Sunvox

Hey guys sorry to interrupt Delta politics here with silly United stuff, but as I'm sure you know we UAL pilots have a shiny new TA that most of us are hoping will be voted down forcefully, BUT several issues have arisen surrounding the discussions of the negative changes in the TA.
One such change in the TA is new language that creates a "opt-in" or "opt-out" system for FOs who fly augmented international trips. In today's UAL world we have separate lines for FO's that fly the trips and FO's who are the relief pilots, and the company felt it was problematic having a group of relief pilots that ended up having to go to a simulator session every 90 days to regain landing currency so they came up with a system whereby they would offer FO's that hold a flying line $500 to give a landing to an FO that was inside 45 days of losing currency, but worse still the negotiators tell us that if we do not agree to this new system the company is going to unilaterally do away with flying versus non-flying lines and make all international's augmented FO lines of one category. Anyways, that's more info than I needed to give to ask this simple question:

Does Delta have flying FO lines and separate non-flying lines or are all FO lines the same on international augmented flights, and if so who decides who flies in the right seat if there are 2 or 3 FOs?

sailingfun

Delta has CA and FO lines with no distinction between FO’s. We don’t carry 3 F0’s. Flights over 12 hours carry 2 CA’s and 2 FO’s. Landings are supposed to be awarded based on currency but some CA’s always take a leg. The CA decides who gets the landings. Generally on a 3 man crew the FO’s alternate who sits in the window seat and the least current gets the landing.

Maddoggin

We don’t have separate FO lines. Typically on a 3-pilot crew the CA gets a leg and the other goes to whoever needs the landing more. If currency isn’t an issue the FOs just come to an agreement on how their legs/rest breaks will go. Not a bad system but I wish there was a little more notice on who does what. I typically prepare for the trip differently if I’m first break vs third break. As someone who isn’t a great sleeper it would be definitely help to know which break I was going to be before checking in for trip.

Sunvox

Yeah, that's the biggest gripe by far from our guys. Most show up prepared for a specific break. Should you try and nap all day before showing up or show up tired and ready for the bunk? Seems to fly against the intent of FAR 117 to leave it open to last minute discussion. (See what I did there - trying to be punny )

TED74

Easy fix with a captain who reaches out the day prior via micrew (text cell numbers), but I’ve never seen this done.

RAH RAH REE

What would be even better is a field in Micrew showing the date of everyone's landing currency expiration.

Baradium

They will sometimes build FO only pairings that operate just on trips that require a 3rd crewmember, but they aren't technically a relief position.

FangsF15

While true, my experience was that had zero bearing on who was the relief pilot. It's been a couple years though.

Baradium

That's what I was trying to say. They were FO only pairings but not a relief position per se.

FangsF15

👍🏼👍🏼
words words