Garage Years wrote:
Personally I am surprised the Captain choose to take his rest when he did - knowing the ITCZ was coming up and the weather less than optimal. However I have no knowledge whether this was Air France normal practice nor do I know what other major carriers do.
To which Dani replied:
This is absolute normal practice in every western airline because every senior FO/cruise relief pilot/cruise captain can fully substitute a captain in all his tasks. Otherwise he wouldn't be cleared by training or the captain couldn't go to rest. Captains most of the time take the middle rest because that's the best one and he is enough tired to have a good sleep and he has enough time to prepare for the arrival. Well relaxed captain means good crew performance.
Well I flew for 35 years at a western airline and this was certainly not "absolute normal practice" because there was no "absolute normal practice". Every operation was unique and rest periods were organized by each crew on every given day (or night).
As for the ITCZ, my mob only got to penetrate it late in my career but after discussions with several pilots with extensive experience in it, my rule (and that of many peers), was to ALWAYS be in the seat during that transition. If we were going to tackle with the top of a "dry thunderstorm" I wanted to be in charge.
My opinion only.