Part-1: The standard departure, en-route and arrival procedures in the conduct of commercial multicrew operations under VFR and IFR

a)      List and explain the Phases of flight and the Procedure for both of these in a table format.

There are 5 phases of flight in total and they include:

Phase	Activity	Explanation	Procedure
Phase 1	Preflight, Taxi and take off	The first phase of flight and it comprises of the commencement. It begins from when the aircraft becomes ready to start the engine, and ends at when the engine finally takes off.	From the gate, the aircraft is given a pushback. It is then towed into the correct position for the engine to start. The pilot then taxis the aircraft under its own power, then to the point of taking off on the runway (Sundararajan, 2013).
Phase 2	Departure and climb	The second phase of flight, and it is where the aircraft becomes airborne.	At this phase, the aircraft starts climbing, under the directions of the air traffic control. The air traffic control then allows the aircraft to achieve the desired track, and then climb to the cruise altitude. There has to be proper management of the aircraft’s safe separation from any other aircraft within the vicinity, while at the same time allowing for local restrictions (Woolaston, 2012).
Phase 3	Enroute Cruise	The third phase of flight where the flight part that operates on the flight-planned route is at the optimum altitude. Too much emissions of a plane are released at this point.	The flight attains the optimum altitude, The engine and the weight of the aircraft are configured, and then the plane continues flying to the destination.
Phase 4	Descent and Approach	The most difficult phase of flight, where the plane starts to climb down on reaching its destination. A lot of controlling is required at this point, especially in the congested areas.	Where the plane starts to climb down on reaching its destination. A lot of controlling is done.
Phase 5	Taxi and Arrival	Where the plane touches down the runway on descending.	The aircraft is cleared to land, the flight then stops to wait for the clearance to cross the runway, and then the aircraft taxis all the way to the gate.

(Prinzel, et al, 2011, October)

b)     For the multi-crew operation, list the procedures for the first officer.

The first officers’ main responsibility is ensuring that the passengers of the aircraft experience the best in flight experience as well as safety as the one top on the priority list. He also ensures that aircrafts do not work beyond the required normal operation time frame, unless faced with an emergency (Wing, Murdoch, Chamberlain, Consiglio, Hoadley, Hubbs, & Palmer, 2010, September).

The first officer is also charged with the responsibility of making sure that he or she adheres to the regulations as well as instructions from CASA, and also those that are coming from the company. He also ensures the observation of flight and duty times, and the accurate recording of duty and on the flight times

c)      Who is responsible for the ATC Traffic advisory in a multi crew flight?

In the entire industry of airspace, the global Air Traffic Control (ATC) has a very important role in ensuring that there are no collisions in the airspace. The services of the ATC are provided by controllers, who are based on the ground. They are responsible for directing aircraft on the ground, as well as the controlled airspace. The ground-based controllers can also offer advisory services to the aircrafts operating within the non-controlled airspace (Dismukes, Loukopoulos, & Barshi, 2012).

And what are the duties of a ground based controllers?

The main duties and responsibilities of the of the ground-based ATC controller include the provision of advisory services to aircraft on the ground, in controlled as well as uncontrolled airspace. They also offer directions in a bid to combat and prevent collisions in the airspace as well as in landing areas through the advisory services. They also offer regulatory instructions for the safety of aircraft operations. They direct the aircraft both on the ground and in the air (Sun, Gao, Yuan & Zhao, 2011).

d)     What are the major differences between the ATPL and MPL licensing systems?

According to Yadav, (2012), the ATPL licensing system requires that an applicant of a commercial pilot license acquire at least group 1-instrument ratings. The applicant should also have at least 1500 hours of flying experience, from which 250 hours require to be in the position of a pilot in command.

It could be either pilot in command, or under instruction. In addition, of the total working experience hours, at least 100 working hours, either as a pilot or as a co-pilot should be included. A minimum of 75 hours of the experience should also be under instrument flight time, which with an option of 25 hours maximum in an approved instrument ground trainer (Seager, Smith, Patel, Brunt & Brennan, 2013).

The MPL system on its part is designed to develop an individual with the abilities that aim at ensuring a multi-crew airline aircrafts handling. It makes the use of simulators, and also adopts competency based training techniques (Henderson, 2013). The multi-crew licensing system makes use of human factors as well as threats and the management of errors in all the training phases to come up with the best in skilled aircraft handlers.

Which one is beneficial for Etihad and why?

The licensing system that is most suitable for Etihad is the Multi-crew Pilot Licensing system. The reasons for the MPL, being more suitable include the increased need for a steady and constant supply, and reserve of highly skilled as well as trained pilots as well as other aviation crew, which MPL is best suited to offer (Wing et al, 2013, June). The MPL system has over time been known to be safety oriented, which is a requirement in virtually all airlines.

