licence requirement

[Bungfai]

This is a revenue flight on B777 and it is an 6 hours flight leg into the night. There are a captain and 2 flight officers. One flight officer carries a CPL licence with about 100 hours on type and total 600 hours. The other one CPL with 400 hours on type and total 900 hour. Both without ATPL. Can the captain take a rest outside cockpit? Is there any rule and regulation regarding active crew on duty?

[411A]

It depends on the specific regulations of the licencing authority.
In our case, the Captain must stay, unless one First Officer is ATPL rated, which is normally the case.

[Meikleour]

Bungfai: I assume that the flight in question is not required to be `augmented` by your local CAA so, normally the captain can leave the flight deck for `physiological reasons`
ie. toilet breaks, even with a CPL rated F/O. However................. if his wish were to spend extended times off the flight deck leaving 2 CPL F/Os in charge, who may not have had `Relief Commander` type of training and for there then to be an incident like a depressurisation .......... I think at the subsequent board of enquiry the captain might have a lot of trouble explaining his actions!

Usually augmented crew schedules are derived by the airlines in consultation with their relevant CAAs. The `extra` crewmember would usually have had some additional training.

[Bungfai]

Thanks a lot. My company manual requires at least one ATPL to occupy pilot seat during cruise only for intercontinental flight.No need for regional flight. I wonder what difference it make. I feel it is not right to let only low flight hour CPL to relief captain during cruise. How could we explain to the public that both of the pilots on duty got such a little experience. Or it is me who worry too much. I wonder if there are any FAA or JAR regulation about this matter. I feel it is not right.