It was never a CPL system in Australia for FEs.
There were two different beasts in the 3rd seat in some parts of the world. The FE known as a Professional Flight Engineer (PFE)and the Second Officer.
The distinction came about in the USA after US ALPA decided that they didn't want another union on their flight decks.That situation flowed on to US influenced countries such as the South American region. However at the same time some airlines maintained the PFE system. This was particularly true for freight because a lot of their FEs also had a A&P ground license.
The Europeans especially the Poms went the FE way.In Australia you did a Flight Engineers license through an airline with in house training. Most were selected from LAMEs. There was no requirement for pilot time although most had some.It is a specific FEs license, not a Pilots license.Type rating was done with the Pilots. Normally all practical training was done as a 3 person team from ground sim to endorsment.We all did the same theory although sometimes the FE got a bit more engineering theory. Later it was all the same.
We never had any formal IFR training but we were pretty good on the monitoring and in the sim we were often given flying. We were expected to be full bottle on the Jep charts and it wasn't unusual over Europe, especially Russia (in the early times there) to not only monitor INS loading, but often to load the INS
Over the years the airlines expectations changed. When I started my first sector under training was done by a Senior Check Engineer on his last trip. At 10,000' the headphones were taken away and I was told that the rest was pilot duties on the radio.By the time I finished on B747s we were fully integrated with the FE fully monitoring all the pilots actions and the pilots monitoring our duties. It was very much a 3 person team and we all had radio licenses. Our duties included all company coms if we didn't have a Second Officer. Even if we did we often did company coms if there were complex engineering requirements
Having now gone back 50 years on the Connie, I realise where the old FE was coming from. On the Connie you sit in dropped floor and its difficult to see out the window,you cant easily monitor the pilots and they can't see you. The B707 and DC8 for the better, changed all that.
Wunwing
Last edited by Wunwing; 4th Dec 2012 at 08:34.