Things change fairly rapidly within BA. This year some will be getting commands one at a very junior level, but that is not indicative of anything. Last year the time to SH command was 15 years or so. What it will be next year or the year after is anyone's guess.

Many factors affect the time to command, some internal to BA some external. These factors are very hard to predict and are not necessarily consistent on a year by year basis.

TopBunk made some valid points regarding length of career and time to command. there are c 4000 pilots within BA, there are more FOs than captains as we use heavy FOs on LH.

SH rostering at the moment is changing and becoming more difficult. LH is likely to follow in the next year or so. Those that look to BA and think of BidLine are living in the past, BALPA has effectively allowed that to be destroyed. Consequently, this year there has been much jockeying for position, BA have also introduced new types while reducing old aircraft numbers.

All this has lead to a massive increase in the training burden, the old "truths" are changing, the jumbo is not the best fleet to be on, but a new best fleet is still a matter of opinion. Part time is becoming more desirable, some of the older pilots are now starting to retire earlier, rather than staying to 65.

Pension and tax laws are affecting the situation as will any global events like the global economic crash of 2008. No one know how the possible Grexit will affect the European economy. Life is uncertain and all that affects time to command.

I would take the estimate of 5 years with a pinch of salt. It could easily be right or massively wrong.

Work on 10 years for SH command and hope to be surprised, not disappointed.

I am also looking for any additional info for 1st day assessment😀 please

Hi,

I've got my sim at Cranebank coming soon and have 2 questions...

- I understand that bidline is going. Does anyone know what it is being replaced with and if there will be any control over rosters in the future. My current airline uses a 'preferences' system which seems to try it's best to not match these preferences. Having some control over my roster is a big attraction for me.

- The job advert mentions an 'income transition scheme' in relation to the pension scheme. Can somebody shed light on this?

Thanks

The best question they could ask during the assessment is "Do you enjoy dining alone on a table for one in restaurants?"....

If you find yourself often dining alone in BA, perhaps it's worth asking yourself whether the problem really does lie with your crew...

Haha pj.

I've been in ba for nearly 16 years and while it's far from perfect, I have NEVER dined alone, and I go out for dinner every night I'm down route.

Maybe it's you?

No one knows what the new bid line is going to look like. BALPA gave away one of the greatest aspects of life in BA. They might have got rid of forced draft, but it's been replaced with Roster Assign, which for many is pretty much the same, except it happens every month, whereas forced draft didn't. The days off you bid for can be assigned work after the final roster is published. BALPA agreed bid line was broken and we had enough pilots. 400+ pilots have been hired since and we still don't have enough pilots, but we've lost bid line. Now at the behest of BALPA, it's all up in the air again. No one knows what Is going to happen now. We've got another vote coming up, but no info as of yet. I see the propaganda machine is being fired up though. Reading between the lines, however....

On Short Haul we spend hours sitting around in the T5 canteen on the most inefficient roster you could hope to publish, but that's lost on BALPA too! Still, we lost bid line and got nothing in return.

There are a hardcore of CC commies. It's easy to identify them and due to their hatred of pilots and of BA they tend to sit in their hotel rooms. I've had some good nights out, mostly with mixed fleet though...:cool:

Amen to that, at least there's Yammer:ugh::ugh:

Roster Assign is more convenient if you commute from Canada though:}:eek:

It's not as simple as...

Mixed fleet = fun
Euro fleet = pilot-hating-commies

Some of the best at-work nights I've had have been totally impromptu back street bars in the wee hours with EF blue-rinses whose 'Customer Plan' photo suggests they'd prefer to be tucked up at 7pm watching Poldark with their cat.

Conversely I've dined with 4 gorgeous iPhone/Facebook obsessed MF girls who've momentarily detached themselves from tapping away to chat about Britains Got Talent thinking to myself: get me the :~%k out of here!

I flew with an ex-BMI* guy a few weeks back - one of the nicest people I've ever met - we arrived at the hotel after a 30 minute bus ride with the EF crew who we'd been chatting to and laughing with the whole way, skip suggested a beer I was wiped so abstained, all the cc said the same. Next day I saw him and he relayed that he'd gone for a glass of wine only to spot the entire crew walk by. I reiterate that for 30 mins everyone had been pally and full of banter on the bus, then they went and flat out lied. Weird.

It'd drive you mad if you cared enough to try figure it out...

* CC refer to ex-BMI pilots as Barry's and the rest as Nigel's

DEP day 1
 

Hi all,
Has anyone already seen any graph analysis in Numerical reasoning test of DEP day 1?
Thanks,

There isn't any...just 25 very simple questions.

Computer tests
 

Thanks VJW.
For computer tests: are commands inverted? (if the bar goes to the left I have to push to the left, of the bar goes up I have to pull down)?
Any advice about the second computer test?

