Aircraft pilot VS autopilot. The decline of the profession "civil aviation pilot"? Airport from a pilot's point of view Learn a Civil Aviation Pilot

In the early 90s, I had the good fortune to work in Nigeria, flying with a local airline on Tu-134s leased from our airline. Now, after almost 20 years, this may seem like a reference to compatriots already accustomed to civilization, but then it was a breakthrough into another life and invaluable flight experience, not to mention an order of magnitude higher salary compared to the impoverished Motherland at that time. And so that the picture of “happiness” is complete, I’ll say that I spent my honeymoon in Nigeria ... No, I’m not a fan of the exotic - I just got married, finally, for the second time between African business trips, and there are simply no options to leave my wife for six months It was. Such is the exclusive honeymoon. Who is in the Seychelles, who is in Paris, but what about us, what is there - to Nigeria ...
By the way, the plane in the photo is really one of those that flew there. We drove almost all of them to Syktyvkar from Interflug after the unification of Germany. Even the coloring is basically the same. Only the company name, flag and registration have changed.

One of the stories from there:

Aircraft drove to Nigeria usually along the route Syktyvkar-Sheremetyevo-Prague-Casablanca-Bamako-Kano. We spent the night in Casablanca with pleasure, and in the morning there was a 4-hour, at the maximum range, throw through the desert. And so one of the crews, consisting of a flight chief, a young co-pilot, flying abroad for the first time, a navigator who rarely flies abroad and, thank God, a veteran of these flights - a mechanic, started for adventure. They flew through Europe like clockwork. Upon arrival in Casablanca, the navigator told the flight mechanic how much kerosene should be refueled for the flight to Bamako. And this figure turned out to be one and a half times less than the usual refueling. The flight mechanic was surprised, but did not delve into the intricacies of the calculation and filled, just in case, as usual, full tanks. Here it is necessary to explain: on the Tu-134, the fuel system and its indication were invented, probably, in order to make life as difficult as possible for the crew. The pilots delved into its subtleties, usually when passing tests, and then safely forgot until the next time. Only mechanics knew the real gas station. They also set the amount of filled fuel before the flight on the "clock" - a flow meter with a clock-like dial, which, as fuel was consumed, rewinded the readings back. His indication was a no brainer. Another device, the fuel gauge itself, showed the actual fuel in the tanks, but its readings were available only to the most gifted pilots.

So, our flight engineer put the fuel calculated by the navigator on the “watch”, and they took off into the unknown. Further from the words of the co-pilot: When we were already in the middle of the desert, the navigator suddenly lit up (before that he had not been noticed smoking on board) ... not enough ... It turns out that he forgot when calculating that he was dealing with nautical miles, not kilometers (all his previous international experience was in flights to Bulgaria and, accordingly, calculations in kilometers). A mile is roughly twice as long as a kilometer. Accordingly, the fuel. When recalculating, it turned out that it would have to end, at best, during the landing approach. Silent scene. The curtain... Everyone, along with cold sweat, has about the same thought: “Yo. your mother!!!" And, before my eyes, a picture of the wreckage of the Tu-134 among the dunes. The co-pilot has an additional thought: “Why are you killing? For the first time abroad, and I haven’t had time to live yet ... ”. Out of hopelessness, the commander still tugged at the fuel gauge selector, in which he still did not understand anything, and asked for a cigarette (he had never smoked before) ... measures to prevent such incidents, hanging in all navigators of the country. And journalists will not even write that the crew took the plane away from residential buildings due to the complete absence of them at the alleged crash site.

The flight mechanic gave them another ten minutes to enjoy the sensations of the inevitable end and with the words “Your fuel is over, now we are flying on mine” set the “clock” to the actual amount in the tanks ...

In general, mechanics and flight engineers are sometimes peculiar people. Pilots often underestimate them. Well, they sometimes respond with subtle reciprocity. Another example from the life of my current airline:

The plane landed at the wrong airfield... Rarely, but it happens. I don't remember the reason (they usually confuse closely spaced airfields with similar runway configurations), but that's not the point. During the investigation, juicy circumstances were revealed: the commander, a real ass hole, was very rude to the flight engineer during the flight and, as a result, ordered him to shut up and speak only if he himself asked him. The Arabs, alas, are in the order of things. Okay, as you say, but he, of course, harbored anger. The case for revenge turned up a couple of hours later. After landing, the commander, when, to his horror, realized that they had landed in the wrong place, pulled himself together and told the flight engineer to contact the company's control center and report this unpleasant incident. The trouble is, for a moment, in writing off as a punishment from flight work for several years. “And I already said,” the flight engineer said, “when we were still flying on the landing straight ...”

