Cockpit Activites and Layovers

[Sean7432]

Hey all,

- Curious to know how pilots kill the time during long-ish transits. Is reading/ipad/kindle a pretty normal practice or does it depend on the Captain? Can both pilots read or is it just the Pilot Monitoring/doing radios? Is pillaging the in-flight WiFi a normal practice?

- How long are typical layovers when flying the line? Average, min, max hrs off? How long does it typically take from engine shutdown to hotel check-in? Is it common for crews to go out to eat/hit the bar or do most crews split and do their own thing?

- For major carriers, is it common to fly with the same pilot on multiple trips or is the pilot corps so big that you never really see the same face twice?

Thanks!

[Amadis of Gaul]

You've been wondering about airline life for two years now. Wanna come clean on what your deal really is?

[Sean7432]

Just a mil guy trying to get an idea on the nitty gritty, daily grind of the job.

[Amadis of Gaul]

Thank you for your service. Are you a military pilot?

[Sean7432]

Yep, might make the jump over to the airlines in a few years. Trying to soak up as much info on the little day-to-day details about the life. Would love to hear any "day in the life of an airline pilot" stories if you or anyone else has'em!

[Denti]

The problem with that is, that there is no "typical" day in the life of an airline pilot in my view. It all depends on airline, base, fleet, persons you work with on any given day, company SOPs, how crewing works and so on.

[Amadis of Gaul]

That is indeed too broad a question. I, for one, do mostly 4-day trips, so I work something like 4-on/4-off or something along those lines. That sometimes changes because I've only recently upgraded to the left seat, so I'm back on reserve, but, fortunately, I'm so junior that they assign me trips in advance, so I have a pretty good idea what I'm doing.

At my airline we have hard lines, so theoretically you would fly with the same pilot all month, but I've always changed my schedule around and flown with different people. Still, I've managed to fly with the same people quite a few times as well.

Our layovers are between 14 and 35 hours, with somewhere around 16 being typical. Most of the time we're at the hotel within an hour of blocking in, barring traffic issues. We also have long- and short-stay hotels, the latter being close to the airport, sometimes even walking distance.

As for hitting the bar/restaurant together, some people do it and some don't. I don't drink, so that makes me more of a slam-and-clicker, but I do enjoy getting together with other crewmembers for breakfast in the morning before heading out. But that's just me.

[bafanguy]

Sean7432,

Amadis of Gaul pretty much summed it up at the day-to-day level. I would add that the bigger the airline the more anonymous one can be. This is mostly good.

At one major US carrier with 14,000 pilots, for example, one airplane in one base has 500 captains and 500 FOs (you math majors can calculate how many possible 2-person combos can be made from that). They have a preferential bidding system where each pilot bids for his own schedule from a huge pot of trips vs bidding for preset schedules covering an entire month. When you factor in people going on vacation, training, sick out, contractual provisions to drop/swap trips it's possible to fly a trip with someone and, with no exaggeration, never even see that person so much as walk through your field of vision...ever again in your life.

They have many bases...some smaller than others.

Forget the flight attendants. Interacting with them socially on a layover is mostly a nonstarter. There are 23,000 of them and their scheduling parameters are different enough that you'll also rarely if ever see them again either: you lay over...they don't. They layover...you don't.

Small airlines will be a bit different.

If you're a mil guy, you've got buddies at the airlines who can give you more of the inside scoop at more than one carrier.

[Piltdown Man]

I night-stop with my crew in Europe. Typically we have between 12 and 20 hours in any location. Given that, what would you do? All we do is have a discussion and the best idea wins. Last week for example we popped off to a supermarket and got ourselves a picnic. Sometimes we hire a car. We go out clubbing. We go for walks, hire bicycles, watch a flim, go to the pub or simply do nothing. There's no rank, just a group colleagues who will try and make the best use of the time we have down route.

ps. We are a smallish airline, 600 cabin crew, 500 pilots. Average age late 20's, early 30's (with a few really old ones).

[wiggy]

Our typical layover, Longhaul, would be mostly just under 24 hours ( basically a night stop), with a few of 48 hours ish slips where you get a clear day. As far as social contacts go it's pretty much what bafanguy said.

Even when you factor in the fact that unlike his outfit we "only" have 4000 plus pilots, total, with maybe 1000-15000 ish on the type I'm on, the following is still true for us: When you factor in people going on vacation, training, sick out, contractual provisions to drop/swap trips it's possible to fly a trip with someone and, with no exaggeration, never even see that person so much as walk through your field of vision...ever again in your life.

Similar deal for the cabin crew we work with (>10,000), there's a handful of the seniors you might see once a year but other than that it's possible to go 15-20 years before meeting up with a cabin crew member who you shared a beer/glass of wine with.

In short at a large airline don't expect a forces style crewroom familarity and seeing the same buddies everyday culture...it can be very different.

As for activities - TBH once you've been somewhere a few times and seen the elephant/done the tour then it's each to their own, some use time off down route to get over fatigue and probably won't rush out with their new best mates every on every night stop, I think as PM has said it's a combination / mix of " walks, hire bicycles, watch a flim, go to the pub or simply do nothing. There's no rank, just a group colleagues who will try and make the best use of the time we have down route."