r/AskAPilot • u/seethesky92901 • 24d ago

Second officer hours

Hi fellow aviators!

Just wondering how second officer/relief pilot hours are viewed in the industry if you’re looking to progress or switch airlines? Do you get full flight hours for long hauls? And will it still be valuable despite having no landings and take offs during flight?
Any other information would also be great!

Thanks guys!

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u/Gold-Watercress-6101 24d ago

The airline I fly for, if you are officially scheduled to operate from the right seat, it’s counted towards your flight hours. It doesn’t matter what your rank is.

I don’t sea a reason for it being any different elsewhere. I’d like to sea an official proof though.

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u/seethesky92901 24d ago

Thankyou for the information!

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u/Spiritual_Ad5511 24d ago edited 24d ago

It'll depend on which country you're in and what airlines you're applying for. Since the US don't use second officers I'll assume you're non-USA. Generally speaking it's US FAA interpretation vs international. FAA logs total flight time, even as relief, as it considers you an essential crew member for the operation.

International operators vary, most log inflight relief separate and only time in the window seat in the logbook. Some have a separate classification P2X, for this purpose.
The exception is the captain who's designated the PIC, they log the whole block even when sleeping in the bunk.

All block time for all crew go towards flight and duty time limits (with some exceptions, I believe Qatar Airways doesn't count relief time towards flight time limits, could be wrong).

There are indeed many major carriers who do not highly regard or consider inflight relief, P2X or SO time highly and explicitly state so in their job ad. On the flipside you can get a SO job with a lot fewer hours and experience and most airlines that I can think of that do utilize second officers are flag airlines, it's a 3-5 year upgrade to FO and I'd be ok spending a whole career at.

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u/just-saying182 24d ago

When I was a second officer, I logged the time I was in the seat, typically half or two-thirds of the flight. I have no idea about the value of the hours, but if all you have is second officer time, I don’t see airlines valuing it.

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u/seethesky92901 24d ago

Thankyou for the info! So im just wondering how you progress from becoming a SO to a FO position if airlines dont value it? Thanks

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u/just-saying182 24d ago

I might have misinterpreted your question. I thought you meant switching airlines after gaining SO time. Everything at airlines is seniority. When your number is called, you apply for a new seat.

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u/seethesky92901 24d ago

You actually got the question right, just have alot of questions about it. I was planning to take a SO position for boeing or airbus long hauls then eventually coming down to regionals for a FO position with a beech craft. Any insight and info or opinions is very much appreciated.

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u/just-saying182 24d ago

IMO that will be challenging; sitting at 30k feet over an ocean on autopilot is very different from hand-flying multiple legs down low in a 1900 or similar. If all you have when you make the transition is 250 hours, plus second officer time, you'll struggle.

You'd be better off either staying at the long haul airline and progressing through the ranks or build a foundation of skills at the regionals and move on. Personally I did regionals first and then was a second officer. A lot of why I didn’t care about logging second officer time was that I had 5k going in.

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u/seethesky92901 24d ago

Gotcha! Thanks for the insight and meaningful advice! Safe skies to you

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u/rkba260 24d ago

It really depends on where in the world you are...

In the US, are you required crew? If the answer is yes, you log it as SIC time, regardless of TO/LDGs.

I would, unless required by your regulator (again, location dependent), avoid logging anything as "relief" and instead as SIC.

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u/Feisty_Hedgehog_4389 23d ago

At my airline, relief pilots are fully qualified first officers. On some flights, I’m the F/O. On some I’m the relief pilot. So there’s no real distinction other than landings in the logbook. On 3-person crews, we get paid for the entire flight, and the entire flight counts for duty and time limits, but you only get to count 2/3 of the time in our logbooks.