Originally Posted by
Uplinker
I think that was my second employer’s thinking, but I also think it is an excuse for not trusting F/Os. It would obviously be sensible to not allow brand new low hour cadets in their first airline RHS to taxi until they had, say 500 or 1000 hours of airline flying, and are familiar with the airport, but otherwise, why not?
F/Os are allowed to drive their cars to work at 70 mph (UK), in all weathers, only meters away from other motorway traffic, and park in a tight parking space. They are also allowed to fly a go-around in dark !!!!ty weather, but some are not trusted to taxi very slowly along a yellow line with the Captain closely watching and able to take over in an instant if required?
I think we can pretty much agree that all the different SOPs regarding taxi, applied by various airlines across the world, have had their fair share of thoughts put into it, and all have their pros and cons.
I like my company's SOP to let even the youngest FOs do almost everything (except RTO as per Airbus proc, and high velocity crosswinds) on the first day, obviously under supervision from LTC initially then regular captains.
I'd feel quite uncomfortable being upgraded as PIC and have to learn something "as basic" as taxying an airplane though.