Where's 411A?
I just got back from two months off working and this caught my eye. All the responses so far seem disappointingly sane!
I am lucky to fly with guys who generally give me what I want, which is some sort of reasonable adherence not just to SOPs but also to common sense.
And, on the other hand, there is the odd lost soul who feels the way forward is by blind and unreasoning adherence to even contradictory procedures dredged up from the back of the book coupled with a great reluctance to do anything we haven't been instructed to by the Chief Pilot. That is to say, if He is unreachable, we should sit around, with our load of fuming pax, and wait, and wait... being stuck with one of these chaps can make for a very long day!
Plus which, human nature being what it is, they can prove to be a sure stimulus for inducing some bone-head mistakes on my part every so often, such as mishearing a clearance to backtrack rather than hold short, when they will just sit and watch the situation unravel, as if it proves a point. Well, yes, but perhaps not the one they have in mind....