Originally Posted by cockney steve
The "2 pilots are needed" argument is a bit of a red-herring....the second-pilot is , theoretically a BACKUP...(..the checklist-readbacks etc. are primarily "box-ticking, CYA exercises, -pushing paper doesn't fly the aircraft.....how many crashes have been caused or exacerbated because both pilots were busy "following procedures" shuffling papers instead of FLYING THE AIRCRAFT.
Oh the ignorance.... So imagine you're driving a car and in the passenger seat is another driver. You're both chatting away about you're bridge club etc etc. All of a sudden the passenger notices a man in the middle of the road (which you're about to hit). However, he says nothing, as only one person is required to drive the car. BAM you, yes you cockney steve, kill the man.
Subsequently your passenger informs you "well I saw him, but I didn't feel it my place to tell you". I think you'd be a tad annoyed as you were shuffled off to the jail.
There are two (sometimes more) pilots on a flight deck for a number of reasons. It is a team that flies the aircraft with the captain in overall command making executive decisions based upon information gained from other team members and their personal experience and experiences. If on a modern aircraft the "2nd pilot" was a back up then we could from time to time fly it single pilot. We can't = QED.
L Met