Crew Rest . . .
 

Castaway was on the tube this weekend, I am asking about FX's crew rest areas. I've been on many of the purple MD-11s, I have seen the "slide a bunk bed out" if you will, but nothing like what is depicted in the movie. How effective are these "bunk beds" in tryin to catch some Zs? I have seen a jumper on a bus one night, with a mat of sorts, pleanty of room to lay down in the floor and sleep away. Seems like a good idea. . .

Shhhhh . . . sometimes Hollywood takes liberties with the truth . . . shhhhh . . . it's a secret. :p


The "Captain in a Box" crew rest facility is adequate. It is cramped, but there's a horizontal space with a "bunkbed" of sorts, each with a padded mattress, reasonable darkness, and ventilation. All the creature comforts. I never had a problem sleeping in it -- some people do.

It gets interesting when there are two people in it.


As for sleeping on the floor . . . I've done that, too. MD-11s without the CRF have a tri-fold mattress, or fouton that stores behind the seats in the cabin. It's better if you have a sleeping bag or something similar. One concern about sleeping on the floor is dry ice on board. It sublimates, and it . . . goes to the floor. It's an asphyxiation hazard.



(Engines don't run after they've been submerged in the ocean, either.)


(OH, and the biggest error in the movie: Jumpseaters never know how to don oxygen masks. :eek: )



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Thanks! btw, do you know where they filmed the plane scenes in that how movie??? I'd guess in a sim somewhere, did look like an -11 cockpit though. . .

The ramp scene with him leaving doesn't look like MEM at all. . .

I was taught how to don the thing . . .

How about the lack of a smoke barrier net in the Airbus coming back from Europe, or how the jumpers got onto a people mover, a device that we use to move the load team around the ramp! They, like the pilots would be on the nice, big, climate controlled bus. There was the one time we had a FE ride on our mover after we got tail swapped from like 823 to 353, cool guy :D

No, but the cockpit did look authentic. The dialogue, on the other hand, was not. They were reporting a point that appeared on their NAV display. The point on that display is where they're headed, not where they've been.


I've been told that the cameo where Fred appeared required numerous takes. In the line where he refers to pilots as "sons," he kept saying "sons of ____." :eek:




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Careful Tony, Big Brother is watching ;) ;)

Check out the attitude indicators when they are going through that storm.

Scenes were shot in an MD-11 sim in MEM and inserted into bigger views of a fake courier compartment.

Some shots were also made in an MD-11 in hangar 10.

The pilot lounge is the FDX corporate hangar lounge in MEM. All the stuff inside was moved from the AOC.

The ramp scenes were shot at LAX

Good one :D

I just wonder if he got a SAG card for his speaking role? ;) Our Union brother.

Radar
 

The radar screen in the movie reminds me of the time I flew with Pat "Don't Call Me Patricia" to New Orleans................but hey, I'm alive to talk about it!

:D

I'm 6'4" tall and the Capt in the box bunks do not work for me. I take the cushions out and sleep on the floor. I guess I'll have to take my chances with the dry ice if I want any sleep.

If you're tired enough, not more than 6'2 and not claustrophobic, you'll sleep ok in them. But frankly they're not as good as they could have been if there was a real concern about pilot rest in the culture of airlines today.

Now that's funny!!

In the movie, you'll notice that Fred's face is only visible on the TV screen in the 'crew room.' They never actually show Fred up close. This, according to the legend, is because he would have had to join the SAG on a one-day membership in order to have a speaking part in the movie, which he refused to do. So they had to show him on the screen, instead of in person. At least he's consistent.

Fred used to come to the lounge all the time to say hello and answer questions. He told me he quit coming when he kept getting questions from crewmembers on the level of "why there was no soap in his hotel room"....
Wonder why he quit coming?

so. . . I reckon they used actors for pilots, if they had come to you and asked you to be in the movie as a pilot, would you have done it? In retrospect, I'd volunteer to load the plane . . .

Ours get very hot when occupied so the crew ends up turning the temperature down in the back. This has the effect of freezing the jumpseaters that are not in the bunk. Do you guys have the same problem?

