Originally Posted by
PRWeezer
Adding to that a bit - I'm told on flights where the crew rotates between active flying & mandatory rest you might have a FO (First Officer) in the left seat at some point. On a rotating crew of 3, for example, you might have 1 Captain & 2 FOs or it might be 2 Captains & 1 FO working the flight. The FO would have the same training, just not the hours & certification needed to be Captain.
For example, when AF 477 crashed in the Atlantic out of Brazil a few years ago, 2 FOs were on the flight deck & the Captain came up apparently too late in the game to make a difference....per a fascinating article in Popular Mechanics.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/prin...11877?page=all
I remember reading somewhere that one of the 2 FO’s in the cockpit when the Captain is on a rest break has to be Captain qualified as far as the FAA is concerned.
Actually the FAA does not use the titles Captain or First Officer, these are titles airlines use to designate rank, officially the FAA titles are Pilot in Command, (PIC) and Second in Command, (SIC) so the pilot in charge in the cockpit, and it does not matter what seat they occupy has to be qualified to act as a PIC during the time the senior PIC, designated by the company as the Captain is on a rest break.
Many airlines type rate their SIC pilots when they go through their training on a particular aircraft because they go through the same training as far as the FAA is concerned as the PIC, so as far as the FAA is concerned, they are licensed to act as a PIC on that particular aircraft, but as far as the company is concerned, they are only SIC’s because the company has not designated them as the Captain on the airplane.
For instance all Southwest Airlines SIC’s are type rated on the B-737, and it is a requirement to have a B-737 type rating when hired, so every Southwest SIC as far as the FAA is concerned is properly licensed to operate the airplane as a PIC.
Mr. Elliott