dicksorchard;
My friend ( ex pilot ) has told me that within his airline if an aircraft had a techincal fault after coming off stand which had to be repaired and that the initial take off had to be aborted then the Captain would be at the controls on the next attempt at take off - even if the first officer was due to fly that leg of the journey ? Is this standard procedure/ practice within other airlines ?
Im very curious because in this general conversation my friend said that he had known during his flying career of Captains having to take over the controls from First officers and vice versa at crucial times when landing / taking off etc & decididing to abort .
He said this would be a split second descision and may well account for tany descision to abort take off and it going drastically wrong . So this may be why the reverse thruster was deployed .
My interest in this aspect of communication between Captain & First officer has been more than aroused by the below post
It isn't standard procedure in my experience at one major carrier. If it was the F/O's leg, s/he took it unless the captain deemed otherwise - sharing legs has always been an informal process at the captain's discretion - that said, gaining experience is part of the "apprenticeship" so to speak. "Post MEL/maintenance work", the airplane is expected to be normal and so no accomodation would normally be expected. If it is and there is concern that "only the captain should fly", the decision to depart is itself, questionable.
Your friend is right about "split-second decision" etc. He is also correct about captains taking over at times from first officers. Although it is not always the case, captains are usually the more experienced of the two crew. Regardless, s/he is the commander of the aircraft and one does not normally take such action, not, at least, without extreme reason.
I know of no SOPs, airline operations manual or "informal, un-stated" arrangement where a First Officer would ever reject a takeoff or interfere with the controls in any way. That said, there is one situation of which I am aware which may apply and that is when a training captain is sitting in the First Officer's position (traditionally the right-seat) and a thorough briefing about who will do a rejected takeoff is undertaken beforehand.
In flight operations, unless the aircraft is in immediate danger and the captain was not appearing to do anything to mitigate the danger, I don't know of any circumstance where the F/O would take over from the captain. That is a very high-risk action with largely unpredictable consequences because both command of the airplane and communications are then in question and it is very difficult to re-establish order and cockpit discipline in a short period of time, personal relations and qualities, abilities, knowledge and experience of the F/O notwithstanding.
The words loudly and clearly spoken, "I have control" (or similar) are absolutely required so that all crew members know who is in command of the airplane. That mandates that the other crew member take over the radio work and, since such action would have almost certainly resulted from an abnormal or even emergency circumstance, provide the new PF, Pilot Flying, with basic situational awareness such as airspeed, pitch/roll attitudes, rate of climb/descent and acknowledge then cancel any aural/visual warnings associated with any system failures then standby for the call for drills.
Your friend is correct: taking over is a very serious operational decision and requires the utmost in coordination and re-established discipline.