How rigorous is the medical examination for the crew? What is a flight mission? How is an aircraft checked? The other day I was lucky enough to visit places where ordinary visitors to Domodedovo airport usually fail to get and look at the process of preparing pilots and other crew members of S7 Airlines for the upcoming air journey.

1. Meet - from left to right the pilot " S7 Airlines Tatarov Maxim Vyacheslavovich, aircraft captain Omelyanenko Vladimir Nikolaevich and press secretary of the airline Anna Bazhina.

2. Airport personnel, just like passengers, undergo pre-flight screening, only in a separate room specially designated for this. We take off the cap and forward through the frame. Everything is as strict as for mere mortals.

3. If you are physically sick, and even more so mentally, you won’t get on the flight. Here, the pilots are waiting for a whole medical board of several doctors.

4. Who's next? Measurement of pressure and temperature is only part of the medical "check-up" before the rest of the pre-flight preparation can be done.

5. After that, the crew goes to a large room, called the "briefing room". Check-in for the flight takes place here, each pilot checks in at the electronic terminal by entering his ID and password.

6. The flight task is printed out, documents on board (technical description of the aircraft of the previous team and technicians), all this is carefully studied and discussed.

7. The flight task also includes familiarization with the airports of departure, arrival and possible alternate airfields on the route.

8. This "bible" contains all the information about airfields and more.

9. To a person from the outside, all this seems incredibly complicated and confusing.

10. Just look at this card. The head will spin.

11. Also in the briefing room there is a meeting with the senior flight attendant (often these are acquaintances, since the crews are constantly changing). The chief flight attendant reports on the readiness for departure and the number of cabin crew on the flight.

12. When this whole story is over, we put on special vests and forward to the aircraft. Oh yes, how is the weather there? Previously, a summary (wind direction and strength, precipitation and thunderstorm risks) was received in a separate room. Now all the information is provided to the crews in the briefing room.

13. Here it is our handsome man - Airbus A-319, almost ready to go on flight 19 Moscow - St. Petersburg.

14. Let's take a closer look at him. Here is one of the engines.

15. Front chassis.

16. Place of attachment to the fuselage.

17. And this is what the insides of the rear chassis look like.

18. From this small window, a hellish stream of air - almost blew it away!

19.

20. When else will you take such a selfie!

21. Meanwhile, it would be nice to feed our liner.

22. Loading luggage.

23. Well, it's time to go inside. For bloggers, as well as for staff, the entrance to the TV ladder is on the side along a special ladder.

24. Teletrap control.

25. Well, well, everything is already in place.

26. The most interesting thing is, of course, the cockpit and cockpit.

27.

28.

29. Do you know how easy it is to distinguish an Airbus cockpit from a Boeing cockpit, for example?

30. Initially, the co-pilot inspects the aircraft, and the PIC prepares the cockpit. Then they change places. Systems are being prepared and checked, documents are being filled out, and the route and features of the departure and arrival airfields are once again checked.

31. Flight attendant S7.

32. And at the bottom, in the meantime, a tugboat had already taxied. This means that the liner is almost ready for takeoff.

33. We cling.

34. By the way, picking him up is not such an easy task as it seems at first glance.

35. That's it, you can move in the direction of the take-off.

36. Goodbye, dear friend. Although you look strict on the outside, you are kind on the inside. Hope we meet again.

37. Acceleration. Or right, it seems - run.

38.

39. Breakaway. Although English is considered poorer in some sense, it sounds more interesting in this case - Take off the ground.

40. Bye, green!

Like this. Many thanks to the guys from S7 and the airport management for an interesting event!

I, as promised, post the final post about the most interesting authors of LiveJournal. And it will be dedicated to a highly specialized topic, namely aviation, and everything connected with it. Why this particular topic? If, for example, we take nature, it is rare that anyone can resist the majesty of mountains and oceans. So it is in technology. Graceful multi-colored handsome planes, both in the sky and on the ground, have always attracted and will attract the enthusiastic glances of people. This topic has not bypassed me. I have been fond of airplanes and air spotting for a long time, and I keep a separate one in my own blog.