This makes it more placed in a better position to deliver a set of rigorously trained pilot and other personnel, making its relevance in Etihad more beneficial. The Multi-crew Pilot License system has been known to be good in its programs that consist a blended training as well as a rigorous methodology. This produces the best results in selection of cadets, resource management as well as airline operating procedures (Vu, Strybel et al, 2012).

Which one is beneficial for the cadet pilot and why?

The Multi-crew Pilot License system is considered to be more beneficial to the Cadet pilot. The reason is that; the MPL system offers a well-blended methodology and a rigorous cadet selection process. Under this, the system then integrates the rigorously selected cadets into well-blended English language training with more emphasis placed on the crew resource as well as error management (Burger & Jones, 2011). The cadets through the MPL system are rigorously integrated into the airline operations procedures, which makes them competent for the cadet selection and training.

Part-2:

The privileges and limitations of commercial pilot certificate in relation to the UAE

For the commercial pilot license, there are a number of privileges as well as limitations, though the limitations do have conditional clauses. In the United Arab Emirates, a person who is in the possession of a commercial pilot certificate can; Carry passengers or property (goods), for compensation so long as he or she is a qualified pilot under this part in general terms.

In the lighter air category ratings, which also go for the commercial pilot certificate, the person may be allowed to give training in airship for a certificate issuance course (Todd & Thomas, 2013). He or she may also be allowed to give an endorsement for pilot certificate, as well as endorse a student pilot certificate. He or she may also act as a pilot in command and be in a position to give flight training, as well as ground training and endorsements.

The limitations of the holders of commercial pilot certificate include; in case the holder of the certificate does not have an instrument-rating category, they will be limited to carrying passengers for hire on cross-country flights, which might be in excess of fifty nautical miles, or nights. If the person applying for the commercial pilot certificate has a balloon rating a gas balloon, then the commercial pilot certificate contains a restriction of exercising the privileges of the certificate in a gas balloon (Garçon, & Van Mechelen, 2011).

 

 

References

Burger, C. R., & Jones, T. (2011). Adapting existing training standards for unmanned aircraft: finding ways to train staff for unmanned aircraft operations.

Dismukes, R. K., Loukopoulos, L. D., & Barshi, I. (2012). The multitasking myth: Handling complexity in real-world operations. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..

Garçon, N., & Van Mechelen, M. (2011). Recent clinical experience with vaccines using MPL-and QS-21-containing adjuvant systems. Expert review of vaccines, 10(4), 471-486.

Henderson, J. (2013). Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) Concept of Operations.

Prinzel, L. J., Shelton, K. J., Kramer, L. J., Arthur, J. J., Bailey, R. E., Norman, R. M., … & Barmore, B. E. (2011, October). Flight deck interval management and delegated separation for equivalent visual operations. In Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2011 IEEE/AIAA 30th (pp. 6B2-1). IEEE.

Seager, L., Smith, D. W., Patel, A., Brunt, H., & Brennan, P. A. (2013). Applying aviation factors to oral and maxillofacial surgery–the human element. British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 51(1), 8-13.

Sun, X., Gao, F., Yuan, X., & Zhao, J. (2011). Application of human modeling in multi-crew cockpit design. In Digital Human Modeling (pp. 204-209). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Sundararajan, V. (2013). A Case Study of Design, Performance and Economic Analysis of Light Sport Airplanes. In 51st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition.

Todd, M. A., & Thomas, M. J. (2013). Experience, Competence, or Syllabus? Influences on Flight Hours at Licensing of Commercial Pilots. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 23(2), 169-180.

Vu, K. P. L., Strybel, T. Z., Battiste, V., Lachter, J., Dao, A. Q. V., Brandt, S., … & Johnson, W. (2012). Pilot performance in trajectory-based operations under concepts of operation that vary separation responsibility across pilots, air traffic controllers, and automation. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 28(2), 107-118.

Wing, D., Murdoch, J., Chamberlain, J., Consiglio, M., Hoadley, S., Hubbs, C., & Palmer, M. (2010, September). Function Allocation With Airborne Self-Separation Evaluated in a Piloted Simulation. In Proc. 27th ICAS Congress, Nice, France.

Wing, D., Prevot, T., Lewis, T., Martin, L., Johnson, S., Cabrall, C., … & Morey, S. (2013, June). Pilot and controller evaluations of separation function allocation in air traffic management. In Tenth USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar (ATM2013).

Woolaston, L. (2012). How to Become an Airline Pilot. How2Become Ltd.

Yadav, D. K. (2012). University aviation degree courses A study of labour market and student retention challenges for sustainable course development. Industry and Higher Education, 26(5), 393-401.