Sounds like they same issues the fixed wing pilots went through 15-20 years ago regarding SOP's.
In the west is pretty much a done deal now with most if not all now sold on the fact that SOP's are the way forward and to stick to them. Some of the SOP's it has even been admitted that they are not the best. But....
When you take into account the average pilot skills, fatigue, poor wx conditions etc etc it has been shown that the SOP has a more successful out come than the best technical solution.
I find this sort of thing very interesting but its hard to discuss it clinically because emotions get high and people focus on individual events and types and that deflects away from the core subject. There is also a huge difference between multicrew and single crew. Single crew experenced pilots have a different way of dealing with things which is quiet hard to break them away from. Hence some airlines preference for straight out of school pilots which they can mold with relative ease.
And yes it does take some sitting on your hands when a bus tie is clacking away waiting for your FO to get the QRH out to eventually work out that one of the generators is rubber ducked. But there is minimal chance of turning the wrong one off. The flight profile won't have changed and apart from a bit of clacking the punters in the back won't have a clue that anything has happened. Yes it could have been sorted on the first couple of clacks but such is life. That example wasn't meant to be condersending it was just the first one I thought off because it happened last week when I was line training an FO. All very exciting for the FO and he did very well. My main though was I wonder how much charge is in my kindle thats us grounded.
Last edited by mad_jock; 21st Dec 2012 at 11:32.
Reason: Ta seen what the problem was thanks HC