Explain pilots. Do they arrive 2 hours before they go flying too?

Question

Explain pilots. Do they arrive 2 hours before they go flying too?

Answer 1

Pilots walk into the airport after riding the employee bus to the terminal from the employee parking lot, they go through a special security line for airport and airline employees and they go from there to operations, usually located on a lower level of the airport at the end of a concourse. They then prepare all important things pertaining to the flight and weather conditions, etc. They board the plane early and pre set the cockpit, brief the crew, brief the air marshals if applicable and then the pax come on. They actually sometimes arrive earlier than a passenger.

Answer 2

A friend of mine is a pilot, and yes, they have to arrive at the airport more than 1 hour before their flight because they have to check in with their airline's crew operations office and have paperwork and other duties to complete before they go to their plane.  The airline my friend works for expects their crews to be checked in at the crew office no later than 90 minutes before their flight, so he normally arrives at least 2 hours ahead to have time to get through security (crews do get priority), walk through the airport, grab some coffee, and get to the crew office.  

Answer 3

No, all crew has priority at security.  They can arrive minutes before they need to board the plane (which is usually 15-30 minutes before us).

Answer 4

Although Michael is correct and that we do have priority security, unless we are late we will sometimes be there 2 hours before the flight leaves because we have work to do before the flight leaves. As a captain-copilot, our duties are before the flight leaves to do this:

1. get the weather information

2. perform a walkaround inspection of the aircraft to look for any visible damage

3. setup the FIS system, which tells the plane our route/load/autopilot information

4.Various paperwork for the flight

5. get the correct amount of fuel loaded into the plane

6. make sure the plane is evenly balanced

7. brief the crew before boarding begins on the day's flight

8. communicate with ATC about our route

9. get out the necessairy charts/procedures for the destination airport and the airport we are leaving from

10. Speak to the company about our route/issues and also log the flight in our personal required log books

So as you can see, the pilot has alot to do before the flight leaves, so we often get there about 3 hours early to get everything planned!