Originally Posted by
Rozy1
JH, well said. Sorry, but I have 28 years in the left seat and would be loathe to have a sub 1000 hr newbie be responsible for a high speed reject in real life.
There are many factors to consider when rolling down the runway and the risk increases when you give the reject decision to an inexperienced pilot. One example would be startle factor with a Master Caution like probe heat, door light, equip, etc. Over the years, I’ve seen things like that. Let the FO see them from the right seat first. Get seasoned as we say.
The goal of a procedure is to avoid confusion. Confusion kills. The goal of the procedure is not to make "the best pilot execute". That is only a matter of training. FO's are usually not trained to do high speed rejects (pilot incapacitation reject would only occur around 100kts max). So you can't really blame "lack of experience". Yet they are trained to cope with an engine failure when you - as a commander - decide to "go", you don’t swap controls in that case don’t you? There is no best pilot. There is the pilot trained to a certain standard. So is your FO.
You talk about responsibility. Not about decision making and practical execution. There is a big difference.
BTW, startle affects all experiences. I've seen many occasions where captains have struggled with what you call the "split second" decision making because in their mind they forgot the simplicity. The best defence is probably to realise it is not a split second decision, not even for a reject. The situations are very clear and people - low and high experience - should be trained from the start what the thinking process is.
The thinking process is a process that is kept easy and bullet clear. On a B737 high speed you only stop for fire or fire warning, engine failure, predictive windshear, aircraft unsafe to fly. I presume Airbus has a similar approach. Overcomplicating, overemphasizing "split second decision" does not work for any human. Low or high experience. It is also important to know that "wrong" does not always mean death. On the contrary. Especially on narrow body aircraft.
Keep it simple. The goal is to avoid confusion.