Ask The Pilot

[Princess Fiona]

Now we know where all the F award & upgrade seats are going.

I should hope so. I'd like to know that the pilot on my aircraft has been well-rested and taken care of by the airline

 

[Himeno]

It's very much luck of the draw. Sometimes you can do many standby duties with nothing happening, whilst at other times you can be very busy. Even within the same rotation, some people have all the luck (whichever way you want to look at it).

Are you paid for hours on standby? Is it a different rate then when flying?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Now we know where all the F award & upgrade seats are going.

Not to be interpreted as a compliant. An observation only. I'm all for a well rested crew.

 

[mjt57]

JB, regards allowed time between duty, if you're pax'ing it home from LHR, is that considered as duty time, or could you be asked to turn around and fly back to DXB without a real break (I personally don't consider sitting on a passenger aircraft as being restful).

How long are you stuck in London for?

 

[jb747]

JB, regards allowed time between duty, if you're pax'ing it home from LHR, is that considered as duty time, or could you be asked to turn around and fly back to DXB without a real break (I personally don't consider sitting on a passenger aircraft as being restful).

How long are you stuck in London for?

As soon as flying the aircraft becomes involved, any paxing counts as duty time. That's from the CASA rules.

Right now I'm 'stuck' in London for 48 hours. I expect that there is a good chance of that being reduced. Basically I'm waiting for a seat to become available. It's also not impossible that I could be tasked with operating (as either a Captain or SO, not FO as I'm not right hand seat qualified), but the issue there is that I have to be back in Melbourne within a very narrow window, as I'm about to hit something on my roster that cannot be infringed.

Sometimes it's hard to keep track of my own schedule, and the interaction with all of the various rules. It's staggering that the schedulers manage it for a couple of thousand pilots (long and short haul), plus cabin crew. Computer systems are obviously helpful, but it still takes some imagination, and common sense, to keep it all running.

 

[jb747]

Are you paid for hours on standby? Is it a different rate then when flying?

Standby is a duty and lasts for 12 hours. It's possible that a roster could consist of almost nothing but standby...in which case if you weren't paid, you'd be getting thin.

Pay rates are complicated. If you did 4 standby duties a week, for every week of the roster, you'd approximately hit the average credits. You'd also go mad.

Trip density is a term we use to describe how many hourly credits a trip earns per day. Melbourne LA and return, over an elapsed period of about 72 hours, earns at about twice the rate of a London trip...which has more flying, but is much longer. The densest trips could have about 3 times the density of a standby, whilst the worst are exactly the same rate as the standby.

 

[jb747]

Perhaps I should go back to only answering questions about aircraft...

 

[Princess Fiona]

Perhaps I should go back to only answering questions about aircraft...

Please don't, the human aspect of the job is equally as interesting

 

[straitman]

Some inappropriate and OT posts have been removed.

If in anyone is in doubt then please refer to post #1 for the rules of this thread.

 

[N860CR]

Not that I saw said comments (although based on stuff that's been said here before, I'll take a guess), it's worth nothing that not all QF flight crew are required to travel in First on paxing sectors (so it's really not impacting on your upgrades too much). It's generally the domain of the long haul guys. Based on the immensely difficult life schedules they have, allowing them to pax in First to either get them home (and hopefully be on a normal sleep schedule) or get them to work (to safely fly you all to wherever you're going) is certainly not unreasonable.

I'm often perplexed at the "negative crew" attitude that seems to come out on this site sometimes

 

[mikenz]

JB are you allowed / able to pax on Emirates aircraft or is it always QF?

Maybe too personal, so feel free to ignore, but when on standby do you prefer to fly or to have the 'time off'.

 

[jb747]

JB are you allowed / able to pax on Emirates aircraft or is it always QF?

You will only fly on another airline, if there is no way to get there on our metal. Schedulers will avoid it if at all possible.

Maybe too personal, so feel free to ignore, but when on standby do you prefer to fly or to have the 'time off'.

