Sterile cockpit
Thelearner
I would love to be able to tell you that "sterile cockpit" is the cleaning regime whereby all the dropped pilot food, gunge and ship's rat droppings are meticulously cleaned up from the cockpit at the end of every flight. Sadly its not so.
It refers to a "no chit-chat" policy whereby talk in the cockpit is limited solely to stuff required to get the job done safely and efficiently. In other words, no chat about "wot I did last night", the state of Ronnie on Eastenders etc.
Clearly its a good policy when all concentration has to be given to the job in hand during critical phases of flight, but if you extend it too long, it will inevitably not be adhered to.
Not only that, but a part of working closely with another pilot requires you to understand what makes them tick, in order to optimise the way you interact with them, in order to function optimally together. "Idle chit chat" is in fact very beneficial in this respect since it allows you to get a handle on your colleague, especially if you don't know them well. With a newish copilot and a senior captain, it helps to break down barriers and make the copilot regard the capt as being human! So it is a very important part of the job. Granted there is a time for this, and a time not to be doing this, but it shouldn't be dismissed as irrelevant.
Last edited by HeliComparator; 11th Sep 2013 at 21:10.