There are dozens of bloggers for whom the airport is their second home. And among them there are real pros, leading very, very interesting blogs. In my first post, under #5 favorites, I already mentioned Alexandra Chebana alexcheban and today I will introduce you to other interesting authors. Of course, the people I will talk about below know each other very well, have been friends for a long time and are professional colleagues. But the rest of the authors and readers of LJ, perhaps, will discover new faces and the amazing, exciting world of civil and military aviation.

In the first place I will put the inimitable Marina Lystseva photographersha - a professional aviation photographer, the author of dozens of simply gorgeous posts, whether it is a report from any aviation festival, a major air show, or from aboard a new model of an airliner.

02. Marina.

Selected publications and collections of Marina recommended for viewing:

Aviator - Sergey Martirosyan aviator_ru also known to many. No one will represent him better than himself: " My love for aviation started a long time ago, but it only started to show itself actively when I started taking notes and saving pleasant moments and images in photographs. I have a fairly large archive of personal aviation photographs that I took at airports, in flight or just for fun, as well as at various air shows.

08. Sergey.

My friends are calling me Aviator, I can't walk past a plane taking off, or look up into the sky, noticing an airplane's contrail, or admiring a handsome plane in an airport parking lot. Boarding an aircraft, I feel at home, saying “Hello, hostesses” to the flight attendants, and after completing the flight, which is always pleasant for me, “Thank you for the work” to the crew. The sky, the plane, the runway - this is all that makes up life for me. "

10. Airbus A350-1000 - the most spacious of the entire A350 family, 74 meters long and with a maximum capacity of 440 passengers.

11. Airbus A350-900 has a distinctive carbon livery, which symbolizes advanced technologies for the use of composite materials in aircraft construction (more than 50%).

FROM Julia Loris relax_action I am well acquainted personally, thanks to the first official spottings at our Kaliningrad airport Khrabrovo. Julia is an amazing soul! It is not only interesting to shoot planes with her, but also to talk on many topics. Julia is not only a wonderful photographer and spotter, but also a professional designer.

13. Julia in Kaliningrad Khrabrovo.

Thanks to Yulia, many spotters of our country have unique aviation key chains, branded T-shirts and safety vests in their collections. Julia is also the author of such a wonderful "branded" event as "". The term “podzaboring”, which is familiar to spotters, has acquired new facets thanks to him.

The creative work of the designer has a direct effect on Yulia's photographs, making them bright, unusual, and also taken from non-standard angles.

Another great master of aerial spotting - diman7777 . Dmitry lives in the south of Germany, practically on the border with Switzerland, and thanks to him we can enjoy magnificent colorful reports from the best airports in Germany and the rest of Europe. Not so long ago, Dmitry visited the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, which I love very much, and, thanks to good traffic, brought dozens of wonderful pictures from there, which I recommend that you familiarize yourself with without fail.

Completes the top five Maxim Golbraikht max_sky from Omsk, which has a unique airport "Omsk-Central", located in the city. Maxim is not only an active participant in many official spottings in various Russian cities, but also the author and compiler of a unique LJ catalog of spotters from Russia and the CIS countries. If you suddenly didn’t have enough of the five air bloggers described by me, you, thanks to Maxim, can always get acquainted with a few dozen more similar authors.

-----------------
Did you like my blog? Subscribe!

All the latest news and publications can also be found on my pages in

Together with the pilots of the S7 airline, I arrived at Domodedovo Airport, passed a medical examination, a pre-flight briefing, met the flight attendants, received permission to take off, rode a minibus to the plane, inspected it, started the engines and ... did not fly anywhere. However, I photographed the entire process of preparing for the flight ...

