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Inside Airlines: Airline Rank Structure

Posted on November 29, 2010 Written by 1 Comment

You hear it every flight, the introduction of the Captain and First Officer of your flight, but did you ever stop to ask, “What’s the rank all about?”

The captain of an airplane is what the FAA calls the Pilot-In-Command. They are the pilot responsible for everything that occurs onboard their airplane during flight. This includes all paperwork, safety-of-flight issues, customer service, and crew member issues. The captain is quite literally the final authority on everything that happens.

The first officer is directly responsible to the captain and is there to both assist the captain with his duties and to assist in flying the aircraft. Just like the captain, the first officer is a fully trained and certified pilot on that aircraft. He/She is responsible for any tasks delegated to them by the captain. These tasks usually involve pre-flight and post-flight inspections of the airplane, weight & balance and performance calculations, and running aircraft checklists. Unless rare circumstances exist, all pilots are hired by an airline as a first officer. It is the entry-level airline position and is designed as an experience builder.

The origin of the 4-stripe captain rank and the 3-stripe first officer rank comes from the Navy. In the early years of air travel, pilots were given this rank system to help differentiate them to passengers and crew. As the pilots have become less and less visible in recent years due to security regulations, the insignia have become slightly less important to passengers.During normal operations, the captain and first officer switch off flying the airplane each flight. When in the air, the designation changes in the flight deck to “Pilot Flying” and “Pilot-Not-Flying”. Either pilot may assume either role. The pilot flying will be in control of the airplane from takeoff to touchdown, and the pilot-not-flying will assume the duties of monitoring the radios and assisting the pilot flying.

For most airlines it takes about 6-10 years for a first officer to accrue enough seniority within the company to upgrade from first officer to captain. By that time the first officer has acquired enough flight time and experience in that aircraft to be competent and safe a captain.

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How-To Get the Best Seat

Posted on November 10, 2008 Written by Leave a Comment

I found this little How-To video while browsing around today. While it doesn’t cover many of the nuances of getting a good seat it definitely shows the best way if you want to do a little research.

Remember, getting to the airport early is the key to getting not only a good seat, but often times the seat that you reserved. Although you may have “reserved” a specific seat assignment, that is no guarantee you will get that seat when you show up to the airport. The airlines often upgrade frequent fliers to the best seats which means if they get there before you, you may be out of luck.

On another note, if you know you’re going to be flying in a propeller powered aircraft, the best seat is in the back, since sitting as far behind the spinning prop is the quietest. In a jet, forward is always quieter. Also, exit row seats often don’t recline, and if you’re in a bulkhead, you can’t store anything under the seat in front of you, it’s all up in the overhead.
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A Flight Attendant May Save Your Life

Posted on November 29, 2007 Written by Leave a Comment

The first came during the normally monotonous bus ride from the employee parking lot:

This very seasoned flight attendant was talking about the first time she ever had to divert an airplane due to a medical emergency. Although she had been with the company for well over 20 years, the event occurred just the other day.

A middle age man was exhibiting the early signs of a heart attack. He was sitting in first class and was a little embarrassed about his medical condition. When the flight attendant found out about his problems she pressed him for more information. He was reluctant, however it soon became clear that the man needed medical attention, and luckily a doctor was on board the aircraft. The flight attendant was able to use the Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) on board the aircraft to monitor the mans heart and help the physician asses his condition. Shortly afterward, the man went into cardiac arrest. The aircraft was diverted to Pittsburgh and he was transported to a waiting ambulance.

The moral of this story is that flight attendants do a lot more than serve drinks and bring pillows and blankets. Had it not been for this particular flight attendants attention to her passenger, the man very well could have unknowingly had a heart attack and not sought medical attention until too late. Instead, her training kicked in when she saw the man exhibiting strange symptoms and she was able to get him the medical care he required.

The second story comes from my last flight of the day:

I am flying with a particularly new flight attendant who has only been with the company for about a month. She is fresh out of training and has been thrown into a trip which requires her to make all of the PA announcements to passengers, a daunting task.

After the flight was over, I talked to the other flight attendant on the flight who was complaining about a first class passenger. Apparently our new FA had made a few errors during her announcements due to the short duration of the flight. These minor errors irked this first class passenger into complaining that this new flight attendant should be fired for incompetence. When it was explained to her that the flight attendant was new, the passenger simply repeated that she should be fired. This just shows a general lack of proper courtesy and knowledge of the job.  Everything that is said on the PA comes from memory, no cheat  sheet.  The entire safety briefing is all memorized. If this woman made a mistake at her workplace should she be immediately fired? She probably even has an agenda and written notes when she speaks.

I guess it’s just my frustration at the deteriorating manners of America and more importantly the deteriorating manners of airline passengers.

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