Originally Posted by
JimEli
What exactly is the function and/or duty of the “pilot assistant”? Monitor PIC heart rate and respiration? Twiddle thumbs? Distract the PIC? Can the assistant manipulate controls? What training (CRM) has/needs to be accomplished to operate with or as an assistant pilot? Does the operator have an SOP for this operating environment?
No, Jim. The "safety pilot" is merely a sandbag. He probably has a rating but has too few hours to be considered a PIC. So he rides along on flight where the customer requests/requires two pilots. At the destination, he hops out and unloads the pax and bags and makes sure nobody walks into the tail rotor (if it has one). If he's wearing a white shirt and epaulets, the customer won't ever know that he's not a fully-qualified Part-135 captain. If he's lucky, the return leg is empty and he actually can log some stick-time. I did this quite a lot in my younger days. I'm sure people still do. At the end of the day, it's still a single-pilot operation, and the PIC is the guy-in-charge, just as if the other guy wasn't there at all.