Originally Posted by
Andy
I confess that this is the first time I've ever heard of a relief captain not being checked out as a captain. Must be a eurothing.
How many stripes does the relief captain have? 4? What's his title? Relief
captain?
But sure, he's only
called a captain; he's not a captain.
P1 is a new term to me. We use PIC time. And yes, one person on the flight deck logs PIC time. Because you can't log PIC time in the bunk. Or is that another euro thing? Logging P1 (if that's what you call it) time while unconscious in the bunks?
You are definitely not familiar with the FARs. In accordance with FAR 61.51, a relief captain will log PIC time when he is on duty and in charge on the flight deck.
It sounds like you're just making stuff up to justify your pretzel logic.
'A relief captain's not a captain' ... amusing. No wonder you were stuck working at Norwegian. Cream of the crop.
Not only do you sound like you have never been outside of the US! You never even READ about aviation outside of the US. This is sad!
P1 is a common term for PIC. He can log PIC even sleeping in the bunk. The RCA only logs PIC/US when the P1 is in bunk. For an FO to become RCA, he has to follow the upgrade process (interview, evaluation, sim check, line check etc). For an RCA to become Captain, he also has to follow the upgrade process. This is very typical of many non-US airlines.
This is to create a chain of command structure so that when the P1 is resting in the bunk and a decision has to be made, everyone knows who to defer to (also knows who to blame I guess)
Like in AF447 where they had 2 FO sitting up front, no one knows who was in command. No one knows who was PF neither.