Jeeze there are 'assumptions' being made about F/O's in this thread. Whatever happened to NOTECH skills ;-)


For those who don't know or haven't had their career run this particular path, believe it or not there are FO's in airlines who, not only have significant command experience, but may have training skills too.


For instance I had over 8 years regional jet command experience, before finally biting the bullet and moving back to the right seat as, at the time, it was the only way to progress my career. (DEC options are limited for those without Airbus or Boeing time). Today I still have more command time than FO time and more command hours than some of the Captains I now fly with (and no I'm not a training FO nor do I wish to be one).


To state blankly that an FO cannot be a TRE and "nurture new captains" is just ludicrous. The right person for the right job based on skills and experience.


Having said that I can understand why some ego's might not be able to cope with that, it's a pity that we've not yet moved away from that particular problem in total ;-)

Gus, if you have relevant command experience then I have no doubt you will be an excellent trainer, even in your current role as an FO. However we are talking bout FO's without command experience. If you have relevant and recent command experience then I'd have no problem with you running the sim sessions. You could even be cabin crew or a cleaner for all I care.

But we are NOT talking about FOs doing SIM checks or command training.
FOs are used to do TR. I don't unterstand why you don't get this, unless you name a company where FOs to OPC, LPC or command training.

On page one you can find at least two references of training FO's conducting sim checks and line checks.

I only see one post where someone believes that the company does so.
I don't think that an FO can do LPC unless authorized by the CAA as a TRE is.

America West used a combination of F/O sim instructors and retired captains as sim instructors for our initial sim work. Checkrides were and are always done by check airmen, who are all seniorish captains. US Airways did away with the retired guys and just uses F/O instructors and check captains.

We use AQP for our yearly 2 day sim checks. Everything is scripted for both days and graded. Individual instructor deviations from the script are not allowed. Sim instructors do the first day, check captains do the second day, which is a 2 leg loft. Decision making by the crew is reviewed by the check captain.

IOE is where your new captains learn their trade, not in a sim.