What Pilots Do After Their Final Flight Of The Day
I admit, at the same time as somebody who loves his job as an airline pilot – and boy, do I like it – the final flight of the day brings welcome aid. That is very true after a minimally brief relaxation interval the day earlier than or on the finish of the day with a number of flights.
If in case you have ever puzzled what pilots do after their final flight of the day, I’ll try to offer a solution, at the least from one perspective. There are surprisingly few regulatory issues a pilot should do on the finish of the day – a lot of his or her day-end actions will likely be outlined by firm insurance policies and private routines.
On the gate
As our airplane taxis in from the final flight of the day and involves relaxation with the cautious marshaling of the ramp crew, it’s time for {the electrical} load of the plane to switch from engine-generated electrical energy to a different supply, usually floor energy or by the auxiliary energy unit – or APU – an invisible turbine engine within the plane’s tail designed, partly, to energy the plane. With one other energy supply for the airplane secured, the engines come off, and a parking or securing guidelines ran, making certain thrust levers are idle, engines are off, and the seatbelt signal is turned off, amongst different objects.
Picture: Kate Scott/Shutterstock
With these objects full, we pack up our headsets, notes, and different private provides on the flight deck.
Then, I take a second to log the flight in my private logbook. Pilots will fly lots of of hours a 12 months, many hundreds of hours over a profession. By logging every flight as it’s accomplished, I by no means danger getting behind – or shedding key particulars – of my flight actions. Whereas not regulatory, doing this after every ‘leg’ works for me.
That is additionally the best time to deal with any excellent points with upkeep management, firm operations, or the dispatcher assigned to our flight.
Passengers and Submit-Flight
Subsequent, it’s time to stand up and stretch our legs and greet a number of passengers as they exit the airplane. This can be a far more nice job when you’ve got a great touchdown! Whatever the touchdown high quality, I all the time take pleasure in seeing passengers from our flights as they exit, and we are saying our goodbyes. I typically surprise what brings them to town we at the moment are in: is that this dwelling, are they visiting a distant good friend or member of the family, or are they on the town for enterprise?
With most or all passengers deplaned, it’s time to head down the outside jet bridge stairs for a stroll across the airplane. Every flight begins with a pre-flight stroll round, and every ends equally. Right here, we search for any seen points which will have developed in flight or in the course of the taxi-in, points that, if we catch them now, might not impression the on-time departure of the following flight.
Energy down
As soon as all passengers have deplaned and the flight crew has assembled our belongings, the pilots will decide to go away the plane powered or energy the plane down. Simply because it is likely to be our final flight of the day doesn’t imply it’s the final flight of the day for the plane. If the airplane can also be completed for the day, we are going to energy down, leaving the plane ‘chilly and darkish.’
If the airplane goes again out for one more flight, we are going to typically keep electrical energy to the plane by a floor energy supply linked by the ramp employees as we arrive on the gate. We’d go the brand new crew on the jet bridge as we exit. If we do, we’ll trade experiences on the situation of the plane and any climate we encountered in-flight.
Time to relaxation
With these steps full, it’s time to relaxation. If it’s the final flight of the journey, meaning going dwelling, whether or not we stay close to the airport or have a commute to get dwelling. If that final flight of the day is inside a visit pairing of three or 4 days, it’s off to the resort by way of the resort’s van shuttle service.
Within the resort for the night time for a minimal, duty-free relaxation interval of ten hours, I be certain to recharge my iPad – a very powerful merchandise within the flight bag and replace any airport or navigational charts which will have to be up to date for tomorrow’s flights and set an alarm – or two! – for tomorrow’s wakeup.
