Nah, the real captain has to be in the seat for TO and Landing. Just end the breaks early enough to give him time to hop back in the seat and do a changeover and approach brief and look at the WX etc etc. or start the break shortly after level off when the CA is comfortable with the situation at cruise.

 

One other way we occasionally did it on the ATL-NRT trip (particularly the return leg which was always more fatiguing due to diurnal cycle) was to split the cockpit in two. Captains handle their own swap; F/Os the same. And the first guy on break could break for anything between 2-6 hours, depending on how both were doing. IOW, if the guy on break was able to keep sleeping, and the guy in the cockpit felt OK, they just let the first guy sleep. But as another guy said, after about 3 hours, it seemed that both were generally ready for a swap.

PG

 

Maybe its a personal preference, but I can knock off several hours of sleep in a crew bunk. I have many friends that manage to keep their body clock on the local US time zone by getting almost 6 hours of sleep on a break.

Maybe our bunks are more comfortable/quieter or maybe its that silk sleeping bag.

 

Yeah, I've had the long break work for me, but sometimes it doesn't....I'm not going to say my way is better; just that it works for me , and that there's no one right way to do the breaks.

It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine the A330's bunk room being better; the 767's is right next to the forward galley, and gets a fair amount of galley noise during the meal services. It also is inadequately cooled; a temp of 80 degrees in there after 6 hours is not uncommon. It beats not having a bunk, but it could use some improvement

 

Let me get this straight, on the return flight the B Captain is in operational control but the A Captain decides the break schedule? Or is the B Captain now the A Captain on the way home since he is signing for the jet? Who's in charge of the layover or do they arm wrestle for the bar tab?

 

The captain that has operational control decides the break schedule. Nobody's in charge of the layover. The bar tab in TLV is free.

 

I read this thread and can't help thinking, gotta love AA's seniority "do or die" system. If you're relief pilot for a trip, that is ALL you are. You could get a whole relief pilot line for a whole month and not get one landing. In fact we have a 6 day trip that goes JFK-CDG-DFW-CDG-JFK, and if you're relief pilot on that trip you will not get one landing (because the crews are different on every leg.) CA and FO get the landings, period. However, we do get a good deal going to the sim for landing currency - 3 hours pay extra on top of line value. Some guys purposely bid relief pilot to go noncurrent and get an extra 3hrs. On occasion I have flown relief pilot and gotten offered a landing every now and then, though more exception than rule. Breaks are: relief pilot, then PF, then PNF. At AA, the seniority thing (read: ego/old fashioned culture) is a big big deal. I like DL's system better, sounds like socialism - everyone is treated the same.