Signed off another Airline Pilot off recently for a BFR and remembered this thread. After we were done flying and taxiing I asked, and without hesitation the 20,000+ hour Captain confirmed my OP along with the conclusions of the Nall Report once again. Still, I decided to take the bold and radical action, seldom seen in forum discussions, of actually contacting the source! And it was confirmed yet again by another Airline Captain/GA pilot that it is as I interpreted it and as the safety experts plainly state year after year in the Nall Report summary.
In direct reference to the inquiry above made by me to the Nall Report via the Air Safety Foundation, I received this well spoken personal letter from Captain Greenway (a 15,000 hour Airline cap. and GA pilot) who works within the Nall Report organization. Which completely corroborates the OP:
“Single-pilot general aviation flight versus FAR 121 airline operations:
I and I alone am responsible for every aspect of each flightin my personally owned aircraft. Before I even leave for the airport, I must confirm that the airplane itself is legal and up to date. Is the annual inspection current? Is it subject to any recent Airworthiness Directives? Has the ELT battery expired since the last annual inspection? Are the electronic databases in my onboard avionics current? As hard as I try to keep my airplane in top-notch working condition and all paperwork legal, I confess to flying withan outdated ELT battery recently – me, the guy with a white board on my garage wall reminding me of the last time I changed the oil in my cars and checked their tire pressures! (Six months and two weeks, respectively.) I regardallowing an ELT battery to expire as a monumental error on my part, and I’m quite certain I’ve taken the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again!
Once I start planning the flight, I am solely responsible for checking weather and NOTAMS, planning my route, filing the flight plan, calling ahead to my destination to confirmfuel availability, parking, and needed services, calculating fuel requirements prior to departure, and performing the preflight inspection to determine the airworthiness of the airplane.
The single-pilot nature of most general aviation operationsplaces a workload upon the pilot that is unheard of in the two-pilot and sometimes even three-pilot operations of the 121 world.
Airmanship is airmanship. Though we like to think we perform with the beauty of a ballet dancer and the skill of a neurosurgeon, quite honestly, the vast majority of flying just doesn’t require that much finesse.
-- Pardon me, my phone is ringing. I’ll be right back after I answer this call.
-- You’ll have to excuse me, but I’ll be out of town for the next four days. The call was from my friendly crew scheduler. I’ve been called out on a wide-body trip leaving tonight for Buenos Aires. I’ll have to finish this up when I return, as I know I’ll be busy for the next few days.
Departure time is 2200 local this evening. From doing this trip previously, I know it’s about a 12-hour nonstop flight – good thing I slept in this morning! I still have plenty of time to mow the lawn and toss the Frisbee with the neighbor kid. Heck, I might even catch a snooze on the couch after dinner. I just need to show at the airport an hour prior to departure, plenty of time!
Afternoon traffic has died down when I leave my house at 2000 for the quick drive to the airport. I park my car and make my way into Operations. Most of the Europe trips departed earlier in the evening so it’s relatively empty. It’s easy to spot the few remaining “deep South America” crews preparing to leave for Rio, Montevideo and Sao Paulo. I spot two copilots chatting and correctly assume they are on the Buenos Aires flight. We introduce ourselves and make some small talk. The relief copilot excuses himself to head out to the gate and do the preflight inspection. The other copilot says he’ll pull up the flight plan and get all the flight related paperwork. I recall flying with him several times before and remember that he’s as much a stickler for detail as I am, so I’m confident I’ll have little or nothing else to do before departure time. Walking into the terminal, I stop at Starbucks for a double shot of espresso, manage to balance the cup without spilling it, and make my way to the gate. Looks like a full boat tonight! Twenty minutes to go before departure, the boarding has started. I make small talk with a few passengers in the jetway as I’m getting on, then stash my bags in the back of the cockpit and introduce myself to the lead flight attendant. I’ve flown with her a few times before and I know it’s going to be an easy trip. One leg down, 36-hour layover, and one leg back.
