Quote:
Originally Posted by Videopro
It’s the first I’ve heard of anything like this happening. As you might imagine, they are extremely anal about checking all of the qualification criteria for pilots. This probably happened on occasion in the pre-computer era of aviation, when all training records were tracked using a paper trail. But now, the computer checks each pilot for qualifications every time that pilot checks in for a trip.
Warnings are also given as pilots get close to being non-current. This comes up most often for international pilots. One of the basic currency requirements is to have three takeoffs and landings within any 90 day period. When flying domestically (2 man crews), this is never a problem. I’ve sometimes gotten three takeoffs and landings in a single day, even in the 757. Many of my trips in domestic flying comprised one leg per day, but occasionally we might have 5 legs in a day (e.g. start in ATL, do a round trip to Savannah, a round trip to Nashville, then fly to BOS for the night).
When flying international, with 3 pilots, one of the FOs will not fly a leg. As Captain, I’d take one leg and the FO getting closest to being non-current would get the other one. There were a few times where I let both FOs take a leg because both needed a takeoff and landing. This was not common.
It’s even worse for the long haul flights. In the 767, we used to fly to Cairo, Tel Aviv, and Amman. These flights required 4 pilots, two Captains and two FOs, because the block time exceeded 12 hours for one leg. For these flights, guess who typically gets the flights? It’s usually the two Captains. It’s quite common for FOs doing long haul trips to have to go to Atlanta every 3 months to get three bounces in the simulator to reset their currency.