Bronte Marshall, chief pilot at Oakland-based KaiserAir Inc., urges flight crews to be flexible in spotting relief flight crews on long overwater missions. That advice is based on hard experience involving a crew exchange that wound up being complicated by an unforeseen weather event.
At the 2014 NBAA International Operators Conference Robin Leach and Pat Dunn delivered the South Pacific presentation which included a list of common mistakes made by business aviation flight crews flying the SoPac routes. Here is an abridged version: Not updating ETAs when early or late by at more than three minutes. Not reporting reaching new assigned flight level when cleared to change. (Until verification is received, ATC blocks off intermediate flight levels.)
