PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Greedy captains who won't let you fly
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Old 30th Aug 2010, 03:50
  #13 (permalink)  
SNS3Guppy
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Such pigs have no place in an industry that taught them, and if they number more than a few its time to weed them out completely.
The only pig-like, overblown attitude I'm seeing here is one that says the copilot is obligated to fly a leg. It's not his airplane, and regardless of any company "policy" suggesting that the copilot fly every other leg, it's the captain's airplane.

I've certainly had First Officers who couldn't be trusted with a wet noodle, let alone an airplane. I didn't hire them, I didn't put them on the line, but I was under no obligation to let them fly. Such have been the rare exception, but I've abided the policy as a Captain to let copilots fly that which they're qualified to fly, and I fly the rest.

Conversely, when acting as a copilot, I don't complain when the captain says he wants to fly this leg. That's his choice.

The sheer arrogance of assuming that you'll get every other leg, or that you should get every other leg, or that you're owed anything in that cockpit, is dead wrong. This has nothing to do with CRM. CRM can go on quite perfectly regardless of who is talking on the radio, and regardless of who is manipulating the controls.

If you are the copilot, you are not owed every other leg, nor do you have any such right. You have a privilege at the discretion of the Captain. The captain is the pilot in command, not you.

If you have a problem, then speak up.

I've worked for operations in which the copilot was hardly allowed to fly at all. I was a copilot for some time in such an operation, and it had nothing to do with the capability of the copilot; it had to do with the captains who didn't want anyone else to do the flying. I eventually went elsewhere.

Do what you must, but for pete's sake, dont assume that you have a right to fly every other leg, perform every other landing, or do anything else in that cockpit; you have a privilege, as the pilot in command allows. In most cases, it does work out to every other leg, but not all, and to assume otherwise, is poor form, and very wrong.
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