Yeap.......except on Crew Bunk equiped airplanes, we have no jumpseats in the back. Wish we did because there is no place to sit back there if you wake early or can't sleep.................except on top of the cooler............................and your right, outside the "BOX" it gets quite cold when the temp is turned down.

No jumpseats if crew rest module installed
 

We have the same problem except ... if we have an airplane with the "Capt. - in - a - box" crew rest bunk configuration, there are no jumpseats (as in none installed in that configuration) in the back. So ... no one complains about it being cold in the back.


Mark

It really makes for a horrible ride. It's one thing when you are hitchiking to work and ride to work by your own choice, and another when they are forcing you to deadhead on one of our MD-11's. I guess changing that just wasn't a high priority for those that negotiated our contract. They felt that limiting our exposure was good enough. The company has decided to ignore those limits as much as they can. We have three business class seats back there, but they are mounted very close to the bulkhead so they hardly recline. Sweet deal!

The story I heard was that Fred used to attend all the Wednesday night pilot meetings, but over time, it got to be very tedious for him. So one night when there were quite a few pilots attending the meeting, Fred gets up and says "the trouble with you pilots is that you want to make 200K dollars a year and only work on Thursdays." To which, one of our guys stands up and replies: "Yeah, Fred, but not EVERY Thursday." It was told that that was the last time Fred ever attended one of those meetings.:D

Is that the same thing as "my dick in a box" like Justin Timberlake did on SNL?? :D

The guy in the movie actually climbed out of the oven!:rolleyes:

Not true, the biggest error was that he was on that fateful flight to begin with. He should have been fired for drinking wine on the earlier flight!:rolleyes:

so. . . since these planes with bunks don't have the seats in the back, how hard is it to sleep in the jump seat on the flight deck? Hope they don't snore . . . but hey, noise cancelling headsets . . .

With no jumpseats in the back, you're at the mercy of the Captain, as far as if he'll allow you to ride at all (on flights over 4 hours). I actually know a few who won't allow anyone in their cockpit. Period. Most will, and in fact, if it's only a two person crew, the captain will usually allow the jumpseater to use the crew rest area (CRA). If it's a 3 person crew, the jumpseater (in most cases) will have to tough it out in the jumpseat, as the rest of the crew cycles through the CRA.

As for sleeping in the jumpseats, well, anything's possible, depending how tired you were to begin with. The only problem with the jumpseater snoring is it might actually keep the crew awake.:D

As for noise canceling headseats, most guys don't wear any headsets at cruise, preferring to use the overhead speakers. That's one of the big benefits of the Mad Dog: it's very quite at altitude.

so, is it possible to sleep in the noisy 27?

Anything's possible. I've done it, but it takes practice and you have to be REALLY tired.

The 727 doesn't operate any legs with supplemental crews, so there is no requirement to provide a "free from duty" time or environment.


But that's not exactly what you asked, is it? ;)



It's possible to sleep between the 1,000' callout and the 500' callout on final, in any seat, but that's a different subject. :eek:




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Been there done that more times than I care to admit....:(

Is narcolepsey a requirement for you guys ?

:D

Later, CC

No, but it he






.

I was in the back of the 727 one time and fell asleep filling out the cruise card. Made a streak across the card with the grease pencil.

I showed it to the captain and he said, "Hell, boy, when I was back there I fell asleep one night while I was starting the #2 engine...."

LOL....I feel alseep while reading the before landing checklist....Capt. said he almost went around because he was laughing so hard his eyes were tearing up....

That was a few years ago....:D

Nope but flying fatigued is.

I was an extra in the scene your mentioning and said sarcastically to another pilot, " I wonder if fred had to join the SAG." Then some office employee, also an extra, said " TN is a right to work state so he didnt have to join" Typical.

Fred also came up to the 8 pilots stupid enough to volunteer two days of work for a castaway hat and said "How much money are they paying you guys to get you to show up out here" Also typical

It is absolutely not true that he agreed to be in the movie only because all the pilots get killed.....

Well, if you can fall sleep like a horse--standing up on one leg, leaning against a wall--you can sleep on the 72.

Wasn't that pilot that washed up on the beach an actual FedEx pilot, after a week of hub turns, without makeup?:eek: