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The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!
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Who me???? Tell you what, have a look at my world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxnvUmB4KjM&feature=related
smurfjed
That's cool.
Ye guys have a private A340 parked up in some airport, might be Geneva definitely some main airport in Europe, but it's been there for months. It looks great I hope it flys more than I think it does.0 -
Who me???? Tell you what, have a look at my world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxnvUmB4KjM&feature=related
smurfjed
Jebus!!
Smurfjed, how does your roster compare to someone who'd be flying scheduled flights? Are you always on call or what way does it work?0 -
Who me???? Tell you what, have a look at my world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxnvUmB4KjM&feature=related
smurfjed
There's something slightly off here....and I doubt I'm the only one that thinks that. Besides that's the interior of a 747 and you already said you dont fly them....so that is not your world yet it would seem.
Besides I just stated previously that you cannot comment on pressures normal carriers put on pilots to save time/fuel/money etc unless you have commercial passenger airline experience...and as you have not said you do I am correct. Simple statement that was defending you in part from what Bearcat said....why you chose to take a crude swipe at me I'm not sure!
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The original A320-100 did not have wingtips, they were an addition for the A320-200. (I think only about 2o -100's were built)IngazZagni wrote: »I was taxiing past an Easyjet the other day and noticed it had it's wingtip fences missing on one side. I'm not familiar with Airbus but I guess they are not too important if it can be dispatched for flight like that. They are a lot smaller than most winglets though.
BA A320-100 at LIN by tearbringer, on Flickr
There was an incident early in the operational career of the A380 where (my recollection may be a bit sketchy here) an SQ aircraft hit a hanger door. The wingtip was damaged and removed, the aircraft was able to operate back to home base with certain performance restrictions.
Keep in mind that winglets are primarily an efficiency device/addition. They lessen fuel burn on longer sectors. Both the A320/B737/B757/747 were all originally designed with no winglets/wingtips.0 -
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Lustrum, we work on an airline credit time system, so lowest credit person is assigned the next flight. We have 10 straight days off per month, (plus 40 vacation) but for the other 20 you know your standby position according to the credit time list. We also go a little further than that by assigning specific flights/destinations to a rota, for example i went across the atlantic a couple of months ago, I wont go again until all my colleagues have had the same opportunity.
As for saving time/fuel/money, thats the fun part about flying, there is no point in sticking directly to the flight plan and not asking for shortcuts, or changing levels to get better winds, although what we save in fuel is probably then wasted in buying caviar Our commercial pressures are slightly different, I went across the atlantic last year with someone who had a 9:30am appointment with Obama, the head winds were horrendous, now that's pressure
I was involved in contractual negotiations with Boeing a couple of years ago for a BBJ3 and later a B748-VIP, the Jumbo was delivered by Boeing recently, however the interior will take a couple of years and probably cost more than the airframe. We also recently put a B744 into operation (our 4th Jumbo ), its the worlds first 3 level aircraft, with an absolutely amazing interior. If i ever find pictures of the interior on the net, i will link them, i have never taken pictures inside the aircraft as it's way too sensitive. It's a surreal world to work in, but it pays well, the flights are fun and the time off is great.
smurfjed.....0 -
The funny thing about this is that some Boeing engineers designed the blended winglets for the B737, Boeing refused to incorporate them into the design, so these guys went off and set up their own company, Aviation Partners, now Boeing buys the winglets off themBoth the A320/B737/B757/747 were all originally designed with no winglets/wingtips.
Thats a lot of cost savings with the present cost of fuel.Aviation Partners Boeing has developed Blended Winglet programs for the Boeing 757, which can save 300,000 gallons per year,
smurfjet0 -
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Smoking depends on the VIP, as its a different culture, smoking is very common with total disrespect of non-smokers in the vicinity. Crew meals are provided, however, there is ample passenger food available if we want variety. To be honest I hate eating when flying and have never eaten a meal sitting in the cockpit because I hate the idea of sitting in the same place for hours following eating a big meal, but i am addicted to our cheese plates
Some of the planes have their own chefs who prepare the food in some hotel prior to the flight, this ensures that the passengers get their favourite food and dont get poisoned
smurfjed0 -
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I have already explained that we work on a low time credit system for our flight allocations, but as the question was asked about how often commercial crews flew together, i think that i will take the opportunity to explain how the system works for my other colleagues, we have about 1700 pilots on the seniority list split across 4 divisions.
Marketing decides where the airline flies and how often, together with the aircraft type selected for the route, for example we have B777-200s with 3 different cabin interiors, 1 for Europe, USA, 1 for Asia and high density. When the schedule is developed, it translates into a certain number of flight hours per day and per month for each aircraft. This is provided to the crewing department who use software called Aircrews from Sabre Aviation Solutions together with Carmen software from Boeing to produce monthly "Lines", the lines will show a month of expected duty, together with days off, guaranteed days off, Standby duties, reserve duties and training.
These lines are provided to crews at the start of a month, based on their seniority they get to bid for what they want to do the following month. Each person is different as they will want to bid for specific days off, for maximum days off, destinations, or money.
Whats available will depend on the fleet type, for example the B747-400 mainly operates to Manila, its about 22 hours roundtrip based over 3 days, so a crew member may only do 4 of these a month and have the other 18 days off. We only have a couple of these left in service so its hard for a crew to chase overtime. On the other hand, we have about 40 A320's, these aircraft fly short and long flights (6-7 hours) I will add that some of them have additional fuel tanks and not a lot of seats
So a crew member flying the A320 can really chase overtime, with productivity starting at 45 block hours, overtime at 75 credit hours, and another allowance kicking in with a certain percentage of the monthly guarantee time, this is leading to Captains earning around 20k per month NET, and First Officers around 13K per month NET. Leftbase will tell you how that compares to an European carrier.
With crew compliments measured in the 100's, it's still possible for two crew members to spend the month together because the Sabre system can created the same line for Captains and First Officers, this will happen on fleets with equal numbers of crew, on fleets like the A320 that have a larger number of First Officers due to training purposes, the Captain versus First Officer lines won't be identical.
If someone is paired with someone whom they don't get on with, they have the option of reporting to their fleet management, or signing sick.
smurfjed0 -
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