Training is all about the trainee. When I instruct, I give my time to the student. I endevour to make my knowledge theirs. Better still, I woul;d hope that they can develop their own set of attitudes so as to make them better at their work.When yelling and slapping become part of the session, the emphasis is now on how important and powerful the instructor is, not the importance of the student who is really who the training session is all about.
Outside the cockpit, is it acceptable to yell at and slap another person? Instructors and captains who think that it is allowable for them to carry on in this way are really exercising a mis-placed belief in their own importance. Rather than being an exercise in elevating the standard of the student, thse instructors are using the student to inflate their own ego and self-importance. This is not what instruction is about.
In a similar vein, captains who are hand-slappers are also into a power trip. Let's reverse the roles here for a second and consider a captains reaction if a FO slapped a captains hand from a switch and said "that's my job". What would happen? Why would this be any more offensive than a captain slapping the FO's hand? Hand slapping in the flight deck is the surest, quickest way to destroy the flight deck crew as a team. Therefore, hand slappers should not be in charge of a flight deck!
On another point, if you are going to crew someone out over an operational issue, choose your venue carefully. I had to speak to an engineer regarding his bad behaviour towards myself and cabin crew. Unfortunately I chose to do this under the aeroplane with the APU running, thus I had to shout to be heard. This was mis-construed by this prat as me 'yelling' at him. Thankfully, some witnesses contradicted this twats version of events (some of his coworkers later bought me a steak and a jug of beer for putting this self appointed 'God' of the tarmac in his place).
Last edited by Anthill; 8th Jan 2013 at 22:26.