Difficult Captains

[Fly-n-high]

Go ahead and yell at your FO's and then go to bathroom and see how many times your name shows up on the wall.

If the situation requires some type of debriefing then you do it on the ground outside of the aircraft...somewhere away from the view of the public. The absolute stupidest thing you can do as a captain is stir something up in the cockpit.

If things are really bad then you just take the controls away from the FO, turn the autopilot on, and verify the checklist items as the FO performs them.

 

[mar]

We'll get along fine just as long as...

...you do everything my way.

I've had difficult captains.

And I've been the difficult captain.

I suppose it all depends on your perspective.

I remember flying with one captain who was quite the perfectionist---and always the 'flying pilot' regardless of whose leg it was.

I was on the descent and made an adjustment to the power levers (Metroliner)...the captain adjusted my adjustment.

After a whole day of this I finally cracked. "Look," I said, "you *have* to let me make mistakes! I'm not talking about smoking hole mistakes, but if I'm gonna learn how to fly this airplane I need to FLY this airplane."

He said, "Fine. The next leg is yours too but you have to prove to me that you'll fly every phase of flight per the FMG to ATP standards."

I flew the approach to ATP standards, landed in the touchdown zone, on speed, on centerline.

He conceded, "That's not how I would've done it but nice job."

The one time (???) I was the difficult captain I was flying with a *very* cocky 26-year old copilot who seriously thought the other captains didn't like to fly with him because he landed the airplane better than they.

Whatever.

One morning, I'm quickly growing very tired of listening to how good he thinks he is. The next leg is a very quick 50 mile trip. The weather is just above mins in a snow shower and requires a VOR approach with a DME arc transition. The runway is contaminated with about 2-3 inches of loose snow and 6000 feet long.



It's his leg.

Long story short: Scalloped arc; unstable approach; break out high and fast; I ask, "What are you gonna do?"

"Um, let's circle and come back around."

"Nope, the vis is two miles and besides you didn't brief that."

"Ok, let's go around."

"All right, what the call?"

<<Trees and runway sliding past the whole time....>>

"Um, 'Max Power.'"

"Max Power, and what....?"

"Max Power, flaps one-half."

"Max Power is set, flaps one-half, I have the controls, positive rate, gear up, report the missed to radio...."

After we (I) landed, we parked and I let him have it. I didn't yell. I didn't cuss. But I called him on the carpet. To his credit he never got defensive. He just listened.

I had never chewed out a copilot before that and I have never done so since.

I think he learned something that day.

 

[Flying Illini]

Mar,
Sounds like you did the right thing and then handled the debrief in a very professional manner. It would seem that some captains have alot to learn from you.

 

[Swaayze]

As an experienced FO, but relatively inexperienced Captain, I also know that sometimes things can come across poorly even with good intentions.

One occasion: approaching to land we were pretty high and starting to get close to the field. The FO was flying and in a reasonable descent, but not as quickly as we really needed to be in order to meet stabilized approach criteria. I decided to say something, really just as a CYA effort for myself. Unfortunately it must have come out wrong 'cause the FO got a little defensive. It really wasn't a big deal but is a good example of good intentions gone bad.

Hopefully I'll get some slack as I try to learn how to be a good Captain.

OTOH, I recently saw this harsh but true quote: "sometimes being responsible means pissing people off."

 

[~~~^~~~]

Many First Officer friends of mine complain that the "Captain is always watching me, like I don't know how to..." At this point I try to explain that the Captain hopes that the First Officer will always watch him like the Captain doesn't know how to...

First Officers should not always assume a Captain is watching them. The Captain is watching the flight. A Captain can delegate authority, but not responsibility. No matter how it happens, the Captain is responsible.