That's just it...it isn't time off, and you're being paid less than you could if you were flying....so you'd always prefer to be called out. Plus, if you happen to be a commuter, you've got to hang around in a city that isn't home. Standby is generally hated.

 

[por930]

JB, Did you notice much difference between the 747 400 and A380 reverse thruster retardation effect, given that the A380 has only the inboard engines fitted with them?

 

[Boris spatsky]

Standby is generally hated.

In short haul, standby is equally hated as you can't really plan anything that day. People with kids can't let their spouse work easily in case they get called out, those that live a long way from the sign on point have to be ready to go (or even drive closer and sit there), and nighttime standby limits your ability to socialise with friends etc. I much prefer an early sign on and finish by 2pm than a 12 hour standby.

 

[mjt57]

Article in the paper today announcing Qantas' flights to DFW. Long time in the air. JB, have you put your hand up for that route? How do you manage the flight deck, manning-wise for such long trips?

From a pax-perspective, I doubt that I'd enjoy it in economy. BNE-LAX/LAX-MEL was long enough in Prem. Eco...

 

[jb747]

JB, Did you notice much difference between the 747 400 and A380 reverse thruster retardation effect, given that the A380 has only the inboard engines fitted with them?

Reverse thrust...really does very little. I had a good look at it back when I first flew the -400. There is almost as much braking simply from the wheel bearing drag. An engine that produces 60,000 lbs of forward thrust, may produce as little as 3,000 lbs of reverse. There are some benefits though. The airflow disturbance from the air being blown sideways by the engines, destroys residual lift, and also blasts water off the runway, so allowing the tyres and brakes to do their job. Reverse, even idle reverse, cancels out the residual forward thrust of the engines, so instead of a few thousand pound of forward thrust (as you would have with a jet engine at idle), you have zero, or a slight negative effect.

The upshot is that there isn't much of a difference to notice...neither does much.

 

[jb747]

Article in the paper today announcing Qantas' flights to DFW. Long time in the air. JB, have you put your hand up for that route? How do you manage the flight deck, manning-wise for such long trips?

From a pax-perspective, I doubt that I'd enjoy it in economy. BNE-LAX/LAX-MEL was long enough in Prem. Eco...

I've got one in a couple of weeks. I'm just going to treat it like a slightly longer than normal LA-Melbourne. Should be only about 90 minutes in it. It will be the normal long range crew...1 Captain, 1 FO, 2 SOs. I'm sure 'are we there yet?' will be heard quite a few times.

 

[Himeno]

Yesterday on QF21, the doors were closed on time, but they delayed push back for a few minutes and then flew slower then normal to NRT as they couldn't land before 6am.

At curfew controlled airports (such as SYD and LHR), how often do you delay things (eg air speed, push back) in order to account for the curfews?

 

[jb747]

Yesterday on QF21, the doors were closed on time, but they delayed push back for a few minutes and then flew slower then normal to NRT as they couldn't land before 6am.

At curfew controlled airports (such as SYD and LHR), how often do you delay things (eg air speed, push back) in order to account for the curfews?

It happens many times daily. And it's not just curfew controlled airports. Many are simply busy, and if you arrive early you'll end up holding for ages. Sydney has introduced a system of penalties for early arrivals...

As often as not, you'll employ multiple strategies. Delay the push, fly slower, or even hold on a taxiway. The one method that I really hate though, is for the company controllers to 'retime' the flight. That means that that last person who is going to be late anyway, will now be late for the new departure time (you know who you are), and invariably we end up being late overall. My method means passengers are already on board, and maximises the flexibility that I have for managing the timing.

The hardest operations are the curfew to curfew. Out of Sydney at the last instant, and arriving as the destination opens. On one flight to Beijing, we arranged to hold for 30 minutes in HK's airspace, as we were way to early, and it was much easier to make our needs understood to the HK controllers. The opposite, which I had on one ferry...where we had to depart the instant the airport opened, and would be the last aircraft to land before the destination closed.

 

[mikenz]

JB - does the early penalty at Sydney apply to all commercial flights? Or just international / those before the curfew?

Thanks