Hmm at my company for as long as I can remember F/O's are restricted to Cat1 limits at the discretion of the Captain. The Cat11 and Cat111 can only be conducted by the Captain using the autopilot and autoland. Cruise pilot's are only allowed in either of the forward seats above 10T. There are T/O rules but unless the wx is really marginal most Captains are a bit lenient, as others have pointed out, you can't learn by seating on your hands. I try giving the F/O's as much responsibility as I can because that's the only way they are going to learn the trade. This policy has only disappointed me on a few occasions and the upside is that I pay for very little beer...
A much bigger problem on long haul is keeping your competency due to the lack of landings and T/O's. We have a system, as I suspect(know) others have, that the most senior F/O's fly the long haul and then go back on the short haul to get promoted. Some of them experience real problems so maybe how we do it, should be revisited.
Hey Folks I sat right seat for 12 years and the went LS for about 20 so far, so hang in there it's worth it..
Last edited by Tan; 20th May 2003 at 08:19.