The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

shaneoreillyo wrote: »

hello.
my dream is to be a commercial pilot.
im in leaving cert at the moment.
i saw adds for cources in waterford pilot training college and cork atlantic.
im just wondering which is "better" in terms of having contacts to getting a job after your qualified. i also saw waterford help you aquire loans do atlantic do this if ye know.
what age is it to start the atpl my neighbours nephew said 21 but my friends brother said 18 they are both pilots so dona how i got different answers.
oh and im looking air traffic control aswell is it hard to get a job in that sector
thanks very much in advance

Just sat the air law ATPL exam last month so:D:

Minimum age for an ATPL holder is 21, Maximum 59. Minimum age for a CPL holder is 18 years old. So you can sit the ATPL exams before age 21 but the ATPL itself will be "frozen" until you reach the age of 21 and fulfill the minimum hours requirements (which is 1,500 hrs but there are also stipulations on so many hours PIC, XC, instrument etc etc)

searescue wrote: »

How many RTO's would an avergae short-haul captain execute in a year/career?

Are they common?

Outside the sim? Minimal, think I've had two in many thousands of takeoffs.

Lustrum wrote: »

As both Aer Lingus and British Airways have both recently offered cadetships, how do you feel about the way flight training has gone and in particular having to pay for a type rating?

There's a lot of negative comment about it on pprune, but if Ryanair and €28k for a type rating is your only option (particularly if you haven't done either OAA or FTE integrated course) are there any other routes open to people who are taking the modular route in Ireland?

I don't agree with people having to pay for type ratings. But I also don't agree that people should be put down for doing so. If there were plenty of instructing jobs or turboprop jobs going and someone paid for a type rating/line training then I can understand why everyone is angry. But there are very very few instructing or turboprop jobs going. I was unemployed for 2 years and people told me to get a freighter job. Eh yeah I'd love that if there was any available. People send out hundreds of C.V's with very few replys. Asia and Africa are even swamped with pilots. Look at Maun and places like that. Now there are 10 pilots for every 1 job there and that's in Botswanna never mind turboprop in Europe where hundreds apply for 1 position.

If you have a job lined up and have to pay for a type rating you'd be mad to turn it down because if you do they'll just turn to the next guy and he will pay and he'll earn it back in 6 months working.

lazywhole wrote: »

Great Thread !!

Whats the typical long haul roster. How many days off would you have off between trips ?

Fly out say 11am Irish Monday

Arrive the other end in NY say at 12:30 - 1 EST Monday.

You are then in NY until Tuesday evening and you fly back and arrive in Dublin 6-7am Wednesday morning.

Usually You'd do it all again Friday.

You'd do may 3 of them and then have about 4 days off and go again.

That was approx the roster I had in Aer Lingus when I left. It varies with seniority kind of.

787Dreamliner wrote: »

did you find the trip's across the pond quite long and boring?? what was the crew's workload like during the cruise.?? what else would ye do during the flight.? apart from the normal position and fuel checks ect..

what was the longest flight you have done..?

No they were never boring. Over the years you get used to it. As they say when you've been somewhere once the trip the next time is always quicker.
In any case we were busy monitoring everything. Generally speaking the rule of thumb is "if you are doing nothing you are doing something"...something wrong that is. You would be monitoring instruments to make sure they were reading properly and looking at fuel to make sure it was lower than when you last checked, various Ts&Ps, altitude, speed, course, time, ETA revision, checking on delays, weather on route and the possibility of having to go over or around it etc, and in the last hour or so of cruise going over arrival and expected or advised approach procedures.

Longest flight I did was the old DUB - LAX...12 hours over, about 10 and a bit back. The odd occasion you got a relief crew(odd occasion some FO fresh off TR would be slotted in to get some experiance in the 747 or A330[it was abig a320 so the more recent ones didnt need much] in the seat with a training Captain..that gave the SFO and Captain a chance to go get a cuppa or stretch his legs..we rarely slept..well I never did).
The DUB - SFO was long enough too mind you.

A320 wrote: »

Iv a question for an airbus driver,can you explain that the expedite button on the FCU does??? Thanks

It gets you to your altitude in best time by adopting the best climb speed. So if you really want to get to 20,000 fast you select 20,000 and hit exped and the aircraft will adopt best climb speed to get you up there as quick as it's little wings can.

