Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers
Tasks
Core Tasks Include:
- Use instrumentation to guide flights when visibility is poor.
- Respond to and report in-flight emergencies and malfunctions.
- Work as part of a flight team with other crew members, especially during takeoffs and landings.
- Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
- Steer aircraft along planned routes, using autopilot and flight management computers.
- Monitor gauges, warning devices, and control panels to verify aircraft performance and to regulate engine speed.
- Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight, adhering to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.
- Inspect aircraft for defects and malfunctions, according to pre-flight checklists.
- Check passenger and cargo distributions and fuel amounts to ensure that weight and balance specifications are met.
- Monitor engine operation, fuel consumption, and functioning of aircraft systems during flights.
- Confer with flight dispatchers and weather forecasters to keep abreast of flight conditions.
- Coordinate flight activities with ground crews and air traffic control and inform crew members of flight and test procedures.
- Order changes in fuel supplies, loads, routes, or schedules to ensure safety of flights.
- Choose routes, altitudes, and speeds that will provide the fastest, safest, and smoothest flights.
- Direct activities of aircraft crews during flights.
- Brief crews about flight details, such as destinations, duties, and responsibilities.
- Record in log books information such as flight times, distances flown, and fuel consumption.
- Make announcements regarding flights, using public address systems.
Supplemental Tasks Include:
- File instrument flight plans with air traffic control to ensure that flights are coordinated with other air traffic.
- Perform minor maintenance work, or arrange for major maintenance.
- Instruct other pilots and student pilots in aircraft operations and the principles of flight.
- Conduct in-flight tests and evaluations at specified altitudes and in all types of weather to determine the receptivity and other characteristics of equipment and systems.
- Evaluate other pilots or pilot-license applicants for proficiency.
- Load smaller aircraft, handling passenger luggage and supervising refueling.
- Plan and formulate flight activities and test schedules and prepare flight evaluation reports.
The data sources for the information displayed here include: O*NET™ 16.0.
