PilotsEYE.tv Jürgen Raps - The interview of the movie " 41 years in 25 minutes "

The very beginning My career choice was fairly clear in the early age of five years after my father invited me to a sightseeing-flight in a Dornier - Do 27 today this plane is almost unknown but at this time it was a very powerful single engine aircraft dedicated to sightseeing-flights around the Bindlacherberg in Bayreuth my father invited me to one of these flights it lastet just for 20 minutes but I was so blown away that I thought when you're grown up, you will do the same. The First Time My first flight as a passenger in an airliner was... shortly before my graduation it was a quite interesting event I was the captain of our footballteam of the 1. FC Bayreuth and we had a very important championsleague-game I was preparing for a school-leaving excursion all over Amsterdam but the managers of my football club insisted in my participation in this important game so they invited me (sponsored me) a ticket from Amsterdam via Frankfurt to Nuremberg so far my first flight with Germanys Lufthansa in a Boeing 727 I kindly asked the flight attendent if by any chance, it would be possible to visit the cockpit and to stay there during the entire flight They immediately gave me the permission so I had the allowance, for both legs from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, as well as from Frankfurt to Nuremberg to stay in the cockpit. You are overwhelmed by so many impressions when you are in a 727 cockpit for the first time you totally forget to ask anything you are just watching and listening but this flights are very short indeed especially the hop from Frankfurt to Nuremberg it just takes 15 minutes airtime You haven't got time to ask questions, anyway and during the flight from Amsterdam to Frankfurt I was only busy watching sitting there with eyes wide open watching every move thinking what a cool job, they are having here performed by three persons including the engineer so... it was simply great. My Licences I'm licensed to fly A330, A340, A380, also as a check and training-pilot I'm no longer flying gliders my glider... pilot-licence, that’s probably the correct term is no longer valid because of one simple reason I was too busy to continue gliding on a professional bases and even it looks like simple you have to exercise on a regular bases though you have to stay fit and if you think you're fit with just two or three take offs per year is not enough And if I decide to do something I do it for 100 percent or not at all gliding for 100 percent was impossible so I let the gliding-licence become freezed but that doesn't mean that I wont try it again but for this moment the licence is frozen. My Dearest Remembering the models I flew the Boeing 737 was the best and also its derivatives that's probably because of the fact that I served my co-pilot training on the 737-100 as well as the training for captain That's also because of a large amount of 727 flights during a lot of training flights as well as check flights in Seattle around the Boeing factory a lot of test flights, maintenance flights and whatever there is required to get such a plane airworthy and to preserve this after that amount of experience you become familiar with this plane After all, I can promise, back in that days, I almost knew the first name of every blank in this airplane My Biggest I can deeply agree that the A380 was love at first sight maybe not because of the shape although the shape of this plane is truly fascinating. I was involved in this airplane since Boeing and Airbus were joining... on a project of a huge airplane. At first it was planned as a joint venture of Airbus and Boeing because of the tremendous development costs of such a new airplane Later, Boeing left the project but Airbus continued to develop the project under the sign 3XX. Already at this time I was very curious in its development Later, the 3XX became the 380 and our informations got more precise maybe you could also call this my puppy love. Meanwhile it's reality! I'm still convinced that this plane is a well done Masterpiece This airplane will also be a huge commercial success like the 747 in the early 70's. My First One The flight with the first prototype of the A380 was a one of a kind experience. Imagine, at this early stages there are just one or two planes waiting for approval they are a kind of "raw" There are no manuals, no procedures. There is almost nothing, besides layout drawings and certain experience by the test pilots which they handed on to us Of course, everybody knows that this prototype which is in the middle of its completion that some things don't work as expected or don't work at all... The airplane certainly has no admission It's only the fuselage, without any passenger seats showing all the wires strapped to the wall wire bundles all over there you can see special barrels filled with water to simulate the various payloads or to move the centre of gravity by pumping it from the one to the other site Same situation in the cockpit... some switches can be found in test planes only you won't find them in liners at all you would see cameras all over to record the whole