I should point out that it also works with decent...however it would be used more in the climb in my experiance...as you dont want to decend too fast with pax onboard!

Thanks xwb, i guess no matter how long the flight is you would always be doing something and kept busy, have you ever experienced any sort of emergency will say half way over the atlantic.??

seems like the a330 kept you on your toe's alright;) you said that aircraft have personalities, was there any of EI a330's you prefered to fly..? i think they have 4 a330's is that wrong.?

Some were nicer than others to fly. Not sure I want to tell people publically [/QUOTE]
ya true it wouldn't be good idea id say:p

have EI still been asking you to come pack to fly.???

useless wrote: »

Great thread, thank you to all the contributors.

Probably a ridiculously stupid question, but...

I've often taken off say, 30 minutes late, the captain/FO comes on the intercom when the plane gets into the cruise & apologises again for the late takeoff & says something along the lines of 'trying to make up the time in the air', then we end up landing & on stand more or less on time.

Is this just done when the crew realise they've a favourable tailwind/have been given ATC clearance for a more 'direct' route to destination or is it just the pilot putting 'pedal to metal', to use a motoring analogy? Or something else?

For a major airport like JFK you will have a slot due to the volume of traffic(many times we were told to "continue approach number 6") . You arrive and land in your slot and in airports like that it is very much enforced and it is rare they will let you in earlier unless there is a slot available from a delayed or cancelled flight. So when you depart your airport you are basically going at a speed that will get you there in and around your slot to land. If you have a tailwind and fly faster you will have to slow down to not arrive too early. For example ATC will tell you "Do not cross Bangor, Maine earlier than 1400Z" which means you cannot cross that nav point etc before then.
If you take off late however you can put the foot down and speed up and may fly faster and make your slot by making the time up as you dont have to slow down and also you still have a slot to keep. Eventhough you are say 30mins - and hour late you could still make it. An A330 going JFK - DUB with an decent tail wind could get across in 4 hours if the taps were open(when Donnacha O Callaghan's wife went into labour he was rushing back from UNICEF work in Haiti and flew form NY to Shannon. The Aer Lingus crew got permission to fly full whack and were in Shannon 4h 20mins after departure). Sometimes with a godd tailwind you have to slow down to stay sub-sonic!
Slots for Dublin generally are fairly loose as the traffic volume isnt huge in comparison to other airports and they can fit you in. But going to a big US airport you must keep to your slot. If you arrive earlier than planned they wont let you into the pattern and you'll have to hold for however long. Thing is more times that not you have a headwind going west and a tail wind going east. Generally with the Shannon stop over you just show up...they expect you when they see you!

Dreamliner - Yes they have. I was asked directly by a Current Captain last week if I'd go back. I'll see what offer is put on the table.;)

NiallMH wrote: »

XWB - Was there ever any times where maybe halfway through a longhaul when you didn't have too much to do except talk to the other pilot, that you literally could not find anything to talk about and had to stay confined to your small cockpit in a massively awkward moment?

No we usually had something to chat about!

Lord Lucan -

Ever seen any UFO's?

On a serious note,what's been your favourite approach in terms of scenery/visual spectacle?

No comment on the 1st bit.

As for spectacle....well you never get tired of seeing the sun come up over the horizon coming home from the states.

Also I remember seeing some Stratocumulolenticularis cloud(spelling is wrong no doubt) over the Alps a few times.

787Dreamliner wrote: »

.....i plan to get my ppl and have some fun with that maybe visit a few airports around the country:D

Dont go to Galway..they wont give you fuel!:rolleyes:

But club and private flying is the best type...see how many airports you can get. Try and collect them all haha.

787Dreamliner wrote: »

Or shannon they dont have av-gas:rolleyes: haha ya try and get them all except
dublin couldn't imagine them been too happy with an 172 asking to do a "Touch n GO" haha:P

Declare an emergency!

I did that in Baldonnel..I asked Mil Radar if I could have a touch and go and they said the could only get me in with an emergency..so I called up the tower and declared an emergency and asked to land and they asked me the nature of my emergency was..and I replied "what kind of emergency would you like me to have?"..i landed..rolled down the runway and then said it was all ok and carried on off again!

See if they think you know what you are doing they are very flexible!