Five minutes before pushback, I review the maintenance log for the airplane. Everything looks good. I glance at the Flight Management Computers. Our route has been automatically uplinked and I can see from looking at the flight plan, the copilot has checked what’s in the “box” against the printed flight plan. The relief copilot comes in from his walk-around inspection. “All looks good, Sir!” He’s ten years my senior and a retired USAF Lt. Coloneland I have to smile that he treats me with such deference,but he shows signs of an incredible sense of humor.
Three minutes before scheduled departure, the ground crew calls up on the interphone, “Parking brake released, Captain, standing by for pushback.” I release the brake. The copilot calls ramp control for pushback and receives clearance immediately. I pass that on to the ground crew and the 407,000-pound behemoth begins to move. We’re on the way to South America!
Ground traffic is light this time of night and we’re only 8 minutes from “out” to “off”. I elect to fly the first leg. As we taxi toward the runway, I brief the takeoff and the SID. We’ve all done it before, so no surprises. After the muffled thump of the nose gear nestling into the well below the cockpit, everything is quiet. I call for an autopilotpassing 1,000’ AGL and the copilot engages it. It’s a beautiful early autumn night and although the new moon provides no illumination, the stars stretch out to the horizon. Passing through 18,000’, we reset the altimeters to QNE; I turn off the landing lights and slide my seat back. The relief copilot has been doing this long enough to know that neither the copilot nor I want to take the first relief break. He has already computed our touchdown time and neatly printed the three relief break times on the top of the flight plan. He excuses himself and retires to the crew bunks.
I’ll stop the narrative right here to point out a few things. The familiarity of the flight I have just embarked on is common in the world of FAR 121 operations. Highly experienced crews flying top-notch equipment on familiar routes is the norm. Dispatchers work with the FAA and foreign governments to coordinate the routine handling of air traffic. It takes an army of personnel to make one flight happen, but to the cockpit crew, the majority of it is unseen. Although it may seem complacent to embark on a flight that spans a quarter of the globe without a detailed check of enroute weather, I know that I have tools on board to look at it, and that a dispatcher who is probably more familiar with the route than I am has given approval. Onboard weather radar in a wide body jet is quite powerful and accurate, satellite uplinked weather provides a nice backup,and a healthy margin of reserve fuel gives us plenty of options. We are a well-trained crew, we have an extra pilot along to allow us to rest en route, food and drink are provided, and we can pick up the satellite phone and get in touch with anyone we need to help us back at the company. Weight and balance along with performance calculations are automated: we are given “numbers” for any of the available runways for departure, V1, VR and V2 speeds are calculated for different combinations of runways and flap settings, and are all printed out in easy-to-read format for each departure.
Maintenance personnel are responsible for the airworthiness of the airplane, a load control office is responsible for the weight and balance. Every aspect of a flight dispatched under FAR 121 has someone specifically responsible for that detail.
Meanwhile, in my own personal airplane, I am truly a “one-man band”. ATC can give me a reroute that takes me miles out of my way, cutting into my fuel reserves, and I have no recourse. I may or may not have an autopilot to share the workload and the sheer monotony of hours of “straight and level” can take a physical toll. NOTAMS may pop up enroute that will go undiscovered unless I disconnect myself from my primary duties and search for them. While an iPad with flight planning software can make the simplest general aviation airplane into a more capable machine, GA aircraft still lack the abundance of performance margin and reliability of FAR 25 certified aircraft.
Interestingly, I currently use my personal airplane to commute to my job flying one of the world’s most sophisticated business jets. Every time I go to work, I “compare and contrast” the two worlds of GA flying vs “big iron”. I, for one, breathe a sigh of relief when the door is closed and the kerosene starts flowing through the fuel pumps because I know that somebody “has my back” through every phase of the flight and my “one-man band”has a full back-up orchestra!
Jonathan J. Greenway
15,571.9 hours total time
5 type ratings
11,000 hours in multi-crew jets
Granddad Extraordinaire”