Is there anyone who can give me an insight of the 777 roster for a very junior FO? I start in September and I'd like to know what I'm up for.


Also, does anyone have any experience with getting a criminal record check from Spain and Germany? I've never actually lived there but I was based in both countries for longer than 6 months..

nrn

I've just had a quick and the most junior guys on the Triple are getting 4/5 trips per month but with such a huge variety it's hard to generalise. For example, six from the bottom is a SIN-SYD which some consider senior. Not much further up is a 5 day St Lucia (with shuttle unfortunately). There's also the usual mix of HNDs, NRTs, TLVs, DFWs etc. Not much help I suspect but the work does seem fairly well spread out. You will be on Blind Lines so it's up to the company to ensure you meet CAP (your contracted monthly hours).

Stay at Thomson (?) mate

Stay where you are mate. Only consider it, if you are offered LH and even then think very carefully about it.

My life outside work has deteriorated massively, and it is now apparent that unless I get LH soon, I will have to apply for part-time to be able to have any life outside work.

Being ex-Thomson (made redundant) now BA SH. (approximately half way up the SH Seniority list.)
Very rare to have more than 3 days off in a row, mostly 2 days off 4,5 or 6+days on, then 2 days off. No control over days off, as they can force assign you work up to a week before the beginning of the month.
No gold/silver days, so anything important you have to book a weeks leave.

Most days are very long, with a lot of wasted time. More and more 4 sector days are appearing on the roster and this is expected to get even worse with EASA.

Earlies 5-7am, lates 12-3pm.

10mins on the bus form the carpark, but it can be difficult to find a space, so allow at least 20 mins but ideally more.

I don't think that is entirely fair. We've been living under so called "force assign" for nearly 12 months now and I've been stung only once, and I haven't been working to CAP + 3 or 4 every month or anything ridiculous like that. Most of the time I get the days off I need (I am about 40% from the top of the Airbus at LHR). Sensible bidding offers a level of protection. Nevertheless I do agree that there is no way to cast iron guarantee a day off without having leave booked. But then, draft in some form has always existed at BA.

I would concede that increasingly I never seem to get more than 2 days off in a row, July being a good example. There can be no question we are working as hard as I ever have in a flying job. We are however, hopelessly short of pilots and the situation will doubtless improve as a) more pilots are recruited and b) CAP necessarily starts to reduce towards the year end to avoid an overrun.

As a very junior FO you would, without doubt, find yourself working nearly every weekend and probably not having more than 10/11 days off a month during the summer months. That's how a seniority system works, at the bottom of the pile you get little choice over what you do. Quite how EASA will affect rostering at BA is a big unknown at the moment but it probably won't be for the better.

I support the various other comments made about BA being a good, secure job with good training and almost always you fly with good people. The camaraderie with the crew is non existent a lot of the time though and would probably be a big shock coming from a charter airline. That's not to say you don't have a good night out every now and then, but it's rare.

Average number of 4 sector days in a month is around 2 at the moment.

Hope that helps.

Are things really that bad when compared to the vast majority of regional and charter outfits within the UK and Europe? For example, I can't imagine many operators, if any, are a Mon-Fri existence and particularly at the regionals, 4 sector days are the norm.


I would be very much interested in finding out more about the lifestyle and perks of a recent entry to the SH fleet, for example...


Sample roster
Days off
Ability to get certain days off in advance (i.e. 4-6 weeks)
Ability to get leave booked well in advance
Staff travel (when eligible)
Length of working day


Also, I have been told that a hold pool is used for successful candidates? As someone who is part of the way through the selection process, it would be interesting to know how long people are spending in that hold pool once they get the nod from BA. Does anyone know current waiting times for a contract to be offered?


Thanks all.

My fourpence worth on the stuff not specific to shorthaul.

Leave is allocated twice a year (two "seasons"). Keeping it simple you get a couple of weeks in the "summer", couple of weeks in the "winter" season. You also get a Duty Free Week in each season...Roughly speaking the lead time for leave is around 6 months (e.g. bid in the Spring for winter leave), lead time for a DFW 2-3 ish months minimum (e.g. we're bidding now for the winter DFWs). There's a points system to ensure that the senior pilots don't perpetually hoover up the attractive dates.



Aside from compassionate reasons and possibly days off associated with a reserve block there's effectively Nil/zero/nada official mechanism in place to guarantee a specified single day off on a full time contract. Obviously (?) your first option is to frame a suitable monthly bid around the day in question, but even if you do manage to be successful at the end of the rostering process you might still up being Force Assigned (FA) extra work, possibly neatly clobbering that special day off that you thought you'd managed to keep clear. About the only hope than is that you can find someone to swap with.

If you really need a day off you need to embed it in a leave block or a DFW - and you can't do that with 4-6 weeks notice.