Yes, check airmen bid and fly regular line trips. If the are performing OE their student is assigned to the check airmans' trips as an out of seniority order training event and the FO who had been awarded the flying with the check airman is displaced with pay.
There are two instances in which they do not bid and fly lines; If a check airman is working in the sim for a month or is doing line checks. If he/she is in the sim a training line is awarded, if line checks are being performed the check airman is given a list of names and he/she spends the month chasing these pilots down and riding on their jumpseat to perform the line checks.
There can also be mixed lines. A check airman may be dropped from his regular flying if he is needed in the sim or there may only be enough sim training events to fill a portion of his/her monthly schedule.
Implying pilots in our profession break rules and deliberately put fellow humans at risk, on a public bulletin board, is pretty demeaning, not just to the profession, but to all the US pilots. I can only hope you are not on a pilot list because, in my experience, those who talk like you are either doing permanent desk duty or six feet under.
No, we have designated, trained maintenance check pilots, who are also line qualified. I believe the east uses check airmen and we on the west are starting to migrate in that direction. Several of our check airmen have received the maintenance check pilot training.
Looking at the timeline LGA777 provided the two a/c actually took off 16 minutes apart and landed 20 apart on the first leg. The second a/c lost 4 minutes - big deal. On the second leg the second a/c lost 10 minutes, again, big deal.
It is possible that once over land and clearing customs, the crews were performing maintenance checks enroute and their speeds would vary depending on what checks may have been performed.
I agree with eveyone that the comments NLC made were way out of line. Having been a designated maintenance pilot I know the crews and they would be very insulted.
Another thread gone off the rails. The topic was supposed to be about the good news of the delivery of new a/c. It once again got into a sniping match about who flew it in (as if that mattered) and now we are into whether or not check airmen fly regular lines. This thread is closed.
