Talk:First officer

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[edit] National / organisational differences ?

This definition has been linked from British Airways Flight BA038 and it seems unclear. From the statement read by Captain and NFP/PM Peter Birkill -

"As captain of the aircraft I am proud to say that every member of my team played their part expertly yesterday, displaying the highest standards of skill and professionalism, no-one more so than my Senior First Officer John Coward who was the handling pilot on the final approach and did the most remarkable job.

My first officer Conor Magenis also continually assisted."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7196748.stm

So is this a case of 2 NFPs/PM - a co-pilot and a co-co-pilot? Or was Magenis acting as engineer. I believe that he was a qualified pilot. Flight time ~9 hours. This link may be worth including - [1] Thanks -- John (Daytona2 · Talk · Contribs) 13:13, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Conor Magenis was only on board as a relief pilot due to the length of the flight, allowing both the Captain and First Officer to each take a break during the cruise portion of the flight. This is common with many airlines on longer sectors. Both John Coward and Conor Magenis are British Airways First Officers in accordance with the description on the wikipedia current article, so I can't see that it is relevant to mention this incident. SempreVolando (talk) 15:41, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks SV, it was just a query, so I agree that there's no need to mention the incident here. As an aside, if the interview with the Captains wife is accurate they managed to find another pilot from somewhere - [2]. Is different terminology used by manufacturers/airlines eg. pilot in charge, pilot flying, pilot not flying, pilot monitoring. Cheers -- John (Daytona2 · Talk · Contribs) 16:44, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes that article does suggest four pilots on board, I know BA do have 4 crew on longer trips like Tokyo, not sure if it applies to this flight but if so it is normally 2 full crews (i.e. 2 Captains and 2 First Officers). On the outbound flight, one crew is the handling crew (who do the takeoff and the landing) and the other crew is the cruise relief crew, allowing both handling pilots a break (say for the "middle" 6 hours of a 12 hour flight). On the return flight, they swap and the crew who provided relief on the outbound are the handling crew for the return and vice-versa. It is complicated further in that different airlines have different terminologies for these crewmembers, some airlines for example employ "second officers" who are only qualified to provide in-cruise relief and never handle the aircraft during takeoff and landing, but British Airways don't have these. If there were 4 pilots on this flight the fourth pilot may have been travelling in the cabin. Fundementally though, the 777 is a 2-crew aircraft and only 2 pilots will take part in the practical takeoff and landing, relief pilots occupying flight deck jumpseats will not contribute unless asked or of course if they have any concerns or it is obvious there assistance might be beneficial (like in this incident). Hope this helps. SempreVolando (talk) 17:27, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks SV, Tokyo looks to be 2.5 hours further - out of personal interest I'll ask on PPRuNe, cheers -- John (Daytona2 · Talk · Contribs) 23:17, 23 January 2008 (UTC)