January 18, 201412 yr Don't know if this question has been asked already: Are there real life commercial pilots out there that are rated in both Boeing and Airbus planes? If so, do they fly a Boeing one day and then an Airbus another day (such as for a company like United that has both Boeing and Airbus equipment)? Is this even allowed by the company? I do this with flight sim (PMDG 737NGX or PMDG 777 and Airbus Extended X), and I easily miss critical details that I should (or should not) be doing with one plane versus the other Elmo Elmo Acio Quote It's hard to replace the gray matter that is inherent in every human being. No computer can do it quite that well yet. — General John P. Jumper, USAF Chief of Staff, 'Air Line Pilot' magazine, April 2007
January 18, 201412 yr I am not sure, but I doubt that this is possible in real life, for the exact reason you point out - the pilots might miss essential things, particularly in situations they do not encounter every day. In real life it is possible to fly aircraft of one "family", e.g. as far as I am aware the CRJ type rating is the same for the 200, 700 and 900, and the Airbus A32x type rating is obviously for the 318, 319, 320 and 321, and I believe that this rating either allows the pilot to fly the A330 family, or it is at least possible to have a type rating for this plane at the same time (due to the similarity of those planes). But for different planes, particularly from different manufactureres - I really don't think so. Florian
January 18, 201412 yr Author I didn't think so either, and it makes sense regarding ratings for other planes within the same family. It would be interesting to hear comments from real world pilots about this. Any commercial pilots out there care to share your thoughts? Specifically, even if you have type ratings for both Boeing and Airbus, would you interchangeably fly one then the other on a daily basis? Is this a safety issue? Thanks. Elmo Acio Quote It's hard to replace the gray matter that is inherent in every human being. No computer can do it quite that well yet. — General John P. Jumper, USAF Chief of Staff, 'Air Line Pilot' magazine, April 2007
January 18, 201412 yr You can legally hold as many different type ratings as you wish but may only exercise the privileges of two different TRs for public transport (I'm current on the Citation and RJ85). I see no reason why the two TRs used couldn't be Airbus and Boeing if the pilot's airline was a mixed Airbus/Boeing fleet. Whether the airline would allow it or the pilot would want to retain currency on both is another matter.
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