who still has flight engineers?
 

a guy I was talking to at the airfield the other day is a flight engineer on a P3-C; I thought, wow, a dying breed. Or am I wrong? What planes still have FEs?

AN-124 + AN-225

Still a few DC10's and 747 Classics flying around with F/E's.


Not to mention B727's, 707's and DC8's.

All civil c-130's, or should I say L-382.

And plenty of military aircraft.

Lockheed L-382 (Civil Hercules) and Douglas DC-6.

Along with the P-3's, any Lockheed Electras

Many Militaries are still flying C-130s prior to the J model, those require FE's

yes, you'd imagine the An-225 might have an FE (or 3). That's an extremely specialised job, given the number of AN-225s flying. I've had the pleasure of seeing it on the ground, but never a t/o.

Add IL 18 and IL76 's + Mi8 helicopter

Did they ever build more than one?

I understand they've been building a second one on and off for years, but AFAIK it's still not complete.

Well any cargo operator with DC-10s, or 727s have em.

In Canada - off the top of my head - there's still Kelowna Flightcraft, and Cargojet (although I think they may be done with the 27s). Not to mention the couple private 727s floating around.

What is different is there is very few dedicated, career FEs. Some of my buds that have "sat sideways" are usually waiting for an FO spot or move on to an FO spot at another outfit.

It's not a bad gig really; it's a relatively quick way to get on a larger jet and scooch into that FO spot in a year or two.

Like this one (N4744 in 1978).

On the US Military side these come to mind:

C-5
KC-10
KC/RC/EC...-135
E-3 AWACS
E-8 J-Stars
E-4's and V-25's (Air Force one's)
E-6 mercury
C/AC/MC/EC/HC/KC...-130, pre- J models
E/P-3

Atlantic flew the Electra with just two pilots (no F/E). I think they were the only Electra operator to do this.

Airbus A300B4-100 or 200.
There are still a few around though sadly not for me.
The A300B4-600 did away with the Flight Engineer, (bloody computers).

Further to JW411, on another Lockheed, the L1011, my first operator (in the UK) flew it with an FO as Systems Panel Operator.

Interesting, I didn't know that. I wonder how they got around the requirement. Type Certificate Data Sheet specifies minimum crew as 3, Pilor, Copilot and Flight Engineer.

And Air Canada flew the mighty DC-8 with two pilots, no FE as I recall. There were extended seat rails in the floor so the FO could slide back to the panel and play with the bells and whistles (but don't touch those white knobs on the fuel panel ;)).

I think some companies, possibly Air France for one, initially operated the A310/A306 with an FE.

I remember riding on an Eastern A300B4 jumpseat years ago, the FE said she was deadheading between preflights. :ok:

The L1011 FE job also looked pretty cushy to me back in the day but they were long gone before I got to a couple of carriers that had them.

All I remember about being an FE is 'Check Essential!' and 'Drop-rise, drop-rise'...

I'm thinking some of these no longer have a flight engineer. For example, from the Air Force KC-135 information page:

KC-135 Stratotanker > U.S. Air Force > Fact Sheet Display

Mostly found in training schools talking tech to pilots these days.

RAF E3D, although the OSD is further away than the retirement date of most, if not all of the trade :bored: