Single Pilot plan for the A350
 

This would not be a flight that I would book a seat on.
Cathay Pacific Set For Single Pilot Airbus A350 Flights By 2025 - Simple Flying

So do we piss in a bottle, or wake up the resting pilot? Nappies maybe.

I believe there will always be two pilots on the flight deck, just that one of them won't be human.

Do they in fact need any human pilots on the flight deck in cruise? With the ever increasing reliability and coverage of modern data comms. is there any reason why the aircraft can’t be controlled remotely from … say a repurposed call centre in Mumbai? The potential cost savings are every airline managers wet dream and therein spells the beginning of the end of piloting as a career.

Bear in mind the USAF has had UAVs tootling around the world for at least two decades now. And it seems like they’ve got the hang of it.

With POS18 being a 50% paycut, they have already achieved “Single Pilot Salary” in the cockpit!

Yes they have but with a team in Creech Nevada flying them.

Yeah, they could use the call center that always wants to sell me a car warranty or says I'm eligible for a new interest rate on my credit card.

Personally I think it's a good idea. A good idea to get the f#$@! Out of here!

Unmanned passenger carrying flights will not be happening, as no airline/manufacturer will ever accept responsibility if a plane goes down and kills 200+ people. They need a ‘scapegoat’.

Just look at how many Teslas have crashed due to the autopilot mode with no one behind the wheel. Yes it’s a small percentage but still too big for aircraft manufacturers to accept as suitable

Old news. It’s already been trialled on delivery flights with Airbus observers and telemetry from Blagnac.
It’s far from a done deal as yet. Small matter of regulators, at home and en route, signing up to it, let alone all the other technical issues.
It is certainly being looked at by Airbus, and Grumman.

Surely they're starting at the wrong section. Install vending machines and get rid of the cabin crew. Imagine the hotel and allowance savings plus income generation by people needing to swipe their card if they want a meal or snack.

lucille

If commercial Aviation had the same safety records as the UAV’s I doubt anyone would ever fly again.
A small percentage of accidents, scaled to the same number of flight hours as Commercial aircraft would see a tremendous loss of life.

Single Pilot cruise is coming, that much I’m sure of. Beyond that? Not in my lifetime I reckon.

mothy1583

Cabin crew are there to meet regulatory requirements for emergencies and general first aid. If the ratio of FA’s to PAX (and Doors) wasn’t regulated then I have no doubt the amount of crew would be at least halved, depending on the Airlines level of service.

CX recruitment drive to be extended to dogs.

Must be able to bite the pilot if he/she touches any switch. All breeds considered iaw policy, diversity and inclusion.

Must have PR, and be vaccinated for kennel cough.

Since POS18 drove recruitment to new levels more and more flights have become in effect single pilot anyway.

Airbus have been very active in this. Single pilot, monitored by a ground 'pilot', who is watching over a dozen flights.

On the plus side I'll be gone before the aircraft, companies and public are ready for this. Glad my kids are heading to other industries.

At least we can re-use the yellow cups for something…

all we need is a brown cup now.

Could this be some pure PR distraction topic just brought up to change some headlines?

I think you’re right.

I can't see any of that happen in EASA or FAA land in the aftermath of Germanwings. The majority of European or US companies do not allow for a pilot to remain alone in the flight deck even during a three-minute loo break, let alone for hours on end.

Single Pilot
 

Longtimer

I'm wondering if the countries CX flies overhead will agree with this? Canada, Russia, USA, all EU ???

The only thing Swire Princes have a knack at is cut, cut, cut and lose, lose, lose.. Never innovation.....

Cathay wants the pilots they hire now with little or no training, qualifications, abilities or any idea or exposure to aviation prior to cadeting at cathay to be all alone up there at 37,000 feet with 300 passengers and the other pilot in deep sleep?😂

It would be a very efficient way of cleaning the gene pool though. All those on board who will perish would be the dumbest of the dumb. Not a bad idea actually. Darwin would love it.

Keep in mind several local hong kongers throw themselves off buildings every year because some girl dumps them or they'rehaving financial problems etc. And this is the targeted pool of cathay newhires with the new local terms only compensation package they have in place... to be at controls all alone for long periods at cruise altitudes.

There are so many crashes due to a pilot deciding to commit suicide and a lot more which has been prevented only by immediate reaction of the other pilot. We have a few sim instructors here at cathay who lost their :mad: while flying and that's how they were medically grounded hence becoming sim instructors (super nice guys with a wealth of knowledge and ability). Each and every one of those would have been a hull loss of not for the other pilot. This is what one of them told me while telling the story of what happened on that faithful flight when he snapped and had to be physically restrained out of the flight deck after he attempted to dive the aircraft from cruise altitude.

Ask the US airforce why they don't yet even consider putting live bodies on any of their pilot-less planes or even fly ANY of their live body carrying purposed aircraft (not fighters) with just one pilot on duty at any phase of the flight. Admittedly their threshold and tolerance for risk is much much higher than commercial aviation and their safety record speaks loud about what losses they're willing to accept. But even THEY don't yet even suggest what cathay and airbus are tripping about.

If you're the only one going for a radical idea while none of the others are even showing interest in that idea, there's your clue you're in danger territory.

The dire consequences of this idiocy could not happen to a more deserving management team than cathay's.

