Hi there,
I find it rather worrying that not only is Jon posting quite some strong statements here, but he is also finding support from a number of people. Are these opinions really widespread among the pilot community?
Let's get back to the start here. So Jon is the top ace pilot who never makes a mistake and has to correct his lousy lazy captain on his mistakes. Meanwhile the captain gets paid double the salary for reading the golf magazine. That was the feeling I was getting from his post. hmmmm.
Well, like previously posted, wouldn't it be more sensible to talk to the captain in question first before getting him fired? Also he failed to mention how a mistaken frequency change ended up in loss of situational awareness. That would require two pilots to not know where they are, or one pilot not knowing and the other not telling. Offcourse it could be one pilot not wanting to listen, I am not passing judgement here, but the fact is that if this would happen to me, I would mark it as a black day in my career, try to learn where I could have done it differently and certainly not shout about it on this forum.
If mister Jon thinks that he totally understands aviation, maybe he should concider there are other people out there that are the same dots on his tcas screen but are in a very different seat then him. We have only two comm sets and have to change frequency from 121.5 to something else sometimes to talk to other people. We do not fly the same route very often and have no clue who we are talking to next and when. I did over 200 different airport last year so don't expect me to remember any of the frequencies please (three times guess who I work for, and leave out the first two).
Most of all I am worried about the statement that "we are not as professional as we should be". It is just terrible to think that that is the cause of loosing radio contact. I try my very best to be the best pilot I can be. But I am also human, and humans make mistakes. If you do not believe that then you either did not pay attention in crm class or you are Luitenant Data from Star Trek. Switch the wrong frequency, get a comm failure, miss a call, you name it. It can all happen to the best of us, really. Just deal with the problem and get on with life. But if you really believe it will never happen to you, you are setting yourself up for a mayor problem, because you will not see it when something has gone wrong.
I am a professional pilot Jon and therefore I believe in the power of two pilots working together. CRM is my bible. your attitude belongs in a single seater fighter airplane!