What Hours Deem A Pilot Suitable To Operate A Ferry Flight?

[homesick rae]

Hi There,

What hours deem a Pilot suitable to operate a ferry flight?

Curious, as I have been told 10,000 TT + 3,000 on type. We are talking about a commercial aicraft here.

Any advice?

Thanks

HR

[misd-agin]

Checked out on the aircraft, and meet the minimum regulatory, company, and insurance requirements.

If the boss says "no one flies my a/c unless they have 10,000 hrs and 3,000 hrs in type" that's the minimum for that airplane.

Other than that I've flown commercial jet airliners with paying passengers when the total flight time, in type, between the two pilots was..... 62 hrs. That met the regulatory, company, and insurance requirements at that time.

Skipper had 25, I had 37. Skipper - "If anything goes wrong, you're the expert!" Twenty years later we still laugh about it.

[bflyer]

Hi

The outfit i work for, you have to be a TRI on the type; that was when we operated B727s. PIC have to be TRI and the entire crew(PIC,F/O,F/E)
have to have special sim training... same goes for the A320s we now operate minus the F/e

[homesick rae]

Thanks for the replies chaps - very helpful

[Spooky 2]

Well just to show the extremes out there I know someone with ZERO time in the airplane who just ferried two B777's from VHHH to somewhere in Canada. Only a type rating, no time. Then turned around and ferried another B777 here in the US with a non rated, no school or formal training on the aircraft. Is it legal? Well sort of. Is it smart? Hell no, and if I owned those airplane there would be hell to pay.

[IRRenewal]

What's so special about a ferry flight anyway?

[Beakor]

My company, (big UK charter) no special qualifications. A bit to know about in the ops manual about arming doors, securing cabin, firewatch etc but any crew qualified to operate the aircraft can ferry it. I must have missed something, its normally more complicated with pax, crew and cargo in my experience!

[ZFT]

Does depend upon aircraft type. T/Ps regularly fly outside their normal operating envelope, albeit with additional O2, temporary 8.33 comms etc on long a ferry flights hence special requirements of the crew.

[Spooky 2]

When I think of a ferry flight my mind drifts towards bringing an aircraft out of storage and getting it to some MRO facility. I have done a number of these and without exception they have been somewhat risky and always interesting and....never on time! If you ever get an opportunity to fly a Boeing with no interior, just bare metal on the inside you will not believe how noisy and difficult it is to control the temp inside the cabin.

[groundfloor]

Ferry Flights: That could be delivery as new, to storage, from or to servicing etc...

Ferrying can and still is a skill on its own especially smaller types going a long way... Pistons, King Airs across the Atlantic for instance.

So personally I would like to be shown the ropes especially on the smaller types where ferry tanks and non standard gear is involved.. So to answer the original question it`s not so much hours as knowledge. There are ferry pilots out there - masters of clearences for 3rd world countries - as well as the requisite big ones!

For the airliners close the doors, lock down the galleys and enjoy a couple of hours of peace and quiet! :ok: