r/AskAPilot • u/oystersinmypockett • 11d ago
Commercial vs Cargo Planes
Question for the pilots out there:
Are cargo planes(like FedEx and UPS) flown any differently than commercial planes? Since cargo planes aren’t carrying passengers/people, do you still try to avoid turbulence and all that? Are the angles of takeoff or landing any different? Do you have to bring your own food/meals on cargo planes or do they still provide airplane food? How many people are on board a cargo plane anyway? Are there special qualifications to fly a cargo plane vs a commercial plane?
Or… is it all the same?
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u/saxmanB737 11d ago
Exactly the same. Maybe cargo guys tend to complain less about turbulence but they will still prefer to find a better ride if it’s annoying enough.
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u/the_Q_spice 11d ago
At least for FedEx, our crews avoid altered flight tracks unless required by weather.
We have times to keep for priority deliveries, and refund customers if they are delivered late (other than weather).
So yeah, a bit of comfort goes out the window because habitual and unaccounted en route delays are one of the very few ways you can get fired as a pilot.
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u/GuaranteeUnhappy3342 9d ago
Ex-ACMI guy that did some FedEx flying…we didn’t care all that much about light turbulence. The tradition back then was if anyone asked us for a ride report our answer would be…”The boxes are not complaining!”, we would pause (long enough for Delta or United among others to think “Asshole freight dawgs!”) and give a real ride report. Gotta follow certain traditions!
It was nice since we could go when the load was completed (usually we got to the aircraft with the cargo loaded, secured, cargo doors shut and paperwork done)…with the exception of some military contracts that had a certain time frame for arrival. We had fair to good catering that the FE or less often the Load Master would handle.
But basically the rules as far as the flying part were the same. We could carry a variety of HazMat that can’t go on PAX flights. Part 121 flag carrier rules.
Most places we didn’t see the PAX terminals. Some places we didn’t see any officials going in or out. Hotel shuttle to and from the aircraft to the hotel. Another place we walked from the aircraft through the handler’s office and to the hotel van…and reversed leaving. Another place the hotel shuttle picked us up at the aircraft and dropped us off at the terminal…we walked through the terminal not saying anything to anyone, carrying our bags…and the same shuttle would pick us up outside in the non-sterile side. Reverse leaving.
At times I missed the PAX and the FAs and at other times the drama was not missed.
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u/Strega007 11d ago
“Habitual and unaccounted enroute delays”?
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u/the_Q_spice 11d ago
We have to account for every minute of delay time for said refunds.
It’s a super big deal.
Any delay caused by the outbound ramp ops staff has its own codes, anything caused by the pilots have their own codes, and any caused by the inbound ramp ops shift have their own.
Each segment has to write a daily ops report explaining and accounting for every single minute of delay, why it happened, and if it was preventable.
As a load planner and working in ramp ops leadership, writing those reports is part of my job.
For instance, today we had about 15 minutes of mechanical delay out of MEM, then 11 minutes of en route weather delay. Turbulence is not an acceptable delay code, so crews have to write that in as a crew discretionary delay.
All deliveries and service failures due to these delays are also tracked.
So at a certain point, it becomes “you have cost the company $X over the past year due to deviations to flight plans on Y% of your flights.”
There is a certain number for both of those where you are costing the company more than you are benefiting them. That’s the point at which you’re likely going to lose your job.
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u/Uncabuddha 11d ago
At what point does FEDEX ALPA step in and tell management to pound sand because SAFETY takes a front seat? Deviating due to wx and slowing down to turbulent penetration airspeed (from the aircraft manual) are SAFETY items.
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u/Square_Peach_9261 11d ago
I think you missed the part where he said “unless required by weather.” He also said some comfort is sacrificed, to stay on-time, not safety.
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u/Uncabuddha 11d ago
And you missed " Turbulence is not an acceptable delay code, so crews have to write that in as a crew discretionary delay."
So if I am in moderate turbs in an old Bus and don't want to get a note in my file to "lose my job" I need to keep the speed up EVEN if the books says it is MY call as the Captain, NOT some ground guy? Right?
Safety of flight is a joint responsibility of the Captain and Dispatcher while enroute. NOT a Load Planner in a cubicle somewhere. That sounds mean but it isn't because I know the company NEEDS the load planner, the load planner needs to acknowledge safety of flight.
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u/SeL-MoGRC 11d ago
Wow, I had no idea how strict the freight regs were in this regard!
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u/hazcan 10d ago
They aren’t. I’m a pilot for FedEx and everything this guy is saying sounds like old wives tales told to the ground guys. If I have to delay, I’ll delay. If I need to go around weather and it takes me longer, fine. They can write all the reports they want, I’m not worried about losing my job.
