Morning all.Was reading last night a copy of Airliner World, and an article covering an Air France A320 flight to Lisbon.In this article, they touched on the pilots themselves, and a brief background on them.It stated that the Captain had moved to the A320 from flying 747-400's. This is where it gets muddy for me. My assumption would be that captaining a 747 would be the pinnacle of a pilot's GA career, so I'm wondering why a pilot, who has worked his way through the ranks to be in charge of a 747, would transfer to fly an A320???Then I thought, maybe he's training to fly the A340, but then dropping back to an A320 seems very backward indeed. This didn't make much sense.Would be very interested to hear some thoughts on this.CheersTim

Numerous reasons:1: Pilot was made redundant from the Borings airline. Happens a lot.2: Pilot got completely hacked-off at the long-haul schedules implied by flying 747-400's. Perhaps he wanted to see his kids grow up? I've got two friends like that: One gave up on a huge salary and all-expenses paid lifestyle in the Middle East and Asia because he was home three days in thirty. The other got sick of the petty bureaucracy in his Big Airline, and is now flying corporate jets into dodgy ex-military Russian airfields for an oil company. 3: The money might have been better flying Airbus? It's not always the biggest earners flying the biggest planes (although it usually is!).4: Boeing jobs are drying up as Airbus steal market share away from the Americans (although that trend has slowed). Airbusses offer a huge degree of cross-commonality in cockpit procedures, and maybe flying A320's today will give quicker access to the A380's tomorrow?Who knows?Allcott

Please you dont really believe number 4 do you? That comment was just total BS.

My colleague who has flown 737, 767 and A340 is now flying HS125 and Citations.His reasons are as stated above.Fed up with long haul, jet lag, hours of doing nothing much and a desire to spend more time with his young family.He finds corporate more fun and challenging. We have to do everything ourselves rather than having everything done for us.We have short legs, time in destinations more contact with our passengers and fun little jets to play with :-)Peter

I have a friend who flies for NWA. He used to fly the DC10 to AMS. He nows flies the scarebus. I think it's because he can stay at home more. The schedule is better.

>Please you dont really believe number 4 do you? That comment>was just total BS.I agree. But for someone who lives in a fairyland that may actually sound believable.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

I don't think it takes alot of imagination to realize how boring 8 hour flights are, flight after flight after flight. Give me the short hops any day. That's why the 747 sim has no real appeal for me......

Interesting comments - thanks guys.Tim

I honestly think that it all goes in circles. You'll see commercial pilots who have not flown any GA, or just a little for years......And then get excited about radio control, while all the R/C pilots are jealous of the commercial flying. However, I just happen to know "a lot" of retired, or near retired commercial & military pilots who now get a big kick out of building and flying high performance ( and sometimes expensive) kit builts, or ex-military aircraft. More back to basics, but a lot of fun!As a member of the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) and several R/C clubs in the past, I've seen this happen numerous times.L.Adamson

Well, it IS the official scarebuddie party line, even if it is complete bull.

Tim,Perhaps the Captain on the A320 was a FO on the 747. The company then offered him command on a smaller aircraft first. He can then work his way back up to the bigger aircraft as a Captain (if he wants).Of course, the other comments about long haul lifestyle could also be true.Just a thought,Take care,Ian

Tim:In airline flying most times when you see a move like that it is because there is definitely a strategy involved:1) A pilot senior enough to hold F/O or Captain on the 747 can still be relatively junior on that aircraft. That means he/she gets the lowest picks on their bid choices. If a less senior 747 pilot moves down to something like the A320, chances are that he will be more senior among the pilots who bid that aircraft therefore he/she can hold a better line. Trust me. I'd rather hold a line on the A320 than fly reserve or altnernate-reserve on the 747 any day!2) Like it has been said...long haul takes its toll. General lines on the 747 have at least a 36 hour crew turn around. So you fly 8-12 hours to your destination and sit for 24 in a hotel and then fly back. Its cool at first, and the per diem is nice, but then after a few years it gets old.At the end of the day, if the pilot is senior enough to hold the 747 then he is getting paid very nicely because he's been around for quite a while. He can fly the scarebus, fly short trips, hold a better line, have more days off...probably even hold "day-trips" (the holy grail of pilots and flight attendants) with 2 turns a day, 3 days a week and 4 days off all on a senior captain's salary. After all, the baseline guarantee for most majors is ~80 hours per month whether you actually FLY 80 hours or you fly 60 hours. Why bust your hump for 80 hours a month, most of which is spent in the air, at the airport and away from home, when you can be home every night fly less than 80 hours and get paid the same salary minus the per diem. Make sense?Regards,Mike T. PS. OH and Alcott, just so you know, Boeing sold MORE airplanes than Airbus did in 2004. I don't think Boeing type ratings have become worthless just yet.M.T.

>>PS. OH and Alcott, just so you know, Boeing sold MORE>airplanes than Airbus did in 2004. I don't think Boeing type>ratings have become worthless just yet.>>M.T.Really? Must be the first time for several years then:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4481983.stmhttp://www.economist.com/agenda/displaySto...tory_id=3555366My comment was tongue-in-cheek, but the facts are true. Americans have no god-given right to domination of the commercial airline market, and Airbus are proving it. Sorry, if it dents your national pride, but take a chill pill, Boeing have sold more airliners than any other manufacturer, even if their figures also include airliners made by other manufacturers they have now absorbed. Allcott

Hello everyone!I have a friend that was a captain on DC-9, B727 and DC-10. After that he switched to antoher company and started flying A320. And now he is flying agricultural aviation and dusting fields and mosquitos with an Air Tractor. He says that flying a DC-10 was the worst time in his pilot career. Recently his wife took off with his son and daughter so he quit job as an airline pilot and he is flying only for fun now. :-hah Best regards,Dubravko

Allcott explain to me how you turned a simple thread into a Boeing vs Airbus tirade? These are old and tired. I can dig up a spin for Boeing or a Spin for Airbus in five minutes. Did you now that a third of the total large airliner sales for 2005 are just 737's? A third, not just for Boeing but for all large airliner sales. Now do I need to find some nice fat Airbus statistics too? And please link to something besides the A380. Both make nice Aircraft.