Airbus A300

ahw01

Well-Known Member
I've been reading up on this plane and it has a long life (first delivered 1972, last delivered 2007 = 35 years). It seems most are now involved in cargo ops - no US scheduled pax ops anymore?

With Fedex the A310 is being phased out before the A300 and there are no A300 retirement plans yet - Airbus will support it until around 2030 I think? Can't remember the exact lifetime.

Also, early models (B4) required a flight engineer - some have been converted for 2 pilot operation - are there any with 3 person crews still in use?

Alex.
 
I've been reading up on this plane and it has a long life (first delivered 1972, last delivered 2007 = 35 years). It seems most are now involved in cargo ops - no US scheduled pax ops anymore?

With Fedex the A310 is being phased out before the A300 and there are no A300 retirement plans yet - Airbus will support it until around 2030 I think? Can't remember the exact lifetime.

Also, early models (B4) required a flight engineer - some have been converted for 2 pilot operation - are there any with 3 person crews still in use?

Alex.
I think the flight engineer requirement was only for the very first few test aircraft. I may be wrong. They may have been included for labor contractual purposes at some airlines when they were first delivered. For instance, United put Second Officers on their first DC-9 and 737s even though they weren't required and Ansett did so with their 767s. In the latter case, they actually had a flight engineer station put in, in the former, the second officer just sat in a jumpseat.

The safety research seems to support having a third officer on the flight deck (be it a professional flight engineer, a pilot flight engineer, or just a guy to handle checklists and stuff), especially in emergency situations. It's a shame it'll never happen again except when international flight duration is involved.
 
For some companies that fly A300B4s, FEs are still being recruited (or requirements are listed on their website even if they're not. And A300B4 FE training is still being offered, though Fedex/UPS et al may have converted most of theirs (+ DC10s also) to 2 pilot.

Alex.
 
I think the flight engineer requirement was only for the very first few test aircraft. I may be wrong.

The Eastern A300s all had engineer panels. The first A300 without an engineer was the -600. The B2 and B4 had engineers.

I jumpseated a couple of times when Eastern was still flying them and noted at cruise the N1 was around 104%. It was all calibration and legal but that always caught my attention.

The FAA registry shows 4 B2s still on the list and quite a few B4s
http://tinyurl.com/n5al6uand of course, lots of A300 F4s (freighters)

And Piedmont got into trouble with ALPA when they decided to NOT have FEs on their 737s. (3 people in the 737-200 cockpit was a bit much).

This website is useful in finding out what is where..
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/AcftRef_Inquiry.aspx

for example this page..http://tinyurl.com/m2upzu
 
For some companies that fly A300B4s, FEs are still being recruited (or requirements are listed on their website even if they're not. And A300B4 FE training is still being offered, though Fedex/UPS et al may have converted most of theirs (+ DC10s also) to 2 pilot.

Alex.

UPS only flies the A300-600 model. They don't have, nor did they ever fly the A300B4 model. FedEx flies the A300-600 and A310. In fact, UPS no longer flies any aircraft requiring an FE. We currently fly the 744, MD11, A300-600, B767 and B757.
 
For some companies that fly A300B4s, FEs are still being recruited (or requirements are listed on their website even if they're not. And A300B4 FE training is still being offered, though Fedex/UPS et al may have converted most of theirs (+ DC10s also) to 2 pilot.

Alex.
Building on what A300Capt said, UPS and FedEx only operate the -600 version of the A300. UPS got all of thiers as new builds, FedEx has a mixed bag of new builds and second hand -600s. Big Purple never acquired and converted any -200s.

There are (or were) some B4-200s with a two man crew cockpit, though. According to the book Airbus by Guy Norris and Mark Wagner, Airbus made the first flight of a widebody aircraft using a two-man crew on 06 OCT 1981. The cockpit was all electromechanical. First delivery of an A300B4-200 with this cockpit was made to Garuda Indonesia. Airbus used this concept to develop the -600 when newer digital displays became available.
 
American Airlines retired all its Airbus A300-600 Aircraft from service in 2009, with its last flight (flight 1908 from Miami to JFK) operating on August 24, 2009.

I find it interesting that FE training is still offered, so obviously outside of UPS/FEDEX, 3 man crews are still used. I'll try to find out more.

Alex.
 
A300Capt, do you believe UPS will drop the FEw requirement when they start hiring again [someday]?

Yea, I think they probably will since we don't hire for that position anymore. When I was hired we had many PFE's with an A&P license. You had to have the FE written to get an interview or hired. Times have changed!

Also, as you probably know, in the past most of our aircraft actually required an FE (B727, B747 classic and the DC8). The B757 was the only 2 person airframe on the property. All those 3 person airframes have been retired and you'll be hired directly into the right seat of one of the remaining fleet types.

Knowing UPS I would still have the FE written completed if you're looking for a future job here. It's just one more thing that will separate you from the rest of the herd.
 
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