Just returned from 2 days of flying with a true captain from hell. His crewconcept was strictly restricted to himself as a crewmember, SOPs were very important... for the FO, he himself allows any deviation, without prior notice.
My survival these 2 days, as I stated before, was SOPs... Everytime he deviated from something in the book, I questioned him, or in an approach, gave a standard callout.
Although he treated me like sh*t, safety was never compromised. Setting goals/ gates and sticking to SOPs prevented me from the "see I told you" happening.
He was mega-unfriendly, really insulting at times, didn't give a damn about my thoughts, so I had my 2 days from hell.
But I survived, and so did my passengers and my cabin crew (isn't that all that counts?). I chose not to p*ss him off and start a war against him. I did my job, and I just hope I'll NEVER fly with this captain ever again.
My lesson learned? SOPs are the best weapon in the game, if I stick to them, there is hardly any room for comments; otherwise you can prevent him from doing any dangerous stuff, by referring to them.
And like Lou Scannen said... afterwards I met a colleage in the crewlounge who once spent 5 days with the guy on a tour. Having lunch together and being able to be understood by a colleage, who knew what I was talking about, and then being able to laugh about everything REALLY helped!
P77