Originally Posted by
BraceBrace
Things don't always start going south. On the contrary, in 99% of the cases the decision to be taken is one between different opinions and in many cases there is never a black and white truth, there is ideology and a zone of comfort. And from a point of view of "safety" and "not losing the other side", sometimes the commander might be better of leaving the decision with the weakest from a crew point of view and going along with that point of view, yet taking responsibility for it as a single person.
I react like this because in those 99% of the cases, if pilots lean so heavily on the fact they have to take the final decision as a commander, many times they think these are good/bad decisions, right/wrong, which in reality are not. They are just ego's fooling themselves thinking they know the truth. But it is not truth, it is their zone of comfort and leaving the others hanging dry. And THAT, is very old school. Ask KLM, they had famous case in Tenerife...
That's true. Do you honestly think we don't know that every day is not a tenerife north day?
It also depends on the individual "PIC" experience. New PIC will be extra cautious. It took you a while to settle in?
And there are truly some who do not belong there at all. I found the most "nervous" and "micro-controlling" pilots were the least able.
There is a wide range, but when one is PIC, he/she/it has to shoulder the final load.
Personally the "old school" guys taught me a lot, in the Alaska bush in the Twin Otter and later the old school in the 737-200 with the gravel kit.
Then we ended up in the most SOPed up airline possible with all the touchy feely new school perspectives, but many 'old school' principles remained true as far as I could see. A mix of both is a good thing.