I was probably the worst kind of co pilot. I was experienced on type, bloody good at what I did, but very keen to move into the left hand seat. I had learnt lots of lessons while in the right seat, but never made any big mistakes, never mucked up a visual approach, always got away with what I was trying to do. This made me a particularly over confident co, but one that could back up the confidence.
Sounds pretty arrogant, and I was I guess, but hey, I was doing the job, and the reality was that I was better than a lot of the Captains that I was flying with at the time. I was also desperate to change seats so that I could run things better than all the guys that I had been stuck with.
I didnt realise any of this until I made the move to the other seat. As much as you can be given responsibility as the co, you just dont have to look at things like a Captain looks at them. I soon learnt that I had been a pretty crap co pilot, not because of my flying skill, that was pretty good, but because I didnt know how to support the Captain. I was actually pretty embarrassed the more that I thought about my time as a co. Thing is that I was never going to realise that until I had my chance to change seats.
Now Im back in the right hand seat on a different type. And now I think Im a pretty good co, because I know what its like sitting over there on the left. I still want to move back over there, and I still put in my two cents worth, but Ive learnt that Ive got a job to do, that it is an important one, and that I am still learning.