Keeping busy on long-haul

[davethelimey]

Just a gratuitously obvious question that I never ask pilots because I'm too shy.

When you're flying between London and Chicago (for instance), what do you do for the boring (i.e. mostly stable) part of the flight? I appreciate that flying a plane is more involved than just hitting "Go" on the autopilot, but are you busy for the entire eight hours? Most of it? If not, what happens?

Appreciate any replies.

[RadarContact]

The problem here is that as a pilot on a long range flight (same for middle range really) there are long periods of time where you are supposed to be busy doing things like system monitoring, ATC com, progress evaluation, etc. that don't include much physical activity.

Apart from looking like doing nothing to any amateur (no negative meaning here) observer, this is quite tiring. I, personally, like to get up, stretch my legs and give my circulation a little boost about every 90 mins.

[Maxrev]

Think of it like driving a car long distance through the night. You're watching the road, steering in a straight line and watching your speed all at the same time. None of these activities is particularly hard but in the middle of the night on a long, empty, endless motorway combining them for long periods becomes fatiguing.

Obviously in the cruise you're on autopilot so there's no flying to do but there are plenty of other things to do, as mentioned above. How boring it is depends on a few things...

1. Where you're flying to and how much traffic there is around you
2. Whether you remembered the Times Crossword
3. How dull the guy is in the left/right hand seat
4. Whether or not you're in a 'Bus, in which case you've a handy table for the aforementioned crossword and your dinner, otherwise you'll be balancing it on your knees. I once heard a test chap from Airboos once say 'you can spot what ze Boeing pilots 'ad for dinner...most of it's on zer knees...'