Let me tell you a story that to the present generation would be unbelievable. His name was Joe. A Boeing instructor pilot at Seattle in the early Seventies and the original brutaliser. He had also been a FAA Examiner of Airmen and during the war he was an ordnance man at the Battle for Guadacanal in the Solomon Islands. He also had flown Catalina's, Marauders, Tigercats, DC3 and DC4, and two old World War One torpedo bombers which had three open cockpits with machine guns and a deep belly for the bombardier. This last type had a service ceiling of 5000 ft on a cold day and cruised at 65-70 knots.
He once advised me to be careful of copilots as he said they were a mealy-mouthed lot at the best of times. He was a check pilot in a small Central Pacific airline that had 737-200's. He was a one man band in the left seat, retracting his own gear, setting his own flaps leaving the copilot to stare into space and shut up unless needed to make a radio call. If you touched the flap lever before he was ready he would grab your hand in his great hairy maw and twist in painfully. You couldn't hit him because he was a street fighter and too big - aalthough one F/O grabbed the crash axe during a descent into Apia, Western Samoa and threatened to hit him over the head.
Another incident happened while landing at night into Agana Naval Air Station at Guam. Joe was flying and doing his own thing while the F/O - a former RAAF BAC One-Eleven captain casually observed from the right seat. Then came heavy rain at 1500 ft on final. Joe reached up and stabbed a massive forefinger on the captain's side rain repellant button. Seconds later the flight deck door opened and the lights from the cabin flooded the flight deck. The demure Japanese air hostess said "Yes Captain, what do you want?"
Joe swore such terrible oaths that the girl was shocked. "F... OFF" roared Joe and soon after had another stab at his own rain repellant button because the first stab had no effect on clearing the windscreen. The ex RAAF F/O watched with growing interest -especially as the runway was a blur in the windscreen and getting closer. Shortly after Joe hit the rain repellant button for the second time, the cockpit door burst open again and by this time the 737 was down to 200 feet with the F/O keeping a wary eye on the ILS glide slope. It was raining hard.
"You called, Captain" said the same beautiful polite Japanese air hostesss called Tomiko. Joe went ape and told her to again F.. off except louder.
It coincided with the Boeing arriving on Runway Six Left with a resounding crash and followed by full reverse as Joe hauled back the levers still momentarily blinded by the light from the open cabin door. Tomiko promptly burst into floods of tears and fled aft - leaving the flight deck all lit up in more ways than one. Joe was still cursing as he hammered the brakes and pulled his own flaps up, and did all the things supposedly the copilot's after landing scan.
Now for those who haven't operated a 737-200 the two rain repellant buttons and identical and adjacent to the cabin call button. Joe had been pushing the call button rather than the rain repellant button - hence down the back the ever alert Tomiko responded instantly.
After hearing the story I asked the unflappable F/O why he had not told Joe about pressing the wrong button. "If he wants to be a one-man band" said the F/O - "he can go ahead and play his own bloody violin."
This thread about irritating mannerisms is a valid one indeed.