Fly-By-Mouth, the new CRM?
With the steady increase of more and more “standard procedures” whereupon the PNF is required to virtually talk down the pilot to landing from cruise altitude, it seems the principle of the much vaunted silent cockpit introduced to stop excessive non-operational chatter below 10,000 ft, is now dead and gone.
I always thought the wonderful sophistication of EFIS and associated map displays was designed to give the crew all the information they needed for safe navigation. Yet it seems even with this information overload on EFIS, operators are still not satisfied until the PF is overwhelmed with ever increasing “support” calls of altitude, speed, system status - and we haven’t included automated radio altimeter call-outs, or checklist challenge and responses.
Have the airlines gone too far the other way from the silent cockpit? Does excessive talking in climb and descent really lead to a safer operation? Is it all driven by fear of litigation if something goes wrong?
The silent cockpit below 10,000 ft was supposed to enhance flight safety. How come that theory has been replaced with the very opposite? I am talking about the once derogatory term Fly-By-Mouth – because that is today’s flight deck.