testing enviroment As well as a lot of microphones to communicate during the whole testing in a nutshell: totally different to a normal liner It felt familiar to me, since my time with Boeing but not in this huge dimension, of an A380 it was simply impressing. It was love at first sight because all what you've expected became reality. Sure, you have a certain expectation but you don't expect to have them all satisfied That’s simply intriguing. You just climb into the pilot's seat and you immediately feel like home the handling is absolutely familiar as desired... precise, exactly followed by a first smooth landing exactly as desired. Of course, your heart beats faster your adrenaline level rises there is heightening of arousal but that’s normal the other way around would be unusal The attitude of expectation you had before and this sensation of celebrating Easter and Christmas at the same time that's breathtaking! Dream-Team The ideal pairing, the perfect team in the cockpit captain and co-pilot is a result of more than one fact. Mentioning the most important facts If possible, both pilots - no matter of female or male - the gender is irrelevant should originate from the vicinity of the same cultural circle. We have learned from analysis of accidents that this mix of inhomogeneous cultural origin can be a - how we call it - contributing factor for accidents. But with emphasis on "can be" and not will be. This standards should be met, from my point of view another important point is there should be a noticeable command structure between the captain and the co-pilot but important: it should not be too strong the command structure is a necessity but not as strong as the co-pilot wouldn't dare to express criticism that’s why the gap in the comannd structure mustn't be too big That's my understanding of the perfect pairing in the cockpit Young-Star If a teenager would ask me between the age of 13 and 15 years how to become an airliner pilot I would suggest to first define goals for the near future like graduating from high school and if possible with focus on maths and natural science being interested in physics and engineering that's mandatory for this profession you should also be into sports and be able to focus your targets. And you should not only glorify this job as a dream career but also face the negative aspects and find out if you really want to travel a lot to work on sundays, holidays, and during the night being away from home on christmas or new years eve not to be at home for long periods that should be looked over beforehand and to check if you can stand this stress because it is quite challenging especially in your circle of friends Make up your decision by looking at both sides of the medal. And after this thoughts - if you still like it ... go for it! And if the time has come prepare yourself for the entrance examination some of you might pass without preparation but I would recommend at least for better self-confidence to prepare yourself. Romantic Set-up To a woman, who is married to or in a realationship with a pilot I'd hardly recommend to take care of an own circle of friends. To be autonomous and to be able to spend (some) of her time on her own and not to depend on him waiting for his arrival and his ideas You have to imagine as a pilot, you are away from home for quite some time depending on the route sometimes only two days but also sometimes more than a week So, as a pilot's partner you should have a certain autonomy to be up to this situation. Approach In my opinion there is a relation between the attitude to the respective job (also non aviation) and the final product resulting from it I you love your job you'll never work a day in your life ... what leads to a positive attitude and motivation. I'm firmly convinced of being able to better handle situations by having a positive attitude Turning Point One of the most important decisions in my career was when I got the director's chair at the flight school. One reason... is definitely the form of their organization which you could compare with an airline in an airline The flight school had planes selling, training accountancy and a big branch office in Phoenix so to say, a little airline within the big airline Lufthansa what gave me the opportunity that I could learn and improve my managerial skills. So, that's why I would say that this was one of the most important setting of points in my career Climax The most beautiful moment in my whole career was the moment, when I became captain. That's this very moment, when the trainer hands over (it was after touching down in Munich, by the way) two epaulettes with four stripes and the golden cord for the captain's hat It is, by all means the most important moment in a pilot's career to be promoted from co-pilot to captain it happened to me on the 12th of July in 1984 just before the terrible hail-storm in Munich who left a trail of destruction on cars, windows and other breakable things. But at this time I was checked out, already. Body Damage I never had any critical situation in my 41 years. You always have unusual situations you fly a go-round because of bad weather or a lightening stroke I had two shut