ReadyRsv

10 MONTHS. Dang. I feel slow now doing 1-3 legs in el autobús when compared to flying a turboprop but 10 months. Ee Gad. (Obvi, nuthin bout u juz crayyy cuz)

MasterOfPuppets

Yeah that sucked I love flying.

robthree

Interesting discussion of IRO competency as flying pilot. At my previous carrier we flew as a four-pilot crew and cycled the IROs through the flying seat regularly. The Captain generally made every fourth landing, instead of every other landing.

How would you WB guys feel about removing the flying/bunkie distinction from the FO lines and just have the guy who had the most recent landing do the walk around and the maps and let the other guy fly? Yes, this would be another area where seniority would be circumvented, but in the name of improving safety by raising the overall competence on the flight deck.

Galaxy5

I think we’re unique in this matter. Don’t really understand why we have a bunkie position in a bid other than “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

Spicy McHaggis

The record for longest stretch without actually flying the plane that I've had someone tell me first hand (happened to him, not a "so and so" did) was 5.5 years. That's quite a stretch.


I never bid IRO or FO positions. I just bid days off I needed and efficiency. Sometimes I'd be the FO, other times the IRO. I still like flying so I would always try to switch to the FO position if I could, but I'd never downbid or trade down to fly. If I have a 29hr trip, I'm not bidding down to a 23hr or less trip just to get a landing. That's the equivalent to renting the plane IMO.


After 7+ years, I got bored with not flying much, even as the FO, so I went to the bus. I'm getting plenty of opportunity to fly now..

SUX4U

I understand that when I see I’m the bunkie I know I’ll be on first rest and avoid the coffee or wake up a bit earlier in the day. If I’m the flying pilot I can prepare for the flight by sleeping in later or grabbing a short nap before report time. It would really suck showing up to an 11 hour flight/
3 man crew or one of the late night 4 man crew ULH flights and not having any clue who is taking first rest.

Probe

I flew long haul long ago (777 FO) and just bid back to it again. I never flew the 2 or 3 trip a month gig, as I wasn't senior enough. I am now.

I always felt that somebody on the jet needs to know how to fly. I think the captain should get every other landing. I always liked the idea of "professional IRO's", as I would rather have 2 pilots on the jet that still know how to fly. Trying keep 4 pilots current with 4-6 landings a month just doesn't seem doable to me.

Just my opinion.

Big E 757

This is the problem with not having a designated “bunkie” on augmented crew flight. I’m at Delta and flew the 757/767 (7ER) as an FO for 8 years. The first three years I did nothing but JFK to Europe and every trip, I didn’t know what break I’d be on until the briefing. I’d always try to commute in early enough to take a nap and if I did get one, I wouldn’t always be able to sleep on first break, but at least I started out rested. Most of our flights to Western Europe weren’t long enough to really get tired out of JFK but the late flight to LHR and Budapest, Bucharest, Istanbul, Kiev were long enough to make it hard to stay awake towards the end of the flight. It would have been nice to know before hand, what break I was going to be on.

The Captain would usually ask who needed the landing and that FO was the relief on the way over (the Captain almost always flew over) and then be the flying pilot on the way back.

Floyd

While it's always the Captain's call to determine who flies the leg, that authority should only be exercised under the rarest of circumstances. Removing the bunky as a bid position and allowing the Captain to determine which First Officer flies is an abrogation of seniority. For those who suggested a professional bunky position that is nothing more than a C scale and greatly reduces widebody opportunities, read $$$, for hundreds and maybe north of a thousand First Officers.

Grumble

This is exactly why we need to have the IRO its own bid. If you don’t want to play the bunkie/landings class game... don’t f’ing bid it.