Pilot in Command
 

I received an interesting announcement from the flight deck whilst sitting in economy patiently waiting to taxi on an internal flight in the US recently (as interesting as announcements get in such circumstances).

It went along the lines of...

"Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking, I have been asked by the other Captain to make this announcement. This aircraft has just returned from a period of extensive maintenance, we're suffering a short delay as we don't have the paper copies of some of the charts we need for our flight today. The other Captain in in Operations right now printing off the required charts and we expect to be underway shortly, thank you for your patience."

Other captain? Is it usual to use this terminology? I am private pilot (with commercial aspirations) and my experience to date is that there is always a clear distinction between the Pilot in Command (i.e. the 'Captain') and any other member of the flight crew (first officer, co-pilot, whatever the terminology). But I have never heard the term Captain used in the plural.

Can anyone, particularly anyone who has worked as flight crew and possibly in the USA, enlighten me?

@ Captains flying together is a regular occurance. Possibly a checkflight or maybe a Capt was the only reserve crew member available to operate the flight.

While both may hold the rank of Captain, only one of them will be the legally nominated Pilot-in-Command.

As INLAK inferred, 'Captain' is a rank, whilst 'commander', or 'Pilot in command' is a position.

Do you mean as in military rank such as Captain (Army) or Captain (Navy ) and is it the captain of a ship? Or the Seaman in Command or even the commander?

All very confusing. I was flying in command of the old Lincoln bomber when I was 21 but never called myself "Captain" lest I be laughed out of the Sergeants Mess as a poseur. There was a first pilot and second pilot and I was the first pilot. Sometimes called "Skipper".

Nowadays go to any flying school and witness the proliferation of gold stripes on 200 hour flying instructors calling themselves "Captain" because they fly as pilot in command on a Cessna. It is all a big wank, really.:ok: