Air hong kong 747 cockpit2/7/2024 When we fly with only 2 pilots, we are allowed to take controlled rest if we really feel the need to. ![]() This might sound awesome, but it is important that the pilots are alert and fit for the approach and landing phase. Knowing I will be working the whole night, I try to sleep beforehand, but it is really not that easy to try and fall asleep in the afternoon, when your body clock tells you it is fully awake. A report at midnight requires me to leave my home at 22:30. ![]() When we report for a duty at night, we try to be as rested as possible. My routes are a mix of short-, medium- and long-haul routes, and usually one or two-sector trips. When we have a day flight we joke about how nice it is to be flying during the day. Most cargo flights are scheduled at night, the passenger flights take those sweet day slots! I would estimate about 20% of my flights are during the day. This is a major difference from my previous job. However flying freight definitely brings in the night flights and an unpredictable roster. So what is then the major difference? The main keywords of my new job: jetlags, night flights and roster changes! Jetlags come with all long haul flights, and long-haul flights are new to me, and they are not specifically cargo related. Of course we always hand over controls and communication to the other pilot when we do so. We don’t even have a flight deck door, so we are free to walk to the upper deck during the flight. One pilot stays behind the controls in the flight deck, and the other one is free to prepare meals, stretch, use the bathroom, etc. J ust behind the flight deck, we have a galley, containing several catering boxes with plenty of food, drinks and snacks, an oven and a coffee maker. It might seem obvious, but many of you ask about this: yes, the pilots prepare their own coffee and meals. ![]() So what happens if we get hungry or would like a coffee during the flight? We have no flight attendants on board, so nobody will react if we ‘ding’. There is no need to explain the cargo that we will not depart in the next half hour, and how we try to make up the time in flight □ The flight is then just like any flight, with or without passengers. If there is an ATC restriction, we simply wait. When the loading is done and all checks are completed: we close the doors and we can go. We then have a standard pre-flight procedure: one pilot sets up the flight deck for departure and the other pilot does the exterior inspection. At the start of our duty we meet at dispatch to discuss the flight and paperwork, we pass through crew security and when we arrive at the airplane, the loading process is usually well on its way. ![]() On longer flights we are with three or four pilots: besides the standard crew also a Second Officer and/or sometimes another Captain or First Officer. The total crew of the cargo flights usually consists of two pilots: a Captain and a First Officer. In the belly of the airplane I fly now, you can only find pallets of freight. My last flight carrying passengers is now 12 months ago. We had cases where a passenger required medical assistance, or on occasion we were met after parking by the police when we had informed them of a disruptive passenger on board. We brought people to their destination, and we made PA’s about the flight time and weather enroute. The crew consisted of 2 pilots (A Captain and a First Officer) and 4 flight attendants. In my previous job at a low cost passenger airline I had a very stable roster of 5 days on and 4 days off, and no night flights or layovers. Since then I had a proper taste of the cargo operations, with a variety of trips and quite a busy schedule. I now experienced a full spring and summer of worldwide cargo flying, based in Hong Kong, so time to compare! ‘What is the difference between flying passengers and flying cargo?’ Since I made the move from flying passengers in a Boeing 737-800 in Europe, to flying the Boeing 747-400 and -8 freighter, this is the question I get asked the most on my Instagram. I passed my initial line check on the Boeing 747 in the middle of June this year, which marked the end of the training phase.
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