Automatics & sky gods
Two issues seem to be at play in this thread the first is easy to deal with, the second is shrouded in cultural issues that are mostly individual opinion rather than hard fact.
There seems to be a problem with the Airbus machine/ human interface, the aircraft is clearly a very good flying machine but it has become so good that it gives pilots an attitude of followership, when it does something unexpected the usual reaction from the crew is to go heads down and start tapping away on the FMC......... Not to disconnect ALL the automatics and revert to old fashioned manual flying. My second flying lesson was all about Attiude & Power = Performance, perhaps some professional pilots are getting too far away from the basics ?
The French pilot attitude and as some people see it arrogance is unique but not universal, I spent some time based in France working with French cabin crew, they at first appered very distant and it was clear that there was a big authority gradient across the flight deck door that did not help communication. After a while we broke down this authority gradient barrer, it became clear that MOST French pilots do have a very ridged veiw of their place in the system and the place of the cabin crew. From my cultural background I do not see this as helpfull from a flight safety point of veiw and the cabin crew expressed the opinion that as a group of pilots we were much easier to work with.
In twenty five years on the flight deck the only person that I have felt it nessesary to report to the management was a French FO who clearly had swallowed the arrogant sky god attitude whole and uncooked, he was very rude to the cabin crew and when I questioned a clearance he told me that I was wrong and he was correct, it took three requests to check the clearance and then a direct order to get him to check with ATC ! He had I fact made an error and had not understood the clearance........... In the next four hours of flight he said nothing about the incident and after the flight left the Crewroom in a way so as to avoid the de-brief.
As he had walked out of the Crewroom before the de-brief I had no option but to report the matter to my fleet boss...................... Who was French and in CRM terms the polar opposite of the FO.
From what I have seen in aviation good CRM is alive and well in Scandinavia, Northern Europe and the English speaking world but those nations who insist on not speaking the ICAO standard language in professional aviation do for the same cultural reasons find it difficult to accept the concept of CRM.
Last edited by A and C; 18th December 2013 at 08:40.