second / first officers?

[JulieFlyGal]

hiya, just wondering why some airlines have second officers and others only have first officers? Does Jetstar use second officers on their planes? and how does the role of the second officer differ from first officer? eg, do second officers only do the ****ty jobs like the walk-around and writing down the atis or do they do some flying too?

[bullamakanka]

They also fetch coffee and get the FA's phone numbers for the FO.

[AerocatS2A]

Seeing as no one else is being helpful, I'll try.

Second officers are the third pilot in the crew. Modern airliners are designed to be flown by two crew so the SO is effectively an extra. I'm not sure exactly what they do. Paper work mainly I guess.

They are only required on long flights so Jetstar, being a domestic shorthaul airline, does not employ second officers. Though they probably will for their up 'n' coming international ops.

[Angle of Attack]

S/O's are 3rd crew yeah So for long sectors they are on while other are having a break, J* call them Cruise F/O's and manage to fob them off for less than Australians Average pay! lol, As a sidenote wow writing down the ATIS is fairly special I think even S/O's wouldnt be allowed to do that! I know as an S/O I was pretty happy to write the registration of my aircraft that was my highlight..Just so the Captain could read it! haha!