Airbus common type ratings

[turbantime]

Just have a qustion regarding the much advertised advantage of having an all Airbus fleet as pilots can have a common type rating.

Does any airline have their flightcrew flying say the A330 and the A340? Or can anyone forsee this happening with the introduction of the A380. ie Fly both the A380 and the A340 or even the A330.

Now obvioulsy each aircraft will have different limitations etc but is this currently occuring?

[404 Titan]

turbantime

CX have a common fleet, ie A330/340. In effect once CCQ (Cross Crew Qualified) we operate three aircraft types. A330-300, A340-300 and A340-600. I believe that Airbus is attempting something similar with the A380 though they may be pushing the boundry with the who CCQ idea. It is bad enought that the A340-300 and 600 have a common type endorement. The A380 from what I see is a totally different creature.

[turbantime]

Thanks for the reply Titan. What are (if any) requirements before you jump from flying an A330-300 one day to say an A340-600 another day?

What I mean is that do you require to complete a simride before you crew the other type or is it simply left up to the crew to study up on the different a/c limitations etc?

[Soulman]

Turbantime,

From what I understand, there is no extra flight-crew requirement regarding flying the A330 and the A340 on seperate days. As long as the crew is qualified on both (i.e CCQ), then the airline believes that they are compotent enough to recognise the differences in such things as TOW, Rotation Speeds, RoC and general flying techniques etc.

There was rumour that this was one of the factors (CCQ) involved in the EK A340 incident at Johannesburg earlier this year.

Soulman.