Gulfstream 200
Database Expert
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2002
- Posts
- 4,574
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Unfortunately, when you are a co-pilot and in the final stage of landing, lets say below 50', you are along for the ride. The throttles are at idle and you are commencing a flare. As a copilot, if something does not look right, you can only bring it to the attention of the Captain flying, call go around, and hope he makes a safe decision. Some pilots have a get it on the ground mentality. How safe is it for the co-pilot to take away control of the airplane in the state they were in and push the throttles forward and initiate a go around. At this point, the co-pilot is along for the ride and hoping the Captain makes the right decision. In a crew environment, both being type rated and experienced in type, you must trust the pilot you are flying with, or your life as well as theirs will be a living hell. If they made it through initial and numerous recurrent training events and have not failed a 135 checkride, they must be able to fly the aircraft.
Unfortunately, this co-pilot was terminated and the Captain retained. He has a newborn to take care of and now has a blemish on his record for someone else's mistake. Would you hire him now, would you have retained him?
My question is if the Captain was in command of the aircraft and is still on the operating certificate, how much does that affect the ARGUS rating, as opposed to retaining the co-pilot who was not in direct control of the aircraft at the time of the incident? I do not think the co-pilot could have done anything different and surely could not press harder on the brakes than the pilot in command.
Wouldn't Meridian take a bigger hit by retaining the pilot flying in this case?
It is a shame that a good pilot is out of the job because one another pilots decision to continue landing the airplane.
I can guarantee there is more to the story than that!