pilot or co-pilot leaving flightdeck
 

Clearly every body needs to take a dump sometime!!

So either the Co or the pilot leaving leaving the cockpit for a short period is clearly kosher.

I have heard a friend of mine saying that in a European shorthaul flight of about two hours, an hour mid flight was spent with the pilot off the flight deck 'getting jiggy' with the cabin crew in the mid section galley.

Is this absence from the flight deck......acceptable? legal? prudent?

Curious to know, as I never heard or saw of it before.

Rgds.

Welcome to PPRuNe !

Not sure what "jiggy" is? Sounds like mild turbulence ?

I think you will find most pilots are (and rightly so) reluctant to discuss anything concerning flightdeck cabin security these days.

Certainly any unnecessary time out of the flight deck would not be considered prudent whatever else it might not be. On the other hand friends hearsay is not always a reliable source of fact.

Bealzebub,

Getting "jiggy" means the guy was looking for a place to play "hide the salami". This may require abnormally long times outside the cockpit.

:) I once left the cockpit for a protracted period of time. The scenario was this:

A 2hr 50min one leg sector in an HS 748 on earlies.
The Captain, a young Australian (could only be) delighted in eating curries for dinner and then expecting one to join in his consummate exclamations of delight at his morning anal eructations. They were disgusting to a degree that was so poisonous that not even the use of oxygen could alleviate the ensuing nausea.
One sunny morning, just after we had cleaned up the aircraft; I announced to Skippie that I had to disappear. As I left the cockpit I scrunched two stink bombs on the floor behind his seat, went aft and told the antipodean air polluter, via the intercom, that I would not be back in the office until top of drop, some two hours plus latter.
I did relent somewhat on this time scale but the Old Cock Sparrow certainly never ate fire food again before flying with me.
Oh yes, in an effort to preserve the olfactory sanity of the front row passengers; I insisted to the Cabin Crew that the cockpit door should remain shut for the duration. The poor old chap never even got a coffee on that flight.
I have to say that Captain Kangaroo took the whole business in good part.:p

Could it have been that the there were 3 crew members on board for whatever reason and one wasn't required to operate that particular flight?????

Getting Jiggy does indeed mean that someone is looking to hide the salami!!

On a more serious note this was a "two manned" flight of 2 hours duration and for close to 1 hour the flight deck was manned by only 1 person. The other was in a galley area in the middle of the plane.

Incidentally this was a BA flight and the response from BA was that this was perfectly safe procedure.

I have to say I find that hard to believe, but then again i'm no expert. I was hoping some of you guys were??

Rgds

doirefad - I'll give you the benefit of the doubt(!) as it is your first post:

1) It actually happened as you described it
2) You reported it as you described it to BA

Now, what did BA ACTUALLY say in their reply to you?

Who's on deck?
 

I guess you heard the JAL case a few years back?

The SOP was for the Captain to go to First class to have his meal. FO got a call from ATC to climb. Like a good JAL FO he replied "STBY", got out of his seat and went downstairs to ask the Captains peermission to accept the new flight level.

You guessed it. When he returned to the cockpit the door was closed and locked!

After much frantic chopping with the upper deck fire axe the Captain and FO, in full view of the upstairs passengers, regained entry to the cockpit and control of the aircraft.

SOP is now to ..............

Wait for it..................

Take the key with you when you go to ask the Captain.

BOAC, I appreciate the benefit of your doubt.

Remember this story was relayed to me.

What I am trying to find out is whether or not it is safe to have 1(either pilot or co-pilot) out of a 2 man flight crew OFF the flight deck for close to 50% of a two hour flight for no apparant reason then self indulgence?

Is it safe?

Then I would suggest that the story you were given was incorrect. Hearsay is not admissable. As to whether it is 'safe' or not, every company has rules about permitted absence from the f/deck and you were also 'told' that BA was satisfied with this 'absence'?

Endex?

Are you seriously saying a) the FO is unable to take the decision to climb by himself, b) it is acceptable to leave the FD unattended while the FO consults the skipper??

Or am I just gullible?

doirefad

A large number of BA flight crew live abroad and commute to work on the jumpseat. Often they wear uniform, especially if they have just operated in on another flight. I suspect that it was probably one of these people that your friend saw.

One Step Beyond

You are just gullible!

Airclues

Sounds like rubbish. No self respecting pilot takes an hour to play hide the salami. It's always over with far quicker than the time needed to take a dump.

Is this absence from the flight deck......acceptable? legal? prudent?

doirefad,

What do you think yourself ?

The basic subject (cockpit absence) is important .. the attempts at humour more appropriate in other forum threads, methinks.

About time this thread dies a natural death .. by all means start another on the important subject ...