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How does type rating work for this one off kind of plane? How do you get hours in the one plane, and is there a simulator? Also what do you do when the plane y

How does type rating work for this one off kind of plane? How do you get hours in the one plane, and is there a simulator? Also what do you do when the plane you're rated for is destroyed?

OJFord 5y ago
> Also what do you do when the plane you're rated for is destroyed? Presumably there are numerous other reasons you already wouldn't want it to be the only plane you were flying, so you just fly the others a bit more?
- bluGill 5y ago
  Even in the unlikely event you only were rated for it, you just do a bit of training and get another rating. How much training depends on the target, some need more than others.
masklinn 5y ago
Mriya’s crew were definitely rated for other planes (almost certainly the An-124 it was derived from for instance): Mriya was expensive to fly, and you’d only charter if if you really needed its lifting capabilities (whether weight or volume). It would not be flying year-round in the first place, so you’d want multiple crew rated for it (so one would be available when an order came in) but you wouldn’t want those crews sitting around with their thumbs up their asses all year. For people looking at it from afar it was an amazing sight, but I expect for the crew it was mostly monday. If you listen at their ATC transmissions they sound jaded and bored even for slavic pilots (whereas ATC and other pilots nearby sound like kids at candy store). I don’t know if the price sheets were ever public, but it would not surprise me to learn that you could charter two 124s for the price of the 225, with more flexibility to boot (the 225 had no rear cargo door, no passenger compartment, and obviously more concerning airfield size requirements — mostly owing to its size and takeoff distance, the landing gear is so overbuilt it’s supposedly got a pretty light ground pressure compared to other large aircrafts).
- lbriner 5y ago
  I think it was in-use more than you might think. I remember seeing a program about it and there are plenty of people needing to shift large cargo at expedited speed and as one customer put it, "if you are 2 weeks behind, you can pay for the 225 and buy that 2 weeks back compared to a ship". Also, the amount of time it takes for them to fly these vast distances means it was only available 2 or 3 times per week anyway. They had an office in London for booking and planning so it must have earned them some decent wedge, especially without any direct competitors. I don't know how much maintenance it needed in between though.
  - masklinn 5y ago
    Most of the large cargo would be shifted by the eminently capable, more easily available, and in many ways more flexible, 124s. Keep in mind while Mriya was a towering giant, the An-124 is literally the next best thing. You'd only call on the 225 if the 124 did not suffice either in lift or in volume[0]; of possibly in the rare cases where no 124 was available, the 225 was, and you didn't mind paying a premium. [0] mostly in length as the 124 and the 225 holds have the same cross-section of 6.4m wide and 4.4 high, but the 225's is 6 meters longer.
- mark-r 5y ago
  > the landing gear is so overbuilt That was something that caught my eye in the picture, it seems to have an endless number of tires on the ground.
  - masklinn 5y ago
    Yep, the 225’s main landing gear had two sets of 7 pairs of wheels (so 28 wheels, plus 4 nose wheels). Up from 5 pairs on the An-124 (and the same 4 nose wheels). Interestingly it’s not such a high number, the C5 galaxy has 24 in the MLG and and 4 at the nose, despite being slightly lighter than the An-124 (it’s older though). The C5 looks a bit less weird from the side because its MLG is organised in 4 sets of 6 with each set having one pair at the front, and two pairs side-by-side at the back. So from the side it looks like it has 4 pairs per side rather than the actual 6 (it makes the C5 look absolutely alien from the bottom though).
Stevvo 5y ago
There is a sim; https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonov_An-225_flight_simulator.jpeg https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonov_An-225_fli... Not sure if all of the cockpit is in that sim; there are 6 seats! I expect the pilots all started out flying other types, so will go back to doing that.
- masklinn 5y ago
  > Not sure if all of the cockpit is in that sim; there are 6 seats! That would be correct, like the AN-124 the An-225 has a crew of 6 (plus 2 loadmasters I think?). While the planes were retrofit and modernised they kept a pretty heavy crew scheme, nominal crew is 2 pilots, 2 FE, and 2 comms. Might be that they didn’t see the need to change the crew scheme, or might be the origins in strategic military transportation (the C5 also has a hefty crew with FEs).
  - p_l 5y ago
    It also had space for extra people (not many), whether for transit or as second/third crew
    - masklinn 5y ago
      Yes there’s a crew compartment, pretty large one really. It’s also for ground crew as there’s load-mastering, a lot of specific knowledge, plus probably the ability to do some maintenance even far from home base. The 124 also has a passenger cabin which can hold 80 but I don’t think they’d kept that in the 225.

