hey all. here is a question I'm sure will make SOME of you (commercial pilots atleast) chuckle. Ok. How do you know when you have a flight? Say your at home just on an ordinary Saturday, how will you know? Is there a phone call given or something? Once you get to the airport what do you do? These things I've wondered for years, obviously, once you reach the aircraft it's not rocket science what they do! :-lol. Thanks!"... AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!"[b/]

I flew charters for along time out of Willow Run in Michigan. the majority of the flights you knew in advance. If we had a chater flight of passengers we knew days before. If we had freight, and it was hot...all the pilots had pagers, and most of us lived within 15 minutes of the airport. When you get to the airport, you get your weather, and prepare your flight plan. Flying under FAA Part 135, 99% of the time we flew 2 man crews, and we pretty much allways flew with the same pilot. We would decide who was PIC on the outbound leg and then the other pilot would fly PIC on the return. Who was ever SIC filed all the paper work, and the PIC would do the pre-flight check of the aircraft, weight and balance and the aircraft paperwork that we have to file. During the holiday season, ( Thanksgiving to Christmas) we flew alot of routes for UPS...we would start about 3am, and meet at Lansing, there we would get out assigned flight and freight,. We would have approx. 4-5 stops, and our day would end between 9-10 am.Mark

They get duty rosters for the month. It shows them the days they are flying and all pertinent info about the flight. They also get to see when they are on standby (if applicable). Bidding for certain routes and flights is also common. It's not like they wait for the last minute and just call the guy up out of the blue and hope he's there and can fly a 747 from NY to Hong Kong. This is what I was told many moons ago by an airline pilot so there may be some changes (bidding for routes) in todays market.

HEY! THanks for answering my questions sure answered my question. But just one more thing. Ok, so you look on your monthly 'flight calender' (if you please) and say December 18th You're to fly KORD-EGLL on UA928. So you show up 3 hours prior to the departure or what have you, where do you go? Do you do what Leonardo dicaprio did in 'Catch Me if You Can'? You go to the desk and they give you the work? thanks! :-)"... AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!"[b/]

hey, marcusFrom what i've heard from a freind's dad at the FAA depending on where they are flying to, pilots get to the airport 3-4 hours before the flight, go to the airline offices, and check the weather and fill out paperwork (ie. flight plans) then they do their pre-flight checks on the plane and stuff.Jason :-wave