Please, why aren’t crews (at least captains) assigned and “given” an airplane to command and take all over the world or wherever his company might want him to go?
This way, the captain would KNOW his airplane, he would KNOW when the last time the windshield wipers were changed, he would know the grease situation and maintenance situation of the jack screw on a plane with a tail stabilizer, he would know everything about it, much like anyone knows about their car’s maintenance situation.
I don’t see how this wouldn’t be more SAFER and efficient for the industry as a whole.
Ideally, a whole crew would stay with a plane for as long as the plane is in service.
Safer? Debatable but DEFINITELY not more efficient. In fact it would be anything but. Airplanes fly everyday, pilots do not. Should the plane remain parked for days or weeks while a pilot is off or on days off? Should it be parked if I get sick and the flights cancelled? Right now I’m in BNE. We flew in last night but I’ll be here for 4 days. That plane I brought in was actually turned and flew back to HNL a few hours after. It will continue to fly AND GENERATE REVENUE for the next 4 days while I’m playing with koalas and eating meat pies. When it’s time for me to leave the flight that was brought in hours before will fly me, my crew and passengers safely home just fine. As for the “knowing” my plane that’s why we’re trained to fly a specific “type” not a single aircraft. For the particulars as far as maintenance (wipers changed, grease, jack screw etc) all that information is readily available and REQUIRED to be reviewed by the pilots in the maintenance log. Honestly if I flew the exact aircraft each flight I doubt I’d know anymore than I do now.
In a sense, Captain’s and First Officer’s are given a certain aircraft. Though it’s not a specific registration they’re assigned to, it’s a specific aircraft type. For instance, an MD-80 Captain cannot fly a 767 without training through their respective airline. This training translates to something called a “type rating”, which is basically your certification to operate a certain aircraft type.
Furthermore, in an airline of nearly 15,000 pilots (American Airlines), it would be impossible for every crew to have their own aircraft. AA has approximately 1,000 aircraft in their fleet, so you can imagine how many additional aircraft they would need to acquire to support their pilots getting their own plane.
Just to add on, in training, you are not assigned the exact same Cessna every time, but you know how to fly it. Sure the Cessna aircraft complexity cannot compare to the A330 Adam flies, but I don’t think I’d know anything more about my Cessna if I was only assigned one.
