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Flight Options Dedicated Crewing

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RJL

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 21, 2002
Posts
68
Good Morning All-

I read with interest a new Flight Options ad talking about "dedicated crewing." Can any of you Flight Options pilots or candidates tell me what this means? Is a Captain and/or F.O. assigned to just one aircraft? What happens during maintenance? Do you fly other aircraft or are you grounded until your personal aircraft is ready?

Sounds like an interesting concept, but I don't totally understand how it works or if pilots like this or not? I also don't understand how it works with the scheduling.

Thanks-

RJ
 
At Options, there are two crews per airplane (4.7 pilots/aircraft). The schedule is 8 on, 7 off, so the crews rotate every week. All pilots are assigned a specific N # to fly, and they stay with that airplane until they change seats or equipment. Since FO deals with used a/c, one Beechjet may be configured differently up front than another one, the crews can get used to one particular aircraft and fly it all the time.

If you are on maintenance, you stay with your airplane wherever it is being serviced. I'm just an FNG so if any other Options guys out there can chime in, please do!!
 
I am at Flight Options and like the one dedicated crew concept.
For the most part the captain stay on the same aircraft all the time and the FO is sometimes switched out. The only time when the captain is not on his aircraft is when he is on vacation or if a check airman is going to do IOE with someone and they need an aircraft.
You get to know your aircraft and the crew flying it on the other week so you know who to blame if there is not enough diet coke on board the aircraft.

The best part for me is that I can track my aircraft the day before I go on duty to see where it ended its last trip so that I know early in the afternoon where I will be flying out to the next day.
(Before dispatch figurers it out and gives you your travel info)
 
EJA_PIC

Looks good on paper but what happens if one plane breaks? Can you take another tail number that may be at the airport? What if one crew member gets sick can you swap another pilot from a different tail number to fill in.

Does it get old flying with the same few people over and over again? Can you say complacency?

From what I have seen there are so many different configurations in the cockpits and equipment they had to do it.

How does this impact the passengers if there is an operational problem with the dedicated crew/plane?
 
Dedicated crewing

"Looks good on paper but what happens if one plane breaks? Can you take another tail number that may be at the airport?"

If there is another airplane there, then there should be another crew. If they cannot do the trip due to duty time issues, the Program Manager or Chief Pilot must approve the crew flying the other airplane. This rule has been pretty lax in the past, but due to some recent issues with Captains not flying their assigned airplanes for extended periods of time, they are cracking down on scheduling. They are not allowed to schedule a Captain as PIC on any airplane other than their assigned. A Captain can be assigned as an SIC on an airplane other than their assigned, and F/Os can be assigned any airplane.

"Does it get old flying with the same few people over and over again? Can you say complacency?"

I seem to fly with a different F/O every two or three tours max. I have not flown with the same F/O for more than three tours in a row.

"From what I have seen there are so many different configurations in the cockpits and equipment they had to do it."

So how many Flight Options airplanes have you been in? You're just "checking out the competition", right? Yes, there are some differences, and as you know each airplane has a personality all its own. The PIC knowing the history of the airplane helps reduce maintenance problems.

"How does this impact the passengers if there is an operational problem with the dedicated crew/plane?"

What kind of "operational problem" are you referring to? Maintenance problem? Another crew/airplane. Duty time problem? Another crew/airplane. Seeing a trend here?
 
um, "duty time problems"? I didn't think we had "duty times"! Let me know if i'm missing something.
 
"Yes, there are some differences, and as you know each airplane has a personality all its own. The PIC knowing the history of the airplane helps reduce maintenance problems. "

How could knowing the history of the airplane reduce maintenance problems? It's either broke or it isn't. This smells like: "The PIC knowing the history of the airplane helps him/her know when to write up a problem and when to ignore it cause it ain't gonna get fixed."
 
When your plane is in Maint. most of the time they will let you sit at home and you still collect perdiem, time to go out to eat, especially, since we get $40.80 per day while scheduled on duty whether at home or on the road, GREAT DEAL:cool:
 
I have been flying with the same guy for almost 8 months.

After the first 3 tours the program manager asked if everything was cool between us and if I wanted to rotate out or stay with him. Since we got along good and there was no ego problem. I decided to stay and it was great. If I wanted to or if he wanted to we would have been rotated around.

As for what you do if your aircraft is broke. I stay at home until it is fixed and get paid!!!!!
I had one whole tour at home and got a lot of yard work done.
 
TDvalve

If an airplane has an oil pressure gauge that always went to zero for 5 minutes after takeoff but worked ok all other times then thats how a Captain knowing the airplane would be an asset. A new guy may ground the airplane at the next landing or even return to the airport. If you have flown the airplane often you wouldnt inconvenience passengers and cancel trips for something that could wait for the next scheduled check. Jets are strange machines and many have unique faults that once a pilot gets to know can be worked around. Otherwise most airplanes would be hangar queens 24/7.

Also some airplanes may fly differently or wear parts differently such as tires, brakes, hot sections, etc. If I fly an airplane that always pulls a bit to the right on landing I will anticipate with thrust reverser or rudder rather than wearing out the brakes on one side prematurely and causing 2 trips to mx instead of one.

It seems like with jets its never as simple as "its either broke or it isnt"
 

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