CNN Interview with Concorde FE

Murdoughnut said:
Kind of a cool read.

Honestly, I didn't realize that there were career FEs. Always assumed it was a stepping stone to FO, or reserved for guys 60+ who wanted to stay in the cockpit.

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Fewer people qualified that job than flew as Captains; every Brit Captain’s certificate is endorsed as “flight engineer required.”

Pretty amazing read, thanks. The procedures for a Concorde FE are pretty complicated, befitting their critical role in keeping the airplane running.
 
Murdoughnut said:
Kind of a cool read.

Honestly, I didn't realize that there were career FEs. Always assumed it was a stepping stone to FO, or reserved for guys 60+ who wanted to stay in the cockpit.

Click to expand...

You had pilots who started in the FE seat, waiting to move up, known as Second Officers.

Then you had non-pilots who had an FE certificate (FER, FET, FEJ or a combo of them) who were Professional FEs. That’s all they did. And they were very good at it.
 
Murdoughnut said:
Kind of a cool read.

Honestly, I didn't realize that there were career FEs. Always assumed it was a stepping stone to FO, or reserved for guys 60+ who wanted to stay in the cockpit.

Click to expand...



My uncle (dad’s older brother) was the only family who didn’t leave Pakistan. He was a PFE for PIA from 1976-2012. In order, Boeing 720, 707, A300, B747-2/3.

And a story he’s told, he was supposed to be the PFE on PIA 268. He was removed for some training/checking event needed for another PFE.


Wiki seems to check out, the crew was a CA, FO, one operating FE, the other observing FE.


en.m.wikipedia.org

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org


That’s some final destination level stuff right there. Pure dumb chance that scheduling took him off that particular flight. He retired in 2012 and is still alive today.
 
MikeD said:
Were the PFEs there on their own seniority list for bidding purposes?
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I really don't remember. I know they'd transition between the 727 and the L1011 but it might have been the same list as the regular pilots since we had a mix of PFE and regular line pilots on the engineer seat.
 
FlyingAccountant said:
Didn't the early 737s have an FE too?
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You’re thinking of the early 767s at Ansett.

I know, I know #nerd


1725580842534.png
 
FlyingAccountant said:
It sounds like they did something similar with the 737-200, even though it only required two cockpit crew. Several airlines insisted on a three man crew so Boeing obliged.
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My dad was a “GIB” on the 737-200 at Western for a bit, owing to a settlement with the FE union if memory serves. He started and stopped the APU and ran the air stairs out.

GIB-Guy In Back.
 
Stripe questions:

FE’s wore two stripes. There were some carriers where they wore three stripes if they also were current FO’s.

Do any foreign carriers still have two stripe FO’s? Years ago, a few carriers had two-stripe FO’s and three-stripe Chief FO’s.

I’ve stopped paying attention.
Does anybody wear a single stripe these days?

I remember some pilot trainees wore a single stripe during training. Maybe that disappeared with dress uniforms for trainees.

I remember some ME carriers where the purser was male and he wore a single stripe.

Didn’t American flight attendants have one stripe for awhile? Maybe they still do.
 
Pilot Fighter said:
Stripe questions:

FE’s wore two stripes. There were some carriers where they wore three stripes if they also were current FO’s.

Do any foreign carriers still have two stripe FO’s? Years ago, a few carriers had two-stripe FO’s and three-stripe Chief FO’s.

I’ve stopped paying attention.
Does anybody wear a single stripe these days?

I remember some pilot trainees wore a single stripe during training. Maybe that disappeared with dress uniforms for trainees.

I remember some ME carriers where the purser was male and he wore a single stripe.

Didn’t American flight attendants have one stripe for awhile? Maybe they still do.
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I feel like I have seen foreign FA's with 2 sleeve stripes before.....not sure what carrier(s) (hell I can't even tell the difference between UAL, AA, and SWA pilot uniforms)
 
MikeD said:
You had pilots who started in the FE seat, waiting to move up, known as Second Officers.

Then you had non-pilots who had an FE certificate (FER, FET, FEJ or a combo of them) who were Professional FEs. That’s all they did. And they were very good at it.
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Still have em on the military side, though I think the ranks are significantly dwindling. EP-3E, and maybe a few Herks are still around that use them? I assume you or @Wardogg can speak to that intelligently
 
///AMG said:
Still have em on the military side, though I think the ranks are significantly dwindling. EP-3E, and maybe a few Herks are still around that use them? I assume you or @Wardogg can speak to that intelligently
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My father almost became an EC-121 FE, he was getting tired riding in the back staring at a radar screen. He requested a combat assignment or FE training. A few months later he was rotating from Cubi Point to Yankee Station in EA-1F’s.
 
Pilot Fighter said:
My father almost became an EC-121 FE, he was getting tired riding in the back staring at a radar screen. He requested a combat assignment or FE training. A few months later he was rotating from Cubi Point to Yankee Station in EA-1F’s.
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That's pretty cool! My dad did a tour flying the "Willie Victor" (Navy EC-121) with VW-4, hunting typhoons. Between that and the majority of his career flying the P2V, he always has had good things to say about the FE's and the mechs they flew with.
 
///AMG said:
That's pretty cool! My dad did a tour flying the "Willie Victor" (Navy EC-121) with VW-4, hunting typhoons. Between that and the majority of his career flying the P2V, he always has had good things to say about the FE's and the mechs they flew with.
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Growing up on Whidbey, I saw the last Reserve P-2’s show up occasionally. They looked horrible but I thought they were cool.

Side note, the retirement of the P-2, C-131, C-1, and S-2 resulted in the collapse of many Navy flying clubs. No more gas to steal.
 
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