And regardless which seat you are in, the appropriate reply when the other crew member catches your mistake is, "thank you."

~~~^~~~

 

[Stifler's Mom]

And regardless which seat you are in, the appropriate reply when the other crew member catches your mistake is, "thank you."

Good point, and this tone is most likely set during the brief before you even set out on the first flight. Nothing better than a Capt. who up front says "keep me out of trouble, I'll keep you out of trouble, let's have a good time."

 

[EOpilot]

As an F/E, I had a captain who was trying desperately to depart after I told him that the aft cargo door wasn't closing properly. He and the mechanic attempted to let the flight go by deferring the cargo door light.

After convincing the captain that it wasn't the light, but, in fact, the door that was the problem, he had the mechanic force the door closed with a crowbar. It succeeded in extinguishing the light, but I was far from comfortable with the situation.

The captain insisted on begining the taxi to see if the light would stay out. When the light flickered on with every bump in the taxiway, the captain said it was OK with him if it was OK with us. I said, "It's OK with me as long as you drop me off at the next taxiway. I'll use the escape rope."

He eventually decided it was unwise to show up at the destination with two crewmembers on a three-person aircraft and turned back to the ramp.

The same captain attempted, on another occasion, to plow the aircraft 30 feet deep into the mud next to the runway on a screwed up Cat II approach. The only reason we survived was due to the F/O screaming "MISS! MISS! MISS!" in an unnaturally high pitch and shoving the throttles up.

Morals:
1.) Never assume the guy/gal next to you is incapable of trying to kill you just because he/she has been there longer than you.

2.) Speak up if something makes you uncomfortable (i.e. imminent death). You'll only have yourself to blame if you don't.

 

[SkywayFO]

My favorite brief goes like this...."I've been flying this thing for a while, I have seen alot of $hit but not everything. If you see something you don't like or that I am doing different ask..Cause I'm either doing it wrong or different, and one of us will learn from it. If we keep it off the grass and out of the trees we will get along just fine!"

The day I stop learning in an airplane, I am either dead or about ready to to die!!!!

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

I love men with big hands. www.ngpa.org

dude, are you for real?

 

[SkywayFO]

I never noticed that signature line. Some one has been screwing with my account. I must have left it up on a public computer at a hotel.

 

[flint4xx]

Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.
--Sam Walton

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
--General George S. Patton


The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.
--Kenneth Blanchard

A boss creates fear, a leader confidence.
A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes.
A boss knows all, a leader asks questions.
A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting.
A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested
in the group.
--Russell H. Ewing

 

[singlespeed]

My IOE captain a few years back yelled and screamed at me every leg. We had an incident where he purposely screwed me up. We got on the ground and had a conversation about the incident. I told him I quite and I was going to call the CP to explain my side. We worked the problem out and the next leg he signed me off. Later that month he quite and went to a new LCC on the east coast. From what I understand he was fired for dropping the F-bomb in front of the CEO during the first week of training. Now that’s smooth

 

[skyking1976]

When I was flying a Pt. 135 charter trip for Scott Air Charter I flew with a real bonafide a-hole Captain.

After unloading pax at FRG, the line guy came up to me (F/O) and asked for a fuel load. Before I could get 2 syllables of "I'll ask the boss." out, AND while still in earshot of the pax, the Capt. starts yelling "You'd better keep your godd@mned mouth shut! I'm the Captain and I cay what happens on this airplane and you don't know sh!t!" He then stomped off towards the FBO.

Needless to say I was taken aback by his diatribe and was on the phone to the CP immediately. Upon returning home the CP was waiting to meet the airplane and had a chat with the Capt. I'm sure that you can guess the outcome.

A few months prior to that I had another confrontation with the same guy. Having gotten my training (and type rating) at Simuflite I was taught to add approach flaps at mid-field downwind in a VFR traffic pattern (which we were going to be in). About 5 miles outside of the BTV traffic pattern he puts the flaps to approach (which I was not prepared for) without so much as a word to me. I had figured that he might have bumped the flap handle accidentaly so I put the flaps back up. I got chastised for that. That was my first indication that this guy was a complete jack@ss.

After that incident I did some investigating. I called the F/O who flew with the Capt. prior to me. It turns out that this Capt. had quite a long history of pi$$ing off F/O's and that I was the 4th F/O to fly with him in a year and a half. (The owner of the A/C wouldn't pay for more than 1 crew to be attached to his plane and the rest of the pilots weren't qualified for the plane.)

So, if any of you guys knew any of the King Air 350 pilots around Scott Air Charter you know exactly who I am talking about and his personality type.

Just my $.02,

SK



P.S. Singlespeed, you've GOT to get a new avatar. I just ate dinner and now it's not sitting so well...

 

[singlespeed]

Skyking1976,

My Capt. and yours must be the same guy or classmates at A-hole school. Ain't she a perrty one

 

[skyking1976]

Skyking1976,

...Ain't she a perrty one

Uhhh... yeah, a real peach...