How does type rating work for this one off kind of plane? How do you get hours in the one plane, and is there a simulator? Also what do you do when the plane you're rated for is destroyed?

OJFord 5y ago

> Also what do you do when the plane you're rated for is destroyed? Presumably there are numerous other reasons you already wouldn't want it to be the only plane you were flying, so you just fly the others a bit more?

bluGill 5y ago
Even in the unlikely event you only were rated for it, you just do a bit of training and get another rating. How much training depends on the target, some need more than others.

masklinn 5y ago

Mriya’s crew were definitely rated for other planes (almost certainly the An-124 it was derived from for instance): Mriya was expensive to fly, and you’d only charter if if you really needed its lifting capabilities (whether weight or volume). It would not be flying year-round in the first place, so you’d want multiple crew rated for it (so one would be available when an order came in) but you wouldn’t want those crews sitting around with their thumbs up their asses all year. For people looking at it from afar it was an amazing sight, but I expect for the crew it was mostly monday. If you listen at their ATC transmissions they sound jaded and bored even for slavic pilots (whereas ATC and other pilots nearby sound like kids at candy store). I don’t know if the price sheets were ever public, but it would not surprise me to learn that you could charter two 124s for the price of the 225, with more flexibility to boot (the 225 had no rear cargo door, no passenger compartment, and obviously more concerning airfield size requirements — mostly owing to its size and takeoff distance, the landing gear is so overbuilt it’s supposedly got a pretty light ground pressure compared to other large aircrafts).

lbriner 5y ago
I think it was in-use more than you might think. I remember seeing a program about it and there are plenty of people needing to shift large cargo at expedited speed and as one customer put it, "if you are 2 weeks behind, you can pay for the 225 and buy that 2 weeks back compared to a ship". Also, the amount of time it takes for them to fly these vast distances means it was only available 2 or 3 times per week anyway. They had an office in London for booking and planning so it must have earned them some decent wedge, especially without any direct competitors. I don't know how much maintenance it needed in between though.
- masklinn 5y ago
  Most of the large cargo would be shifted by the eminently capable, more easily available, and in many ways more flexible, 124s. Keep in mind while Mriya was a towering giant, the An-124 is literally the next best thing. You'd only call on the 225 if the 124 did not suffice either in lift or in volume[0]; of possibly in the rare cases where no 124 was available, the 225 was, and you didn't mind paying a premium. [0] mostly in length as the 124 and the 225 holds have the same cross-section of 6.4m wide and 4.4 high, but the 225's is 6 meters longer.
mark-r 5y ago
> the landing gear is so overbuilt That was something that caught my eye in the picture, it seems to have an endless number of tires on the ground.
- masklinn 5y ago
  Yep, the 225’s main landing gear had two sets of 7 pairs of wheels (so 28 wheels, plus 4 nose wheels). Up from 5 pairs on the An-124 (and the same 4 nose wheels). Interestingly it’s not such a high number, the C5 galaxy has 24 in the MLG and and 4 at the nose, despite being slightly lighter than the An-124 (it’s older though). The C5 looks a bit less weird from the side because its MLG is organised in 4 sets of 6 with each set having one pair at the front, and two pairs side-by-side at the back. So from the side it looks like it has 4 pairs per side rather than the actual 6 (it makes the C5 look absolutely alien from the bottom though).

Stevvo 5y ago

There is a sim; https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonov_An-225_flight_simulator.jpeg https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonov_An-225_fli... Not sure if all of the cockpit is in that sim; there are 6 seats! I expect the pilots all started out flying other types, so will go back to doing that.

masklinn 5y ago
> Not sure if all of the cockpit is in that sim; there are 6 seats! That would be correct, like the AN-124 the An-225 has a crew of 6 (plus 2 loadmasters I think?). While the planes were retrofit and modernised they kept a pretty heavy crew scheme, nominal crew is 2 pilots, 2 FE, and 2 comms. Might be that they didn’t see the need to change the crew scheme, or might be the origins in strategic military transportation (the C5 also has a hefty crew with FEs).
- p_l 5y ago
  It also had space for extra people (not many), whether for transit or as second/third crew
  - masklinn 5y ago
    Yes there’s a crew compartment, pretty large one really. It’s also for ground crew as there’s load-mastering, a lot of specific knowledge, plus probably the ability to do some maintenance even far from home base. The 124 also has a passenger cabin which can hold 80 but I don’t think they’d kept that in the 225.