Pilot to Aircraft ratio - how many do you need?
 

Just wondering how other corporate outfits crew their aircraft, allowing for leave / sickness / sim training, etc. I realise some operators have a fixed roster while others have none...and everything in between:)

I know it depends on how many sectors / flying days, but just looking for a industry average.

For a UK based / Multi pilot operation suggestions so far are:

Long Haul 3-5 pilots per aircraft
Short Haul 3 pilots per aircraft

Pilot to Aircraft ratio - how many do you need?
 

You don't find many 3-pilot aircraft! But over here, short-medium range, we play roughly with one machine needing 3 crews a day (vaguely one AM, one PM, and one set on call).

Very rough it it vaguely works out.

In midsize fleet operations I've seen mostly 2 permanent and 1 contracting... And LongHaul jets usually 3 and 1 or 2 contracting...
Not UK based though

Find Section 1.8 and look for the "calculators" in Figure 1.5 and 1.6. This is what we use and it works pretty well. This comes from NBAA.

http://corporatejetsolutions.com/PDF...nt%20Guide.pdf

It really comes down to how many days off per month you are willing to give your crew + what sort of coverage you want. 24/7? Planed trips that don't normally changes and where you can plan hard days off in between? From there it's only a matter of simple mathematics.

CP

We operate 14 days on 14 off roster, long range bizjet 4 pilots 2 cabin crew :)

3 crew, no FAs, super-midsize ...... no roster (also holiday is never guaranteed - particularly if someone else is off sick or training gets booked) so effectively 24x7 standby ..... anyone got a job? :E

Some very useful replies, thanks guys. I think we are in the right ballpark

We operate 2 Globals and a 604. We have 10 full time pilots and we get contract pilots when we require them.

We usually get 9 to 10 scheduled days OFF a month plus some of us have 4 to 5 weeks a year holiday time. We also get overtime pay if we lose a certain amount of those days OFF during a month.

Some of us go 2 times a year to recurrent training in Montreal for the Global and once a year in Dallas for the Challenger.

At least one for each aircraft.

A fleet of 5 light jets - last year 1.5 crews (3 people) per aircraft - this year added one extra crew, so 1.75 2 man crews per aircraft. 6 on 3 off.

Flying charter mainly, 760hrs per aircraft, average sector length 1.4 hrs

PB

thanks for all the replies

We fly Heavy Jets about 1000 hr/yr all part 91.... Each plane has 4 captains 2 FA's... rotation is Month on Month off with each aircraft setting their own time off and on... Our policy is, as long as the aircraft is covered, we don't care about using a hard 30 days as the rotation date. Its all about making sure the plane is covered and the guys and girls have a proper home life!!

FYI with this schedule we have 0 crew turn over...