I've been told by the spouse of a Fedex pilot that the MD10 conversion
program is still going on. There is talk of basing them here in ANC. The MD11
simulator here has been reconfigured to provide training for either aircraft.
I believe that the only differences are in the cockpit. They look identical
except that the DC10 throttle quadrant was retained to remind crews. This is
something the pilots union demanded apparently. MD11 crews will be used on
the MD10. As I said, all this is from a pilot's spouse (a coworker of mine).
Baha, you can see one. They use the MD10 on the ANC-SEA run. I think
the flight number is 1802. By the way, the altimeter setting the other day
was 29.35 and was falling. This is not unusual for us. I've seen it as low as
the high 27's and as high as the low 31's. We have special procedures for
those occasions.
Stuart