What are the daily routine a commercial pilot do prior to flying the plane?

[tloz]

Do they arrive like 4-5 hours early than usual? Do they check-in at the counter the public uses of do they go some where exclusive for cabin crew to get checked in/security checked etc.

[wiggy]

If they are starting a potentially very long duty day ( perhaps 12 hours or more, both for long haul and also for shorthaul due to the fact they often do multiple sectors) I can promise you the crew will most definitely not be arriving "4-5 hours early", much more likely to be 90-60 minutes prior to their first scheduled departure of the day, the exact requirement will depend on the airline. Most of my short haul colleagues are very good at timing their arrival for report to the minute, especially if they are reporting at some horribly early time in the morning...and most especially if they only came off duty from their previous block of flight(s) some time the preceding evening.

The answer to the rest of your question generally depends upon whether the crew are reporting for duty at base or down route, and may also be dependent on the airline and/or airport.

[redsnail]

For us, it "depends".
Non revenue, first flight of the tour, 1.5 hours.
Revenue, first flight of the tour, 2 hours.
Tricky locations, add 15+ minutes etc.

Only time we're 4-5 hours early is if there's been a change and couldn't change our show time and they've tacked a hotspare duty on before flying...

We rarely use the public terminal, if we do our handling agent hands us the small to large tree of paper and we're escorted through security and immigration (if required).

Non airline operations.

[tloz]

Oh okay. Thanks for the info. So say for a pilot is flying from LHR to LAX, they'd arrive like 90-60 minutes early and go through a 'private cabin area' where they would check in, get the paper work like weather reports etc and go through security?

Reason why I'm asking is in writing a short story and so I need to know what they do. I tried googling it but can't really find a accurate answer.

Thanks for the help

[wiggy]

Not sure I'd call it a private cabin, if at home base we'd print out the paperwork in the company offices, brief ourselves and the cabin crew and then go through security with the aim of being at the aircraft about 45 minutes prior to departure. If we were down route we'd probably check bags on at a normal desk, clear security and then in all probability pick up paperwork at the gate or on the aircraft and brief on board. That's for long haul passenger ops..

As has been said it's sort of an "it depends"

[aterpster]

wiggy:

Not sure I'd call it a private cabin, if at home base we'd print out the paperwork in the company offices, brief ourselves and the cabin crew and then go through security with the aim of being at the aircraft about 45 minutes prior to departure. If we were down route we'd probably check bags on at a normal desk, clear security and then in all probability pick up paperwork at the gate or on the aircraft and brief on board. That's for long haul passenger ops..

All our on-line stations had a "ramp office" where we checked the weather and did our paper work. All of them were after we went through security.

[Denti]

It depends, at a base we do have our own crew lounge with briefing computers where we used to print out our paperwork (OFPs), brief and then brief with the cabin crew. Most of those are airside behind some staff security facilities.

Off base we usually just use the staff security and then go to the gate and wait on local staff to let us onto the plane if it is there already. Briefing will be either done on the drive to the airport or on the aircraft.

Nowadays we use our iPads for flight preparation, so we don't really need any paperwork anymore, but we do need network connectivity of course.

Oh yes, report time is 60 minutes prior off block for short- and medium operation and 75 minutes for longhaul operation.

[wiggy]

aterpster

All our on-line stations had a "ramp office" where we checked the weather and did our paper work.

Yep, we used to do the same most places in the world..then the accountants got busy

[de facto]

You mean at Air Baltic?

[Piltdown Man]

In the modern electronic age we grab our flight plans in the hotel with our breakfast or on the bus to the crew centre. Only if the weather is really horrible to we have to spend much time preparing. We could, if we really wanted, discuss the approach lighting faults of airfields we won't be going but to be honest, we can't be bothered. So we arrive 60 minutes before our flight and have a coffee together. Our colleagues in the cabin may tell us what they are expecting and we'll tell them what we anticipate. Each of us will also brief the other on any specials or events out of the ordinary. However, I'm only a gash short-haul pilot so I can't be expected to kick the backside out of every singe bit of (electronic) paper thrust in front of me.

We will normally arrive at the aircraft 30 minutes before we depart, start boarding 20 minutes before scheduled departure and leave as soon as we can. However, we'll normally go nowhere because every other bugger wants to leave as well. Such is life.

PM