The question seems a simple one but it is not. What is a captain from hell? When I was a FO (called a copilot in those days) there were a couple of captains who were notorious amongst my colleagues as being difficult to get on with. I flew with them both and tried to be matter of fact and professional - trying to ignore the rumours. It worked - and actually I learned a lot from both of those guys (one was Swiss - one Dutch).
The Swiss guy, after the first two legs, took me on one side and said "I think we have a communication problem..." I didn't think so - thought it had gone quite well and started to bristle. I listened to what he had to say however. You know what - it all made sense and I tried to put it into practice.
The Dutch guy, after a couple of "elegant and fuel saving"descents on my part, criticised my operation. Again, after starting to bristle, I listened. He had some good ideas for being just as elegant and fuel saving but with a better margin of safety and cockpit capacity.
I can imagine both these guys, who only meant well, rubbing up the FO the wrong way, as they nearly did with me. They only wanted the best for the operation, however and had a rather unfortunate manner. Laxative in the coffee and cheap tricks wouldn't have been any benefit - as you see.
On the other hand I also flew with a couple of captains who were well liked by the FOs but with whom I had the greatest problems. The first - a French speaking Swiss, very jolly and convivial, flew in a way that I could not follow. Nothing was standard and I was out of the loop a lot. In Lisbon he taxyed out for the wrong runway. I tried to help by saying -" erm clear to turn right here..." a few times and the tower, who had seen the error called "Confirm you prefer the other direction?" The captain said "Yes" and then the tower asked if we were ready immediate, which we were not. The captain asked me to confirm and when I sat, confused, he called "ready" himself. We were then given TO clearance and I sat dumbfounded as he went, without the pre take off checks (taxy check as it was known) being done.
All I did was to check that TO flap had been set and then I watched as this ******** took off. That I was also a ******** for letting him didn't occur to me until later. Immediately after TO he gave me controls, which at that time was non standard. The departure was based on a couple of NDBs, which he then detuned without my order. We then flew towards the only cumulus cloud in the whole heavens and I was debating whether left or right would be better, when he said "You don't fly through this do you?" I bit my tongue, and at the destination, when I asked for flap, he laughed and said I didn't need it yet. I asked again and had he not given me the flap, was going to give him controls. The landing was uneventful but I spent a sleepless night wondering what to do.
The other guy - German speaking Swiss and also very popular, made a long landing in Nairobi, then a terrible long landing in Jo'burg and just made the last turnoff. On the DC-10 in CWS, the ship trimmed during speed reduction if you held off - making the landing even longer. No debriefing was made. The FE and I just looked at each other and again I didn't sleep.
Both times I just let it go. I know now what I should have done - acted positively and later sought a dialogue but I didn't because they were "nice guys". For me, these were captains from hell, not the sticklers. We have to try to understand people better - all of us, to make flying safe.