Long Haul Pilots....help!!

[Vampy]

Speaking as a mere ATCO, I was wondering if there are any long haul pilots (BA, Virgin etc) who could answer my admittedly fairly mundane question:O How does your roster work on the Long Haul? What are your longest trips away and how long do you get to spend in the destination you're flying to? Also, and this is mainly to BA pilots but Virgin may be able to answer this as well, how do crews get rostered on the Australia flights? How long away for? How long stopover in Singapore/Bangkok? Do you always go on to Australia or do you sometimes turnaround in the Far East and fly back to blighty? Would be interested to hear from pilots from any airline to see what the difference between the companys in the industry is! Thanks in advance guys! :ok:

[TopBunk]

Vampy

At BA, the crewing complement depends on sector length, acclimatisation issues, etc.

BA operate LHR-BKK-SYD, LHR-SIN-SYD and LHR-SIN-MEL.

The (slightly) shorter nature of the flight means 2 pilots ex LHR to BKK and 4 ex LHR to SIN. However the BKK-SYD flight is longer and requires 3 crew versus 2 for the flights onwards from SIN.

So, ex LHR 2 pilots do a LHR-SIN-LHR rotation and the other 2 operate LHR-SIN-SYD (or MEL) - SIN-LHR.

The same 3 pilots operate LHR-BKK-SYD-BKK-SIN.

You tend to get 48 hours off each way in SIN and BKK and slightly less in SYD/MEL (about 34 hours).

The Oz trips leave on day one and return early day 9.

I speak now as a shorthauler, but ex 744 until 2001. Historically there have been some longer trips, I operated a 13-day LHR-SIN-MEL-SIN-SYD-BKK-LHR in 2001. They may or may not still operate, I don't know.

HTH

[Hotel Mode]

The Aussies are the longest, there was a 10 day LHR-NBO-LLW-NBO-SEZ-NBO-LLW-NBO-LHR up until the schedule change but now the next longest are 5 day MEX and MAA. most are 24 or 48hrs off down route.