Especially liked the analogy of comfort zones and the mnemomic ASI, Ask, Suggest, Insist. Wish I had thought of that in the past.
As a hypothetical scenario, there could arise a series of instances where an FO goes into a sort of Walter Mitty routine every time it is his leg. He becomes the Captain in his own mind and expects to be left to make all the decisions himself, almost up to and in some cases including, the fuel loads. This situation of the imagination would be further exacerbated if the FO were unable to grasp the big picture, specifically the sort of canvas one finds flying older aircraft in northern Europe in the middle of the winter darkness.
At the end of the day, if the sort of problems outlined above were to persist, the only option open to a Captain, possibly after consultation with the Chief Pilot or Fleet Manager, might be to take the chap to one side and gently explain to him that actually, he holds his 'leg' at the discretion of the Commander and to remind him that it is all very well and good to regard himself as Master and Commander when flying that sector but that in reality and at best he is only operating as P1/US?
