Pilot rankings.

[PureMuscle]

When you begin your pilot career, what exactly gives people the ranking of First officer, Second officer, and Captain? I'm assuming it has to do with flight hours, and years with a particular company among other things as well.

 

[Yank McCobb]

More or less. It has nothing to do with flight hours, but everything to do with date of hire with the company.

Companies that operate 3-man crew aircraft use Second Officers (or Flight Engineers) and most pilots start there. (However, there are a few companies around that use Professional Flight Engineers who hold the position of "PFE" and are not typically referred to as "Second Officer", since they usually do not bid out of that seat.) Then as their seniority will allow, they bid up to First Officer and then Captain.

It really has nothing more to do with anything else. Seniority rules in this world.

 

[Yank McCobb]

I think the Second Officer also sits the side panel, like a Flight Engineer.

The Second Officer IS the Flight Engineer. However, usually a "Second Officer" is a pilot that does the FE job until his/her seniority allows him/her to move to the First Officer position. Some companies use PFE's that are typically A&Ps who also hold a Flight Engineer's rating. Then, there are the over 60s who instead of retiring, move back to the panel and fly as a Flight Engineer, since the age 60 rule only applies to pilots exercising the rights of an ATP.

 

[TristarCostar]

Seniority, Seniority, Seniority and so on!

 

[PureMuscle]

Alright, thanks. If it's mainly senority, that means the Captain is going to flying the plane most of the time, correct? I'm sure the first officer get's to fly, but not nearly as much. If this is the case, would the first officer be doing things like handling the comms, navigating, etc?

 

[DrewBlows]

Generally speaking the captain and FO alternate legs, though technically it is up to the captain. It may be different at different airlines, but I think alternating legs is pretty much industry standard. The pilot-flying just flys, the pilot-not-flying does pretty much everything else (radios, ect).

 

[Lear Lackey]

every other leg huh.... guess my captain didn't get the memo. I'm lucky to fly every 3rd ir 4th leg and even then he takes half of my takeoffs or landings.

 

[User546]

Its the position of the flight crew.

Captain sits in the left seat. First officer sits in the right seat.

Well, not necessarily! I fly left seat on some legs, but that doesn't automatically make me Captain! If it does, then I demand a raise in pay immediately!

But yes, your correct, in the conventional sense!

Just thought I'd add that two cents in - a lot of newer pilots get confused about whether you can log PIC or SIC based on what seat your flying in up front. They could easily confuse this with the same type of thing!