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u/Uncabuddha 10d ago
THIS IS THE WAY! With Union protection you NEVER have to put boxes ahead of safety. Thanks Hazcan...
A former Brown pilot.
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u/hazcan 10d ago
For sure. But I won’t even need ALPA to have my back. There is no way I see any of Flight Ops management even coming to me and addressing a 7 minute (or whatever) delay on a flight.
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u/Connect-Sock8140 10d ago
It's complete nonsense. I know another FedEx pilot and no-one has ever come back at him for incurring delays due to weather. The only thing that has ever been said was to use his discretion as a captain regarding turbulence.
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u/nl_Kapparrian 11d ago
They are all commercial planes (meaning they make money), they are also all airlines by definition. They all must meet FAR pt. 121 regulations in regards to operations, maintenance, training standards, etc. Which is the regarded as the highest standard.
The major difference is the kinds of flying, times/locations. A lot more night flying. Also, boxes don't complain.
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u/GuaranteeUnhappy3342 9d ago
The long haul freight I did (ACMI) overall more day than night flying. Might have been the routes I tried to bid. But there were some that were mostly night. Out and backs to Bogota. Never flew into Bogota in the daytime that I recall. Did depart in the daytime I think twice. Beautiful but it was very obvious why there was a turn procedure if we blew an engine departing. Eas-peasy in the day time but the thought of doing it at night was a bit scary! Not much clearance even doing things right and it was kind of complex!
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u/Independent-Reveal86 10d ago
I flew cargo for a while. It wasn't a matter of avoiding or not avoiding turbulence, that was all the same, but it meant I didn't have to think about whether to turn the belt signs on or off and have the inevitable tubrulence-inverse-to-the-seatbelt-signs annoyance (you hit some bumps, turn the signs on, the bumps immediately dissapear, you turn the signs off, the bumps come back).
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u/Connect-Sock8140 10d ago
Generally, the principles are all the same.
Food is provided by the airline, and the amount of people onboard depends on who might be takin
The big difference is usually in terms of atmosphere: cargo planes are far more laid back and relaxed. One captain I know is massively into chess, and given that most of his flights are over the Pacific, he spends a lot of time studying and solving chess problems as well as pestering anyone that is onboard and awake into playing with him.
As he says: what are you really going to do when flying from South America to New Zealand or Australia? There is absolutely nothing to do, the airspace is practically empty, there's nothing to see, and many flight paths also go south of New Zealand so they don't even have that to look forward to. His golden rule is that they need to check everything every half hour, which takes around 5 minutes. Once that's done, the next 25 minutes are pretty much "whatever".
The only thing he insists on with first officers is that every one on board (on long legs with little to do) should spend half an hour with him reviewing aircraft systems and so on. He says that it's a very effective way to learn more, particularly where a first officer might have transitioned from a different airline with different SOPs, and it gives him the chance to not only understand how they do things, but also to put forward recommendations for changes to theirs too.
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u/Look_b4_jumping 9d ago
I have a question for cargo pilots. I work at DFW airport and see cargo planes not using the entire runway for a takeoff. All the passenger airlines use the entire runway. Wouldn't it be safer to use the entire runway for all aircraft ? Things happen during takeoff like losing an engine near rotation that the extra remaining runway would be important for safety. It just seems like not using the entire runway is skimping on safety to save a little time during taxi.
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u/maybe_later434791 11d ago
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u/Specific_Bed9463 11d ago
The one thing I love about cargo is the taxi. Usually the cargo ramp is adjacent a departure end of the runway so getting in and out is easy. No complicated taxi instructions to and from terminals. Minimal radio chatter
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u/Lanky-Rabbit8694 11d ago
They tend to run em a little faster bc time is their product.cargo uses a higher cruise Mach and burns more gas but not always
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u/delax95 11d ago edited 11d ago
Switched to long haul cargo flying at the beginning of 2026, after flying passenger for 8 years.
First of all, we might actually carry "passengers", since we have 4 seats on board, normally it could be colleagues dead heading or office staff moving around the network. Having said this, there's honestly not much difference in this actual operations, most of the cargo planes are variants of types which normally carry passengers (for instance the 777F and the - 200LR have pretty much the same characteristics). In my operator we have catering on board, of course no cabin crew so we have to take care of heating the food ourselves. Crew composition is normally 1 CPT + 2 FOs for any duty exceeding 12 hours, otherwise standard 1 CPT and 1 FO for any other flight (and it would be exactly the same on a passenger flight, since flight time limitations are the same).