Will Cathay Pathetic still be around in 2025?

I bet all of you swore never to get on another aircraft once the radio operator was gone. Then the navigator. Then the flight engineer.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e145a2683.jpeg

But they still need two pilots…

Actually, all they need is a failed didi driver to taxi the aircraft out to the holding point and line up. Probably getting his taxi instructions via WeChat.

As for passenger reassurance? Do you seriously think the pax can differentiate between us and say a baggage handler dressed in a pompous uniform with lots of stripes and a large hat?

Self evidently my comments are not in the least serious, merely intended to illustrate the danger of trusting in a status quo.

By way of a knee trembler, I’d like to point out that Garmin have an auto land feature on some high end Piper single engine turboprop. If the sole pilot becomes incapacitated, the passenger presses a large red button. From that point on, the automatics take over and do *everything to land the aircraft at the nearest suitable airport, stop it on the runway and shutdown. I gather it doesn’t even need an ILS equipped runway. The technology is here.

”*Everything” in this context includes deciding which airport and runway, configuring the aircraft, advising ATC and making voice transmissions on appropriate frequencies to alert other traffic.

Pilotless passenger carrying aircraft ? Not a question of if, but rather when.

I tpull it off in a serious emergency.

Seems to me that you are an intelligent guy and would have used your same mental processes to analyse , plan and prioritise no matter that you might have had far fewer flying hours.

And the winner is ??
 

Longtimer

No doubt in my mind who's behind this at CX and it's not one of the Swire smurfs, they know so little about airlines and how they "should" operate they simply gamble on everything they can and excel and losing.

You want a good laugh, simply open the "Time Capsule" in the entrance lobby..

That said, the suck-ups pushing for this are the same crowd that screwed up EFB for years and the same ones that pushed for MFF/CCQ on 777/748; and spent zillions in the process.. While some of these smurfs have moved on (one after a door opening incident in flight ), some are still there,, e.g all the top fleet/flying/training/DFO/GMA +++. You know the ones; doing spins on brass poles trying to keep their egos & bonuses at high levels..
It's the same reason CX is very nearly gone.. Management or the lack thereof !!

I am not sure if this supposed to be implemented on the takeoff approach and landing phases, but the problem with that is that you get procedural drift. You don't fly with others and it is easy for you to make up your own rules.
There is also less accountability for your actions as no-one sees what you are doing, not good...
Flying with others keeps you current in a way that you can't get from reading the books.

My Family ain't flying
 

With the boondoggles and get rich quick schemes we & the entire world have watched emanate from the successive Swire carpetbaggers and sycophant CX managers over the last 30 years nothing much shocks me and I have only one worthwhile and correctly descriptive pronoun - WHATEVER :-(

Oasis

With AP TCAS and Depress Descent the next step will be single pilot in the cruise with flight following from the ground. The single pilot will be monitored - eye movement for alertness (long haul truck drivers are experimenting with this), probably a video camera. The hard step will be allowing the ground monitor to intervene. Weather avoidance also an issue, especially considering how useless the A50 radar is.

Flex is onto it, years of no regulation coupled by overzealous dreamboat management. Sadly no union backbone, to at least question this sort of fairytale direction. Going to lead companies like CX to a inevitable big wake-up.

CX has been involved with this project for 3 years. A senior Flt Ops manager did a demonstration flight with Airbus almost 2 years ago. That is when they committed to moving ahead with Airbus on the project. This will happen...and CX will be the "launch" customer. Helps them get rid of those "pesky" pilots.

Surely they can't be thinking about putting a brand new SO in the seat alone for hours at a time! Flown with plenty that I won't even leave alone for 5 minutes! So it's likely to require at least an FO alone in the seat. Which begs the question, if single pilot cruise relief requires an FO at bare minimum, what will we need SO's for?
But if we don't have SO's, how are they gonna recruit crew? Can't see too many suitably experienced people moving to HK for POS18 (or whatever worse package they are dreaming up right now).

Hahaha

As if any regulator anywhere would put their name on this, especially in the Cannot capital of the world. Airbus and CX can trial whatever they like.

And the latest Flight Inspector CAD have just employed has been fired by Cathay not once (KA), but twice! (CX cadet back in the 90s). Good luck asking him to help get this over the line.

mngmt mole

What I heard is the FO was sent to the bunk, management hero sat in jump seat monitoring alertness / error rate etc of the single pilot. The flight was a delivery A50. Bunch of VIPs (Diamond members, press etc in the back - so PAX). Did HKG CAD know about this? A50 is certified 2 pilot, not single pilot. How was it legal?

What you heard is wrong. Yes delivery flight. But no punters hence not a public transport flight. Hence FTL’s etc don’t apply.
And the man in the js was an Airbus guy, and all crew members were rotated through. Just the one at the controls except for the controlled lower airspace at each end.
And that dear friends, is probably the future.

Get Rid of Pilots ???
 

mngmt mole

"Helps them get rid of those "pesky" pilots", yes it will and on the same scale, paying passengers once this carpetbagger scam gets publicised by "proper" airlines and their "real" unions !!

I think Lufthansa and their Union could safely be described as a proper airline. As is Air France. They’ve all been trialling it. The reason CX is so attractive for these ventures is the trip length; and the fact that the company will bend over backwards to accommodate this stuff.