downs of an engine on the 737 as well as on the Airbus A340 I once had an electrical loss on the 737 but these situations are not dangerous as to be life threatning you are trained to cope with this problems by using your checklist and your common sense I remember a flight with a DC10 where we tried to pass a thunderstorm in south-america for a normal passenger, it's probably a strange situation to spot big storm clouds on both sides of the plane which you can't fly over so you have to go through with noise and shaking the whole plane followed by a lightening strike I remember a flight in Asuncion (Paraguay) it's an instrument approach but no precise method one level less accuracy and then, right in front of the runway a big thunderstorm you come out of the clouds and you just see trees closer then expected so you fly a go-round but that's how the less precise approaches were flown you just descended to the minimum (allowed) level and when you arrived there, we saw the jungle so we made a go-round but this was not dangerous (by following the rules for minima) I flew for 41 years and never had a real dangerous moment of course, there were abnormals but never leading to an emergency situation it's a well trained abnormal situation to shut down one engine on an A340 (which has four engines) and the passengers wont even realize that we had to shut down one engine we would probably continue the flight like normal with one engine less. Also at the (two engined) B737 The passengers did realize it because we immediately turned back to Frankfurt. after shutting down the engine. Withdrawal Symptoms What I'll miss at most after my last flight what might be surprising for some of you won't be the flying itself but the opportunity to manage to manage and to influence improve the "whole product" by choosing a good crew checking for a good team on board to influence the punctuality up the the satisfaction of the pax to influence the whole surroundings what finally leads to a high quality product for the passengers for our guests to influence this parameters by fine-tuning these adjustment-screws by cheering up the crew "we've got a long haul today, let's leave five minutes earlier" "let's speed up from mach 8.6 to 8.8 over the atlantic" so we'll arrive on time this opportunity for fine-tuning I'll probably gonna miss most And then, travelling as a passenger I will have to keep my temper if I discover such an opportunity for improvement that could be immediately done better. I have to learn, to simply keep my mouth shut, and accept my fate. Declined What I won't miss after my last flight are the endless night flights without stars in the sky without the moon in absolute darkness they take a lot out of you and even, if you are very much used to it are extremely exhausting JR1SUPER How I got this call sign on my last flight to explain the callsign "JR1SUPER" JR is my nickname since flight school in Phoenix 1970 I had a black pilot’s case like every other student to make it distinguishable I sticked my initials "JR" onto it and so my JR wasn't named after Ewing Aera "Dallas" The TV-Series "Dallas" was named after me ... Dallas premiered later than 1970 much later and so my colleagues and friends in the company called me "JR" from the very beginning and concerning "JR1SUPER" They needed to have a valid flight number number 1 was available coincidental ... "super" is the additional at the callsign for the A380 "heavy" is the additional for a jumbo and an A340 as well as the A330 that's the weight category which gets classified for the air-traffic control and the A380 is called SUPER because it's a higher weight category that's how this call sign developed but only from the German border. Rotorcraft Of course I won't stop flying I will continue flying, for sure not with fixed wings but with rotor blades. I firmly decided to take helicopter lessons what always attracted me since my first helicopter-flight But my job never gave me room to start with that idea because it is very time consuming Not to forget, you need good weather for training and so Germany is not the best place for it But next year after moving to Phoenix I'll try to do my licence I'm not sure if I’m good enough for it because it's a big difference between flying fixed wing or a helicopter it's a total different handling maybe it's too difficult for me but I'll give it a try. Out of Tune My saxophone at home came to me one day this year when I told my wife Bettina when we will have moved to Phoenix and there is more time for private ideas I would - once again - learn an instrument and saxophone would be the most favourable So Bettina gave me a saxophone for my birthday a very beautiful Alto saxophone perfect size and the first two wood reeds are already gone that's a technique you just have to learn I know how to play it but it doesn't sound professional. I had a dream Talking about dreams "Live your dream and don't dream your life!" The job of a pilot is my dream-job Back then as a young boy I dreamed to become a pilot one day. And it became reality So, from that point of view dreams are necessary and stimulating. Rail Discount Pass? Available from Amazon.uk http://petv.co/enpe12