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Duane,
As a 22 year airline pilot, I found myself laughing at
some of the assertions in your post about crews sleeping, making excuses for
mised radio calls, computers taking over at 50 feet, etc. Where did
you come up with this stuff? Let me correct some of the ridiculous
things you said:
"The main difference in that and commercial
aircraft now is that there are two pilots up front whom one of is
supposed to
be awake at all times to monitor the computers that fly the
airplane."
Actually, ALL pilots on the flight deck are supposed to be awake ALL the
time. Do pilots doze off now and then? Sure; I know I've done it on
all nighters, but only for a few minutes at a time and only after making sure
that my F/O knew he needed to be alert while I was doing it. If my F/O
tells me he needs to close his eyes for a few minutes, I make certain that I'm
alert while he's doing it. What we do is take what are called NASA Naps,
very brief light sleeps which greatly increase our alertness
afterwards. On international flights, there are one or two relief
pilots so one pilot or the backup crew can rest, either in a reserved first
class seat or in a bunk so that the crew in the cockpit is as rested as
possible. I can honestly say that in my entire career, I've
only experienced one instance when both pilots fell asleep and that was on
a day we'd had extensive weather delays and then were reassigned to fly an extra
leg that arrived at its destination seven hours after our original scheduled off
duty time. At that point, we'd both been on duty for over fourteen hours
and the time we were both asleep over the middle of Utah was only a matter of a
few minutes.
"I'm sure you've read the stories of center not
being able to reach an aircraft for long periods of time. This
often happens when all flight deck crew fall asleep at the same time.
Of course, they claim radio failure."
That statement
is a total CROCK! I lose contact with center many times a year, but
never because the crew was asleep. It usually happens when we fly
out of range of a ground station and miss center's call with a frequency
change. I'll tell you what's much more common for me, and that's when I
have to call center two or three times to check in on a new frequency.
Does that mean that the controllers are asleep on the ground? I don't
think so!
"I've entered the flight deck and found the
pilot asleep, the first fficer reading a magazine (while dozing) and the flight
engineer asleep. Did it bother me? Not really. Once the
computer takes over, usually passing 50ft. agl, it is all automatic
thereafter. Once on final, one of them pushes the pilot disconnect button
and lands the
airplane."
First, how does one read a magazine while dozing? I do some reading
of aviation magazines, company bulletins or do Jeppesen revisions in
cruise at times, but I'm normally awake when I do it.
As for computers taking over at 50 feet, I assume you're talking about the
autopilot. Most pilots I know don't use it until passing 18,000
feet. I personally hand fly until near level off at cruise altitude.
In the plane I fly, (737-800) we aren't allowed to turn on the A/P until 1,000'
on takeoff, but it's rarely done that low. With SIDs on the way out
of and STARS on the way into major airports, often with vectors, direct
routings for shortcuts and variations from published speeds, the FMS and A/P
cannot fly everything automatically, but need to routinely have new inputs given
to them by the pilot flying the airplane. You seem to imply that we hand
fly the planes as little as possible, which is silly. We're pilots after
all - where's the fun in that?
It's very clear from your post Duane, that you are not an airline
pilot. With that in mind, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your opinions of
how we operate to yourself.
Skip Slater
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