I recently was reading an article (I dont recall what publication it was in) but I found it very intersting that at one time it was possible to go from Flight Engineer 0 stick time as a PIC to a captain in the airlines because of the way airline union contracts were written at the ime along with the FAR/AIM rule of the time. Apparently as airlines and such began to phase out older jets like the 727, 707/720 and DC-8 from fleets Flight Engineers were offered flying ositions complete with the required flight time (flying school) to allow them to transition to captain or first officer dependant on their date of hire seinority in the company. It was possible to have say never flown an aircraft other than the DC-8 as an FE now on the newer jet like say a DC-9 essentially if that is what you bid into and be a captain right from the sideways seat (FE Position). Has anyone else heard of this or can anyne cnfirm it? I now now adas regs read diffrently etc so it would not be possible but it is crazy to imagine that at one time with nothing more than an A&P and Flight Engineer ticket you could suddenly find yourself four striping it on some of the newer jets in your company.
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