A380

[studentpilotmcuk]

After spending a few days spotting at Manchester the other week, and seeing for the first time the A380, I have the following question:

How does a airline company train pilots to the standard of captain and First Officer on a brand new aircraft?

The A380 is still a very new aircraft and already in use throughout the world.

As I understand it, some companies require 10 years experience on type before they have there captains ratining on a particular aircraft type.

The only reason i could come up with is that the flightdeck are set out relatively the same as the A340, so thatwould leave the theory side to complete. I may be wrong though.

Any help in answering this question would be greatly apreciated

Regards to all

Stude

:)

[Hotel Tango]

At the end of the day they are only Bus drivers :}

[PAXboy]

If a Cpt has a good (and extensive) service record, then converting to a new aircraft is rather like asking an experiencee racing driver to move from the Renault to the Ferrari team. Which is to say that the two are broadly similar and what has to be learnt is the detail.

From the other side, Airbus and Boeing ensure that the develop the aircraft rather than jump top a new design. The first time that the sidestick was introduced WAS an enormous jump and took careful training.

However, in the same way that the 757 + 767 have almost the same flight deck and someone is licensed to operate both types, the 330 + 340 are paired and the 380 is a development from there.

[AndoniP]

Experience and commonality of cockpits / operation of Airbus types means you can convert from A320 to A380 in around 5 hours.

My (then) SFO friend at Emirates flying 777s was offered a position on A380s and declined - not sure how long the conversion would be though.

[Kennytheking]

Experience and commonality of cockpits / operation of Airbus types means you can convert from A320 to A380 in around 5 hours.

Not to any sort of acceptable standard.

CCQ from 330/340 to 380 requires some 18 hours in the APT(procedures trainer) and another 28 hours of Full Flight Sim.

The ground portion takes about a month and line training can take another month depending on rostering.