Flight Crew Question: Long Range Flights
From what I remember, on flights that were of less than 8 hours you'd just have the captain, and the first-officer (and on older planes, the flight-engineer), with the pilots alternating flying the plane from one leg to the next of the flight.
On flights over 8 hours, you had an extra person to relieve the Captain, and over 12 hours you had a Relief Captain and First Officer with the primary crew flying the takeoff and landing a certain amount of hours in between, with the relief flying the middle section.
In regards to the 12-hour flights: On alternating legs who flies? Does it work like
1.) Captain A flies the first leg with Captain B as the relief, and then Captain B flying the second leg with Captain A as the relief
2.) Captain A flying the first leg, with Captain B as the relief; First Officer A flying the next leg with First Officer B flying as relief; and so on?