Chris,
To repeat a point I suggested flippantly in my first post, you cannot expect a pilot suddenly to become a taxiing expert on large a/c during the short period of a command course
You must be a victim of CRM indoctrination and propaganda. I wish 411A was still around, he would have stated clearly that
ANY Captain who allows a First Officer to taxi the aeroplane (when a nose steering tiller is located on the RH side) is just asking for trouble.
Co-pilots are there to do as they are TOLD...period.
Not taxi the aircraft.
on a serious note, Denti knows what he is talking about (about parking, price of optional tiller - boeing seems more expensive than airbus - and airbus suggested SOP's, if you follow airbus SOP's they let F/O's taxi. I don't want to turn this into an A vs B discussion, but it seemed RH tillers are more common on widebody Boeing than 737, presumably because seniority has taught F/O's to taxi? I'm not discounting that observing is helpful. Yet, some SOP's would rather ask for a tug/tractor than let an F/O taxi...maybe it's a way to outsource the cost of mistakes? Blame it on ground handling instead of training your own employees?)