Question for the Airline Pilots on the forum

discuss airline policies, it would seem....

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/northwest-airlines-pilots-miss-airport-150-miles/story?id=8892976



I've always wondered the same, what is the "work load" between take-off and landing? obviously staying on course, handling ATC and other traffic issues, etc....but how would it compare to, say, driving a car on the interstate vs. driving a car in a downtown area (or whatever analogy you'd like to make)?

 

I've never been an airline guy, but I've spent plenty of time grinding along at FL390...

It really depends. If there is weather, especially across the midwest and at night, it can be quite interesting-- maybe a little more interesting than I'd prefer.

Otherwise, chat about this and that, check the ETA and fuel remaining on the FMS, chat some more, read a magazine (not ME, of course!), fill out paperwork, chat some more, if we are going somewhere new, pull out the arrival and approach plates and discuss them, discuss where we are going to have dinner, chat some more... etc. We always spent a lot of time discussing whatever accident had happened most recently, or mystery, or whatever. Also the latest company rumors could use up quite a bit of time.

On a long trip, eat lunch (or dinner or breakfast).

Occasionally, something interesting happens on the radio. Overwater, do the chart plotting and remind yourself to make your position report.

In the old days, before we had FMSs which would figure this automatically, I used to have to figure out the fuel on arrival, and see if we were ahead or behind plan. In the Jet Commander and the 20 series Learjets, we used to time the fuel counter to get a precise measurement of fuel flow, and then do the math to see how much we would arrive with. That used to eat up a fair amount of time.

The worst, for me, were always the overnight trips-- the leave at 10pm and arrive at 6am schedule. It does start to get pretty quiet in the cockpit around 3am.

It gets really old if you are flying with someone you don't like, that's for sure.

 

This is one of my favorite websites-- if you want to know what it's like as an airline pilot, read this:

http://flightlevel390.blogspot.com/

Great pictures, too!

 

I didn't address the "workload" issues-- typically, in a jet aircraft, the airplane is on autopilot above 10,000 feet or so (and some guys click it on as soon as the gear is up). In the old Learjets, we used to hand fly to altitude and back down again, but that's because they had ancient, lousy autopilots. In any modern airplane, you'd use the autopilot most of the time.

So, the main issues are navigation, weather, and communications. Those can use more or less of your time, depending on the situation.

For example, in Europe, I find I spend much more time on navigation, because a) I'm usually on an airway, going from fix to fix, and I will frequently get re-routed, b) I can't really understand what the heck the controller is saying unless I have some idea what to expect. In the western US, on the other hand, I'm usually navigating directly to a point 500-600 miles away, which requires almost no attention at all for an hour or so.

 

On the loooonnnnng air refueling flights we would do just about anything we could to pass the time. It mostly consisted of the most recent playboy and maxim magazines, messing with the flight engineers panel (really pissed him off) eating whatever we could cook in our small oven, the occasional position report on the HF to the controller, some board games, maybe some sleeping..................then after the air refueling we would do the same thing on the way back, pretty mundane. Jedi-I just moved from the East coast to Puyallup very recently. Nice part of the country out here!

 

a long-haul flight isnt really that long actually, we get loads of rest on board. a 14hour flight is only actually 7 hours of work.( depending on how many crew there are on board of course ) .
and 7 hours goes by really quickly when your having a very heated debate on how the world is turning to ****s.

on a more serious note, i guess we just got used to it.

 

Or bidding your flights for next month

 

Im usually reading "Forza" and "Excellence" magazines in cruise.

 

I second that