pilots and airports
 

just wondering how this works with commerical airline pilots.

when a pilots flies to an airport he's never flown to before does he do any landing practice in the simulator before he flies the actual route to get a feel for the airport approach and landing?

also do pilots fly to the same destinations on a daily or weekly basis or does it always change from flight to flight?

thanks in advance. william

These answers are for "in general" situations for someone working at a large Regional Airline or Major/Legacy Airline.

Most Airports, the answer is no. You don't need any special training to fly a straight-in ILS approach to somewhere you've never been, it's all really the same, an ILS to a long and well-lit runway. As far as the route, you're flying IFR at 35,000 feet, its not like you're looking for landmarks along the way like when we were flying a Cessna 172.

Some (very few) airports do require extra training, usually related to high-altitude situations (Reno) or high terrain (Mexico) around the airport. A small handful of Airports also have wacky arrival procedures that required a crew to be specially qualified (the old Hong Kong Airport, Kai Tak). Some airlines may only require a certain experience level for a young First Officer to fly the Arrival or Departure into a Special Qualification airport (i.e. more than 100 hours with the company).

Almost never. We would all likely kill ourselves if we flew the same "route" everyday. You would probably see the "hub" airports your airline flies several times in a 4-day trip, but the outstations (i.e. non-hub airports)are usually different every day. We all have "bid" system (kinda like a lottery) to see who gets to fly what "Line" (A series of scheduled flights for the entire month) for the next month. Every pilot is awarded his line based on his seniority...meaning that the Line with 4 Las Vegas overnights in one month probably gets flown by a senior guy. At my company there are a few lines where you could see the same (times and cities) 4-day trip twice in a month.

This is the question that we probably get asked the most, and I really don't understand why. We're not bus drivers (although we joke about it). We're IFR pilots and don't need to "know the way" like the bus driver who needs to remember to drop off Mrs. Johnson at the second light after Elm St. We get a flight plan to where we're going today and we go fly it.

thanks very much for the detailed reply blastoff. very interesting.

Except if you fly a Saab........ :D

No problem. In short, an airline pilot over the course of a year will probably see every city his Airline and specific aircraft type goes to. Some cities more than others based on his seniority and the number of flights operated to that city by the airline.

You'll miss the "adventure" of flying into such places someday, I promise.;)

Or a Boeing 757. "Long" is relative, apparently you can fly them into and out of Burbank.

The runway at Orange County is 1000 feet shorter...and they fly the 757 into there as well. Takeoff performance is really the controlling factor.

Yeah, forgot momentarily about SNA, which is an insanely fun place to fly into and out of. "Rrrrrrotate. V2. WHEE!"

I wish they'd made El Toro into a civil facility and closed SNA...