One downside of two pilot ops is that by virtue of having two pilots, extra workload is created. I used to fly single pilot IFR and to be honest, I can't remember ever being overworked in the cockpit. There was less paperwork, checklists were very short and to the point, you didn't have to worry about briefing for this, briefing for that. You flew the aircraft and did all the radio work so you didn't have to relay non standard radio calls through the copilot. In a rapidly changing situation, there were less distractions.
In a two crew aircraft, how many times have you missed a radio call or suddenly realized you haven't done a fuel check for half an hour because you have been chatting about the football. In my opinion, you are much less likely to go into "thumb in bum" mode when single pilot.
I am not suggesting single pilot is safer. There is no doubt that in a pilot incapacitation situation (including IMC disorientation causing loss of control) the best chance of survival is by having a second pilot on board. But again, there are plenty of cases of aircraft crashing and nearly crashing when the handling pilot has lost it and the other pilot is head down filling in paperwork or reading from some unnecessarily long checklist.
In my opinion, one of the biggest advantages of two crew operations is the ability to improve adherence to SOP,s and identify the odd cowboy who may behave impeccably during check rides but "do his own thing" during normal line flights. Limit busting can be virtually eliminated if the company culture is correct
Last edited by coalface; 6th Aug 2002 at 09:35.