A330 / A350 Flight Crew

[FN-GM]

Hello,

I know at CX that the pilots that fly the A330 also fly the A350 (and vice versa).

Do SQ do this please?

Thanks

[flyguy]

SIA's line pilots are qualified on one type of aicraft that they fly, although they may have transitioned from say a 777 to the A350 or from A330 to A350.

[loldude333]

Some things to take note:

1. Boeing and Airbus design their cockpits differently. Most obvious would be that Boeing still uses a centrally-placed control yoke to control roll and pitch while Airbus uses a sidestick (like a fighter jet). The way information is presented plus the placing of some buttons and screens and knobs and the order of operation is also different. So a pilot has a fair bit of cross-training to do if he swaps between aircraft of these 2 manufacturers.
2. Airbus has designed all their cockpits to be very very similar (from the A300 onwards), regardless if the jet is big or small. Hence, the only thing that needs adjustment training for is the size and weight of the aircraft. Hence in general switching between Airbus aircraft of different weights requires less training than for Boeing planes.
3. Older Boeings had different cockpits from current Boeings, but from the 777 onwards there has been much more uniformity. Hence, transitioning from a 777 to a 787 requires less training, but transitioning between any of the jets from a 707 to a 767 requires more training.
4. Another thing to consider is the aircraft's type rating, which is basically an even more stringent way of defining the aircraft's weight, handling and control characteristics (i'm generalising). The A330 and A350 have the same type rating, while the 787 and 777 also have the same type rating. Hence, in the case of SQ, pilots can easily and quickly transition within the Boeing or Airbus aircraft fleet due to this commonality.

Here's an example. A close family member of mine has flown 777s, A380s, back to 777s and is about to transition to the 787-10s. His conversion from the 777 to the A380 took about 6 months. Conversion back to the 777 took about 4-5 months IIRC. And the conversion from 777 to 787-10 is scheduled to only be a month.

All that being said, flyguy is correct in saying that SQ pilots are only committed to 1 particular aircraft. This minimises pilot risk as the pilots just need to focus on remaining current one 1 aircraft.

Hope all this information is useful!

[boing]

Cockpit commonality is one of Airbus's biggest selling point to airlines as cockpit crews require minimal training to transition from one fleet to another. A330, A320 and A340 look so identical that it's hard for a layman to tell them apart. In fact, some airlines have a cross crew qualification where the crew can fly a320, A330 and A340 after completing the necessary courses.
A300 and A310 are the last Airbus aircraft with yokes and were largely fitted with analog gauges, so they have little in common with the current aircraft. Both the A350 and A380 are fitted with many technological updates compared to A330, so I am not sure if cross crew qualification applies here. Just for your info, SIA maintained a separate group of pilots for their A330 and A345 fleet when A345 was still around.

[boing]

Cockpit commonality is one of Airbus's biggest selling point to airlines as cockpit crews require minimal training to transition from one fleet to another. A330, A320 and A340 look so identical that it's hard for a layman to tell them apart. In fact, some airlines have a cross crew qualification where the crew can fly a320, A330 and A340 after completing the necessary courses.
A300 and A310 are the last Airbus aircraft with yokes and were largely fitted with analog gauges, so they have little in common with the current aircraft. Both the A350 and A380 are fitted with many technological updates compared to A330, so I am not sure if cross crew qualification applies here. Just for your info, SIA maintained a separate group of pilots for their A330 and A345 fleet when A345 was still around.

[loldude333]

A300 and A310 are the last Airbus aircraft with yokes and were largely fitted with analog gauges, so they have little in common with the current aircraft. Just for your info, SIA maintained a separate group of pilots for their A330 and A345 fleet when A345 was still around.

Oops, i've edited my post to reflect the change.

Both the A350 and A380 are fitted with many technological updates compared to A330, so I am not sure if cross crew qualification applies here.

I'm not sure about this. But i think it does, with a bit of extra orientation.

[SilverKrisSRG]

My uncle was an SQ Captain, A345 specialist, and flew twice a month to LAX or EWR, but occassionally he flew A330, mostly to BNE at that time.