Bad Sim partner

[twinotterifr]

Just abit of a vent here, wanted to know the experience from other people, but how do you deal with bad/unprepared sim partners.

Twice now ive been on two sim courses, and twice ive had bad partners. Both were unprepared and were generally below average in terms of basic knowledge and i'm always left with having to invest more resource and mental capacity to deal with their incompetence. Even during flight i've literally had to manage both roles because i cannot rely on my sim partner who has proven to be behind the module and SOPs. Furthermore in both occasions, i had to step it up and even had to dedicate time to teach them and study after the sessions because i know for a fact that they would be completely lost without any guidance. its a shame as well because despite the course being individually graded, the sectors flown would still be a disaster if the other person is not up to par and would just make the overall session look bad. Im just tired of it, even the other group of the same course are both prepared but of course it is my luck to be paired with the incompetent one. Im just sick of having to carry and babysit the other person when i could be using my time to better polish and finesse my skills. Drives my head in especially when my partner messes up a particular manoeuvre and i would ace it, but during the debriefing, instructor would suggest both to improve even-though my grade for it is high. Hate doing multi-crew with idiots. Can only hope i would for once get someone to carry me should type rating come but not counting on it.

[Uplinker]

Yeah, had this a few times. Potentially, it is a time for you to shine and demonstrate how you can gently take over and produce a good outcome with a below par colleague - from either seat.

What annoys me is when things get to the point where they drag you down and you get a poor mark because you were distracted or confused by their lack of ability.

I was absolutely astounded some years ago when a supposed long-haul Captain was completely at sea - he didn't even know how to programme a hold!!! I couldn't believe how bad he was but I was more annoyed with myself because I should have stepped up and demonstrated my own command ability, but I was so surprised that this retard had somehow got through a command course but was clearly not capable, that I let the situation get to me.

Maybe he was in with the TRE and they were testing me. Had it been for real, over the Ocean, I would have just taken control - I have had to shout at a couple of fellow pilots over the years, and I am not a shouty person. But in the SIM you try not to embarrass the other guy when he is making a Horlicks of things.

I don't know what to suggest but I wish now that I had asked to speak with the TRE privately afterwards and voice my concerns about pilot X.

[PPRuNe Towers]

The reason we blocked ads for sim partners for speculative ratings is long established and for exactly the reasons in the original post. A big money risk with zero real knowledge of your partner.

Rob

[lederhosen]

My last type rating I was paired with an excellent FO who I had flown with previously and knew was good. The experience was a pleasure from start to finish. At the other end of the scale many years ago I went for a job and was put in the sim with a captain with Parker pen hours. It turned out after the event that he had left his previous company when they found him out. He was hopeless. They asked me back, but the experience put me off the company, which in hindsight turned out to be a good thing.

[Banana Joe]

I assume this is for a MCC or APS-MCC. Wait to risk failing a LPC due to your colleague's incompetence. That will really get on your nerves! :eek:

[Climb150]

I had a very bossy sim buddy once. For the first few sims I was not up to his level but by sim 4 we were both about the same (according to the instructor). He felt he needed to coach me on everything from programming the box to flying the missed.

He paid for seat support as he felt I was a liability to his check ride. We both turned up at the same time on test day and he went first. He managed to bust his check ride in less than 30 mins and I went in and passed.

[TowerDog]

I had a bad sim partner once. Not because he couldn't fly but because he was a scab and I was not.
We went on the wrong foot from day one.
It was going downhill but during a break, in the bathroom, we agreed to bury the battle ax.
Neither one of us could afford to fail: Self sponsored B-737 type rating, just after Eastern Airlines went out
of business.
The scab had financial support from his State's labor department, after all he lost his job. (When Eastern collapsed)
I paid my own way because I refused to cross any picket line, but needed a job badly.
The Devil's Choice.:ooh:

[jetjockey696]

It happens.. I had a Capt from central America he had worked for many companies around the world but didn't stay long in each.. I realized why.. when we had to change sim partners. I had to fly with him... he shouted at everyone, even the sim instructors, no respect for anyone. WORST for this :mad: captain he would try to belittle you in front of the sim instructor. I would make a mistake he would laugh and try to get the sim instructor to join in his bullying, he would interrupt when the very patience instructor would explain things to me, he would butt in and say "yes yes correct, I told him to do it this way but he wouldnt listen etc) his captain was big-time jerk.

BUT i realized these jerk captain do exist online not just sim, just got to sort it out. JUST HOPE you dont get a real engine failure... you going to have a very bad day.. with these guys.

[Sleeve Wing]

Twinotterifr,

When you eventually attain your own command, you'll occasionally have to fly with people like this.
You'll also find that some people can fly sims and some can fly aeroplanes !
Fortunately, the sim wizards should have been flushed out of the system by then.
But you'd better get used to it.........

[happyjack]

Flying in cruise, suddenly 2 CAS messages. Before I had a chance to even read them the russian f/o piped up... " I know what that is", made some selections overhead and now we have multiple pages of CAS messages. Systems are failing all around me. I am now so confused, thrown sideways, and the f/o is just sitting there! What has happened? "What did you do?" He doesn't know!

The QRH is not helping a great deal, mainly because the reader can't read! In the meantime more and more CAS messages are building up. Now we have 4 pages.

It is a short flight GVA to ZRH. I am not happy at all so land back at GVA. On the ground we can safely understand what has happened???

It was a sim ex. And it was a simple gen failure!!!!!

The examiner passed this prick saying to me " never let him run a check list."

Make what you will of that? I know what I make of it.

[speedrestriction]

It can be the same in the real world and that’s life - sometimes you have to work around a colleagues shortcoming.

Don’t however put them in a box labelled “useless”: even the least competent colleague make a suggestion or observation which will save your bacon. For better or worse (but hopefully better) we multi pilot types are duty-bound to make the best of the team irrespective of whether the colleague is a prodigy or not.