Originally Posted by
eoinnz
It's normally a two person flight crew since they overnight, so they are only doing a 7 hour day give or take. The third person is added, normally during winter to allow them to circle or even wait at LAX as opposed to having to divert and cause all sorts of problems. The more flight crew you have, the longer they can work. By giving them a 3rd crew member during periods of potential delays, prevents further delays to the already cursed one oh late!
Ok, that makes sense - I knew about the "time on flight-deck" requirement regarding total hours, so adding the SO would prevent unnecessary diversions.
Just wondering how QF plans this - do they have spare SO's just sitting around waiting to be placed onto the 107 if delays are predicted? It would seem to me to be a logistical nightmare (and I have worked in logistics and also rostering, so I know how complicated this sort of thing can be).
Dave