Originally Posted by
CaptainMongo
I strongly believe either pilot should be able to handle a non-normal from the moment it presents itself until the non-normal procedure is completed. This is how we train our pilots both in our training center and when they come to the line. (And saviboy I second CheckAirman’s comments - I hope the mentoring/additional training you provide your FO’s becomes standard at your outfit)
Why do we prefer Captains to handle a non-normal? Why do Captains get paid more than FO’s? It is the intangibles Captains bring to the table - knowledge, experience, wisdom and judgement.
Captains are paid for higher level thinking. In most cases flying the airplane during a non normal is easy, working the radios is easy. The Captain shouldn’t use brain power on those low level tasks. He or she should be using their knowledge, experience, wisdom and judgment gained to be able to think three and four steps ahead to a point where the airplane is successfully recovered.
That’s not to say every FO couldn’t do that, just in most cases the FO doesn’t bring the depth and breadth of those intangibles to the table quite yet - be it experience on the airplane, in the environment, or at the airline.
What if the FO has more experience than the Captain on that specific aircraft? I rarely fly with a Captain who has more experience than me on the Airbus (notwithstanding the fact that I teach), yet I have only met one Captain who said that it would be a better idea for me to manage the ECAM and for him to fly the plane. In my airline, it is very easy and common to go from one airplane to the other. So I very often fly with Captains with a few months to a few years on the Bus. in 90% of the cases, I imagine I would do a better job at ECAM management, but simply because they were taught that "they shouldn't use brain power on those low level tasks and flying an airplane is easy", they rarely ask themselves if that situation is really true for all crew pairings.