Clashmaker.com

As it seems, a topic ‘Boeing-727 vs Tu-154′ perfectly fits into the ‘clash thesis‘ actively pursued on this blog, - as a case to explore, of course, - not a pretex for another round of ‘Cold War’ So, I thought it would be worthwhile to continue reviewing some traits of two similar aircraft: Boeing-727, and Tupolev-154.

I should ask pilots who flew 727 type whether there was a ‘navigator position’ on the flight deck at all. Perhaps, all operational 727s nowadays are flown with crew of three. Meanwhile, a number of companies who operate Tu-154s in Russia, still do it utilizing the ‘four crew-member scheme’: Captain, First Officer, Flight Engineer, and Navigator. However, a while ago some of operators began eliminating navigator’s position from the aircraft, and train their crews to fly the plane in a ‘reduced team’.

Interestingly enough, our ‘Babe’, the Tu-154 RA-85123, built in 2006, equipped with a modern FMS set, was mostly flown with a crew of four!

This is a ’sneak-peek’ shot of the RA-85123 flight deck, ‘old brand new’ Tupolev - two displays on the central panel, two CDUs on exactly the same spot where the WW-II era ‘dead-reckoning’ navigational equipment was once installed, ‘reining’ for decades.. I’m planning  a couple more posts on this topic.

And here’s a pair of pics showing ‘Flight Engineer’ positions on the 727, and Tu-154 respectively

The 727 pic was sent to me by a friend of mine, who used to fly it as a ‘Second Officer‘, operating the plane’s systems from this station. It should be noted that the ‘Second Officer’ position never existed in the Soviet/Russian aviation. They always had either ‘Flight Engineer‘, or ‘On-board Mechanic‘ to execute a set of ’systems&engines operator’s duties on the plane.  A ‘Flight Engineer career‘ had always been ’segregated’ from any other ‘walk of life’ in aviation in the Soviet Union, and later, in Russia. A person, who chose this career, never had a chance to get a cross-training at some point of this career to fly the plane, say, - as a pilot.

As for my friend, after a year of being on the ‘Second Officer’ position, he got promoted to the First Officer, and flew the 727 as a ‘right-seat man’, or ‘co-pilot’.

(to be continued..)