Ken Shaffer – UPS Pilot

The call to work as a pilot in the private sector came in January 1998 from United Parcel Service. Shaffer, his wife Chris, and their young son David were living in central Indiana at the time. Shaffer also was serving as an Air Force reservist with the 74th Air Refueling Squadron at Grissom Air Force Base.

He started as flight engineer and co-pilot before working his way up to captain on Boeing 747 international hauls. He was one of about 2,800 pilots to fly the carrier’s 289 airplanes.
The new job required Shaffer to catch a flight from UPS operations in nearby Louisville,
Kentucky for Anchorage, Alaska where he was domiciled and his international flights would begin.

To have eight consecutive days at home, Shaffer spent ten to twelve days on the road – most of that time in the air between Asia and Alaska. The first two days at home were spent recovering from 16-hour days on the job.

The work schedule and time zone changes are hard on the body” said Shaffer.

A typical workday could take Shaffer from Anchorage to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Honolulu, and Seoul before west to Bangkok, Mumbai and Dubai. Then onto the European UPS hub of Cologne, Germany. A pilot gets 18-24 hours rest at each stop.

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 became increasingly worrisome for Shaffer and other pilots whose routes included Asian cities. The precautions taken to protect pilots who stayed in Asian hotels did little to alleviate those concerns.

In 2020, at age 60, the threat of COVID-19 and the ongoing updates to technology in the UPS Boeing fleet convinced Shaffer that “the timing was good to retire.”

The Shaffers have settled into their country home, designed by their son, who is an architect. Situated on a secluded acreage surrounded by trees, the home is next door to Shaffer’s father.