With no pax, do commercial pilots goof off???

[TurboS7]

33% of all our flights are positioning flights with an empty airplane, many times with another crew. Contrary to popular belief the FA's go to sleep and wake up on short final. You worse critics are the other crewmembers on board so you really do try to do everything totally by the book. They hold you accountable one way or the other.

 

[Tripower455]

I see you're an SWA guy, so shed some light. I'm just going by what the news article stated. Were they given their jobs back.

There is a lot more to this story than the media told you, and not about the "naked" stuff......

Both guys are still working for SWA.

Part of their settlement to come back to work was a gag order imposed by the company, which says something about the case........

 

[Dash8]

so this one time, on a ferry flight i.....

 

[Ailerongirl]

as the plane takes off, crew members are in the habit of sitting on a tray at the top of an aisle and tobogganing the length of the plane.

Fun!

Although I don't think it would work quite the same in an RJ =/

 

[Xphile]

I have heard rumors of Learjets rolling at altitude when empty. Had an interesting demonstration of mach tuck once.

 

[PhatAJ2008]

...Heard the story of the two CRJ Pilots that wanted to try a barrel roll during a repositioning flight? Well, apparently it is possible, although not allowed by their employers...

How were they caught?

Blue stuff on the ceiling of the lav!

Needless to say they only ones not impressed were their employers.

 

[TurboS7]

Not impressed, anyone can roll an airplane, it takes flight dicipline to not do it when no one is watching.

 

[Kingairrick]

Of course the most disturbing thing about this whole thread was the fact that Unanswered was in Tampa.

 

[@irboss]

My body used to wait for one of the flight attendants to go to pee , and suddenly flew the Let410 like it hit wind shear, then came the fa all peed in her uniform...... he got fired after to much of that . no pax on the way back off course

 

[Resume Writer]

PS, it is rare for an airline line pilot to ever fly an empty airplane. My empty leg flights have been the result of delivery flights after maintenance, and the occasional reposition flight.

The only time we normally had empty planes was when we had a mechanical and they re-booked the pax on another flight, but the aircraft still had to be at the destination for positioning. For the most part, it is pretty rare, as they are always trying to maximize revenue.

 

[jackotron]

"professional pilots" have been known to "goof around" when there are no pax onboard. Some things these "professional pilots" do include agressive rudder inputs at mid level altitudes, agressive nose ups and push overs. Climbing at airspeeds signifcantly lower than those published by the manufacturer or FOM. Switching seats mid flight, overtemping engines, activating stick pusher and/or shaker, using non-standard phrasiology such as "dude"

On ferry flights, "professional" pilots keeps saying to eachother, "Hey we're 'professional' pilots" (They do the little quotation motion at the same time). They also correct the student pilot who uses the phrase: commercial pilot, instead if their preferred word that they continually put in quotes (also with the motion and condesending tone). The poor kid asked a question and you knew what he meant. Relax "dude."

- Jack

 

[NookyBooky]

Must have been one sloppy barrel roll. Fu*king amatuers.

 

[Aerosurfer]

Dude, I bummed a ride on a Repo flight about 2 weeks ago, Aisle surfing in the 170 is rockin!!! Rip the covers off of a Hemisperes Magazine and on climbout let 'er rip down the coach class.

It was Like surfing the 50 Year storm, Johnny

 

[SiuDude]

I recall reading in a book written by some retired airline captain that they had a landing contest on one flight. The deal was that if the pilot could land the plane and taxi back to the gate without causing the toilet seats to drop (they were placed in the up position by the flight attendants prior to landing), they would receive BJ's.

The crew managed to land the plane nice and smoothly, and all went well up until they taxied up to the gate. Just as they were pulling up the ground crew suddenly made a gesture with the batons to stop abruptly for some reason (I forget what). You guessed it, the seats all at once came crashing down, making a loud thump throughout the cabin. Needless to say, they lost the bet!

That wouldn't sound good on the CVR!

 

[Tripower455]

This thread is an omen......

I haven't done an empty leg in a few years, and I did one last night.. We were running about 2 hours late, and they accomodated all the pax on an earlier flight.

I made sure to try ALL of the antics posted in this thread, just to see if they worked! There's a little pitch coupling as you come through the 90 degree bank on a '700! (I am kidding for those humor impaired types).......

Actually, the biggest thrill I got was changing into civvies for the flight to MCO....... I think it's the first time I ever flew a 737 in shorts and a t shirt!

The FA's in the JS enjoyed the ride too, as 2 of them had never sat in the cockpit for TO and landing......

It's also nice being able to get up and pee without a huge procedure!