Flight Engineers to Pilots

I recently was reading an article (I dont recall what publication it was in) but I found it very intersting that at one time it was possible to go from Flight Engineer 0 stick time as a PIC to a captain in the airlines because of the way airline union contracts were written at the ime along with the FAR/AIM rule of the time. Apparently as airlines and such began to phase out older jets like the 727, 707/720 and DC-8 from fleets Flight Engineers were offered flying ositions complete with the required flight time (flying school) to allow them to transition to captain or first officer dependant on their date of hire seinority in the company. It was possible to have say never flown an aircraft other than the DC-8 as an FE now on the newer jet like say a DC-9 essentially if that is what you bid into and be a captain right from the sideways seat (FE Position). Has anyone else heard of this or can anyne cnfirm it? I now now adas regs read diffrently etc so it would not be possible but it is crazy to imagine that at one time with nothing more than an A&P and Flight Engineer ticket you could suddenly find yourself four striping it on some of the newer jets in your company.

Most FE's are pilots, at Fed Ex all of our 727 FE's are pilots, depending on seniority they can bid a different aircraft, or a different position on their current aircraft. Every seat in the airplane has its own Initial training course, which is usually a month to two months long. Right now at UPS since they have retired the DC-8,those Captains,First Officers, and FE's are sitting at home collecting free money, becuase they have nowhere else to go.The company is paying them their monthly guarantee, until positions open up to be bid for.Most likely they will have to wait for more aircraft deliveries until then, its Maury comes on at 11amSpringer at 12pm and then the soaps hit, until news at 5&6pm.

But to specifically answer your question,if a pilot or FE has enough seniority to bid for a position, he can bid to become a captain, if not he has to go for the FO postion, or just wait in his current seat for space to free up. I went from A300 Command to MD11 Command 7 years ago.Never sat in the right seat, and about 3 years ago was qualified on the DC-10.

Fed Ex's FE's are no joke.

Former Blue Angel Lead Solo Len Anderson is employed by FED EX as a FE. Tell me that's not a kick in the jubilees, to go from flying Lead Solo in a Blue Jet to sitting 3rd seat in a 727. According to him, the benefits at Fed Ex are so good, that nobody ever leaves and he has to wait patiently for his # to come up.

Last I spoke with him though, he wasn't really flying that much with them anymore and was working on his acting & Narrating for the Horsemen. There have also been grumblings that he may be flying a Stang in the near future.

Concorde also had FEs, but when it was "retired" I think all the FEs retired as well.

A number of co pilots stayed with BA to fly slower subsonic planes like the 777.