK will undergo a major restructuring. This restructuring is necessitated by the decommissioning of the (ANC) VOR and the commissioning of the new (TED) VOR which will be located about 5 miles from the old ANC VOR - now on the Anchorage International Airport property.

This change will affect numerous fix locations, procedures, frequencies and magnetic variations. There will be 62 procedure changes at 13 different airports including  PANC. The Enroute High and Low charts will have 52 amended airways and 8 original airways added. This included 1 Amber route, 6 Q routes, 5 T routes, 21 victor airways and 10 jet routes. Also PANC runway 14/32 will be changed to 15/33 but the numbers on the runway won’t be repainted to show this change until a later date.

Aircrews that depart for PANC prior to the changeover but scheduled to land after the February 9, 2012 0910Z change over time should ensure they have copies of the new procedures prior to departure. Look for an FCIF from the company and extra data from dispatchers if your flight is affected by this changeover. 

According to Anchorage ATC, aircraft arriving at PANC within a few hours after the new procedures are in effect can expect radar vectors to the ILS and will be given alternate missed approach instructions.

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The 2012 FDX MEC ePocket Calendar files have been posted to the FDX ALPA website (click here). The zip file contains PDF versions of the quick reference pages in the MEC Calendar and iCalendar files for importing into calendar programs.

We would like to thank Captain Susie Latvala and her dedicated team for their hard work in making the print and electronic versions of the Pocket Calendar possible.

ePocket Calendar improvements this year include:

- The PDFs have hyperlinked bookmarks for each significant section. Due to software deficiencies, the hyperlinks don't work with most common Android PDF readers. Works great on computers and iPhone.

- The iCalendar files contain all the FDX MEC bid month events such as: Bid Open, Bid Award, Expense Report, Payday, etc. These files are standard .ics files which are compatible w/many calendar programs. The files now come in Zulu and Mem/Local flavors. There is also a ReadMe file that includes notes on Google Calendars and smart phones.

Please Note: Due to errors on the Flight Safety page, the Contract_Info PDF file was Revised on 19 Jan 2012.

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We recently added the Seniority Crystal Ball Program to the FDX MEC website. This seniority calculation program will show you what your overall system seniority will be annually until retirement. This is based on the Age 65 retirement and is drawn from the data in the ALPA database. This information while interesting is obviously a worst case scenario, as we have no way of projecting when individuals will leave the seniority list.

To access this program, look in the Pilot Services Tab, or click here.  

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The cruise will take place aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ship Monarch of the Seas, sailing from Port Canaveral on Friday, December 7th, 2012 (Pearl Harbor Day).

How can you help us?

For more information, please call Al Schroeder, Advisor to the Museum Board and Program Manager, at 407 679 6674.

Please visit www.thankyouveteranscruise.org (website currently under construction).

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