The pilots enter the office through a separate entrance in the terminal. Just like everyone else, they go through a full screening:

The airport is divided into 2 zones: clean and dirty. A clear zone is an area within an airport that can only be accessed through security. The rest of the terminal building is called the dirty zone:

Immediately after the inspection, the entire crew undergoes a medical commission:

Here the pilots receive a flight task, where all other notes about the flight will be entered. You can pass the medical examination no earlier than 2 hours before departure and no later than one hour. The doctor measures blood pressure and pulse. He looks at the pilot and assesses his condition. If there is suspicion, additional tests may be performed:

In the next room, senior flight attendants receive first-aid kits. After the flight, they hand them back. The contents of the first-aid kits are constantly updated, and a special doctor ensures that all medicines are with an unexpired expiration date:

After the medical examination, the pilots go down one floor and enter the briefing room:

At the end of the hall, in the window, the co-pilot receives the documentation for the aircraft in an impressive suitcase. It is always worn by the assistant commander. A kind of hazing:

There is a large table in the middle of the room where the pilots prepare for the flight. They study route documents, schemes for entering the destination airport, check the weather report on the route, choose the best route, determine the amount of fuel needed, choose an alternate airfield, etc.:

10.

Here they also receive weather data for all flight segments, wind speed and direction at altitudes, and possible turbulence. The entire route is divided into sections, and the pilots know in advance the expected strength of turbulence on each of them:

11.

S7 Airlines has a separate desk with computers in the briefing room, where the Aircraft Commander (PIC) can view additional information about the flight:

12.

If the commander has doubts about the weather conditions, he can consult with the meteorologist on duty:

13.

At the balance controller, the assistant commander fills out and submits a sheet with information about the flight. This includes information such as flight number, direction, tail number, curb weight of the aircraft (AC), total refueling, taxi fuel, takeoff fuel, flight fuel, flight time and number of seats. This information determines where the aircraft's center of mass will be:

14.

15.

After completing the training, the PIC calls the chief flight attendant and instructs him:

16.

The philosophy of AIRBUS is that the crew should not be let down. Therefore, every time the PIC and the co-pilot are different. Same with flight attendants. An explanation of this philosophy is in or on the first page with comments on this). They get to know each other already in the rest room before the flight:

17.

Here the senior flight attendant instructs the crew:

18.

After completing the preparation, the pilot approaches the controller and informs him that he has decided to fly:

19.

Pilots go to the plane in a special minibus. By the way, for the airline, each such trip costs 1000 rubles:

20.

On the territory of the platform, all people must move in green vests. Pilots are no exception.

21.

There is no ignition key in the aircraft, and it is turned on with a button. An initial check of the system operation is carried out:

22.

The co-pilot conducts an external inspection of the aircraft. Checks for the absence of the check "Remove Before Flight" on the front landing gear, "because if it is present, the landing gear will not be removed:

23.

Visually inspect the nose of the aircraft for damage:

24.

Checks the status of the sensors. In no case should they be iced:

25.

The technical door must be tightly closed:

26.

Visually inspects the engine blades:

27.

If they are icy, then a technician is called and warms them up:

28.

29.

The filling hatch (black hole in the middle of the wing) must be tightly closed:

30.

Examines the wing mechanization and static electricity dischargers (sticks sticking out of the wing):

31.

Denis is an instructor pilot for one of the largest airlines in Russia. Which one is easy to understand by reading his blog. And if up to this point you could be tormented by typical questions from the category “How do planes take off?”, “How do planes land?”, “How do you fly a plane in manual mode?” After reading Denis’s detailed posts, a lot will become clear.

Yuri Yashin
Without a doubt, Yuri is the most smiling of all public pilots. Now he works for S7 Airlines as a co-pilot of an Airbus A-320 aircraft. Thanks to Yuri's passion for photography, we have the opportunity to see picturesque pictures from the cockpit, as well as photos of aircraft at destination airports on the blog. And thanks to his talent as a storyteller, we regularly learn about flying everyday life.

Marina Lystseva
Marina says: "You don't have to work for an airline to be as close to the planes as possible." The fact is that Marina is an aviation photographer whose telephoto lenses reach everywhere. Her passion for aviation began 15 years ago when she worked as the editorial manager of the Aviation and Cosmonautics Bulletin. And it still continues, now to the delight of blog readers. And yes, a small remark: in the interpretation of the author, the nickname is correctly read "photographer";)

Andrey Ivanov
Andrei admits that in childhood, like all children, he dreamed of becoming a pilot or astronaut. Vision did not allow him to learn to be a civil aviation pilot, but did not deprive him of the dream of flying. Today Andrei combines several hypostases associated with the sky at once. He is an aeronautical engineer, private pilot, Il-14 restoration project manager and director of AOPA-Russia.