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Old 8th Oct 2005, 07:17
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Whirlybird

The Original Whirly
 
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Belper, Derbyshire, UK
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I'm not married, but I have flown with both male and female co-pilots quite often. I can't honestly say I've noticed any consistent differences.

However, what seems to be coming across on this thread is that if you fly with someone you know well or have any sort of relationship with, habitual ways of responding to each other seem to be carried over into behaviour in the cockpit. I suspect this would happen with husband and wife, parent and child, teacher and pupil (not necessarily flying instructor), boss and employee, etc etc.

I remember taking my elderly mother for a scenic drive in North Wales, along a windy narrow road with a sheer drop on one side. She kept telling me what a good driver I was. She said it as though I was a 10-year old child...but she tended to treat me that way till the day she died. Now, I don't know for certain of course, but I suspect if she'd had a pilot's licence for years, and I'd recently got one, she'd have complimented me on my landings in the same way!

Is this so surprising? After all, flying with a co-pilot is about relationships with other people...and why should they change just because we're at 2000 ft?
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