|
Dear Captain Lim,
I came across your website recently and have decided to ask you a few questions. I live in Malaysia and am looking for a suitable college to attend. I've decided to do an Engineering Course and also wish to be a pilot. However, my financial situation allows me to take only one of them. This places me in a dilemma as I have no favorites over the two options.
Truly, I do not mind being an engineer as long as I can travel as often as possible (I lived in Malaysia my whole life and have rarely travel overseas). However, I read somewhere that there are 3 persons in the cockpit - the captain, the co-pilot and the on-board engineer. I*m very curious over this position ? the on-board engineer.
My questions are:
1. What type of engineer would he be - an electrical or aeronautical engineer?
2. What is the typical routine/workload of this engineer - what does he/she handles during the flight? What are his/her responsibilities?
3. What type of plane would he/she be assigned to?
4. What courses, degree or type of education should I pursue if I decided to be an on-board engineer? Where would the courses, degree or type of education be available?
5. It is possible for him/her to be promoted or upgraded to be a pilot? Does he/she has to get his CPL/IR or any pilot licenses to be a pilot?
6. Does he/she get the same benefits as the captain or co-pilot ? e.g. rebated travel, etc?
Thank you for your time.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Zero.nuker
Hi Zero.nuker,
Your "on-board engineer" is what the airline industry commonly refers to as the flight engineer This profession is a victim of modernization and is gradually fading into oblivion. Therefore, I would not recommend you to pursue this career.
Let me elaborate a little on this to put you in the proper perspective. In the past, the flight engineer was merely an airplane mechanic who would perform maintenance on aircraft when they landed in small airports away from cities. Today, their roles were mainly to monitor aircraft system in the air, but modern technology with their sophisticated computers have made them virtually redundant! Please do not mix up this term "flight engineer" and the licensed *ground engineer* that continues to play a very important role in dispatching all the airliners.
Anyway, here are the answers to your questions.
1. Flight engineers are generally rated on the type of planes they fly on. They are required to pass a basic flight engineer course before being granted a license. He is neither an electrical engineer nor an aeronautical engineer but a "general engineer" who needs to know everything about the plane.
2. In some airlines, the flight engineer is also a pilot (actually an apprenticeship of a sort) but doesn't fly the airplane. He does most of the aircraft preflight checks, reads the checklist, operates and monitors the aircraft*s systems during flight and makes aircraft performance calculations, such as determining takeoff and landing speeds, engine power settings and fuel management.
3. Flight engineers are only found operating in older planes like the Boeing 727s, 747-100/200s, DC-10s or Airbus A300s.
4. Since this is a dying trade, I am not sure if there are any institutions offering such a course. If they do, an electrical or mechanical course of study would be most suitable.
5. In some airlines, a flight engineer must have gone through a pilot's course in the first place before he can be promoted to a Second Officer; but it is no longer the case now.
6. Depending on the airlines, a flight engineer enjoys almost the same privileges as the pilots.
Yes, there are very few flight engineers left in the global airlines, but you can still see them in many cargo planes. Many years ago, big planes would require many hands to operate them - there would be a minimum of a captain, a copilot, a flight engineer, a navigator and a radio officer to put the plane in the air safely.
Today, they only need two to fly any modern planes - even on the largest airliner - the Airbus A380 that can carry up to 800 passengers! Tomorrow, some say, they only need a pilot and a dog to fly a plane. The pilot's duty would be to feed the dog. What about the dog? She is there to bite the pilot if he dares to touch the controls! 
|
|
|
