Originally Posted by
Mach E Avelli
10 miles is about 75 seconds in time. If a FO needs a little time to keep up or get ahead of the game, a good Captain will allow that. As the FO gains confidence, a good Captain will encourage a decrease in such allowance, all in the name of efficiency. Later a good Captain will demonstrate that even 10 miles after top of descent can be salvaged. TOD is rarely a hard limit. ATC will often change it anyway.
A good Captain will never put his faith totally in the FMS and hopefully will encourage FOs to keep their mental arithmetic going (schools do still teach that, I hope...).
Similarly with fuel. A good Captain will encourage the FO to have a ballpark figure in mind even before looking at the dispatch papers. Ditto take-off weight - Emirates should by now know the value of this.
I haven’t said anything to the contrary.