lipca
31What do commercial pilots do once at cruising altitude?
Filed Under (Cruising) by admin on 31-07-2009
Tagged Under : Commercial Pilots, Cruising Altitude
Once they’ve reached cruising altitude, the autopilot is activated, radio frequecies are established, and the route is set, what sort of adjustments do they make in the cockpit?
Do they just sit there and talk or are they constantly fidgeting with things like cabin ventilation. Do pilots ever accidentally fall asleep?
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I read a book.
Yes, two pilots for a regional airline in Hawaii were fired a few months ago for falling asleep and fly right past their destination while ATC was frantically trying to get them on the radio.
My friend is a pilot for a regional airline. I asked him the same thing not too long ago.
He said that they usually bring their ipod or gameboy along to kill the time. They don’t have to do anything other than wait for commands from air traffic control and occasionally interrupt the passengers with nonsense. When they get close to landing they have to lower the landing gear, but other than that the computer takes care of everything. He said that once both he and the copilot were in the bathroom together during landing.
I laugh out loud at flurdled
they cruise and look cool
actually they:
1- monitor autopilot
2- monitor nav
3- communication with ground, switching centers, (radios on ocean crossings are quieter )
4- the loo (bathroom)
5- take turns to eat
6-read a book, crossword, draw, (some airlines do not allow mp3/laptops/portable video players)
7-cabin walk to stretch, meet passengers and talk to cabin crew
8-take turns napping (the FO will never propose to take a nap first)
pilots have accidentally fallen asleep.
A lufthansa flight A320 I think, had the misfortune of both pilots falling asleep. They flew right past their destination. Armed fighters were scrambled to intercept and for a few minutes, a hijacking was thought to be in progress. ATC finally reawakened the pilots by broadcasting a high pitch squeal through the radio. They were indeed fired.
you can google pilot sleeping at controls, pilot fatigue etc for more cases.
I am a pilot for us airways and I fly flight 1969 a319 eow to San juan and that’s a four hour flight. Normally I just listen to atc and wait for switching centers and different frequencies. They don’t allow us to listen to Ipod or we can’t take out our computer. Really I just talk to my first officer and eat my breakfast.
Once at cruising altitude, pilots set the autopilot (alt. hold, heading hold or GPS hold, and auto throttle). Then they continue to monitor the displays. During the cruise, the aircraft gets handed of from center to center by ATC. A center is an atc station within a region for flights en-route to their destination. Once they are getting close to their descent point. They review charts for the arrival airport and arrival procedures. They also set the ILS frequency and heading which helps to line up the aircraft with the runway on final approach.
Not sure as I am not an airline pilot (yet) but I do know that if a dial isn’t turned every 15 min I believe all sorts of alarms and whistle go off. At least in the Boeing 777 our friend fly’s the 777. So you won’t fall asleep at the controls of the 777.
For the most part, there’s not much to do. Every once in a while, you’ll get handed off to another air traffic controller. They will always keep an eye on everything, but that doesn’t exactly take a lot of concentration. Some pilots talk to each other. Some read books or magazines. If they have a check-ride (i.e. test) coming up, they might study up on their company procedures or aircraft’s systems. Some like to fiddle with the throttles to get the airspeed as close to red line as possible. Stare out the window. Really, anything to pass the time as once you’re at cruise, the job gets kind of boring.
Yes, pilots have fallen asleep. It’s not intentional, and doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. If a pilot absolutely cannot stay awake, then he/she will at a minimum let the other one know.
This:
While they dream of this:
Or have nightmares of this:
I am not a pilot so i don’t know, but while working C-Check i found a lot of pornography stashed in the cockpit. They also try to break things so maintenance has to come and fix it, and the pilots can get out of working