Jumpseater Etiquette

[realitycheck]

Has anyone had a jumpseater who over-contributed on a flight? We were on a short flight (20 minutes) and our jumpseater brought his own headset. On engine start there was a switch in the wrong position; right before we start, our jumpseater alerts us to this fact. Now, would it have killed us? No. Would we have found it? Yes, upon executing the after start flow. There were a few more over-share moments on that flight... ugh!

When I jumpseat, which is hardly ever in the cockpit, but when I did more often prior to 9/11, I was a fly on the wall. Basically, unless the gear was up in the flare or a 747 was heading straight towards us, I didn't say a freakin' word.

Yeah, I've witnessed some pretty big mistakes. But every flight crew makes 'em, continues to make 'em, and hopefully catches most of 'em with check lists and simple cross-checks. I make a lot of mistakes, but unless you see me pulling the wrong fire handle, shut up!!!!!!

Another story- a jumpseater on another short flight (thank god) had the worse freakin' breath. In a EMB-120, there's not much excess oxygen to go around, and even with the fans on HI this guy's breath penetrated the fresh air like a Vulcan mind meld. So, besides SHUTTING UP when in the jumpseat, when offered an Altoid YOU TAKE IT. There's an unwritten rule- if someone in the cockpit offers a breath mint, YOU TAKE IT!

Anyone else have some stories?

 

[PacoPollo]

Had a 300hr wonder Intern once, he wouldnt shut up the whole flight. Talking about the way he teaches stalls,p-factor
etc. terms that I havent heard in years!

 

[reno]

We (and yes I speak for all professional pilots on this board) never make mistakes. What is wrong with you "Reality Check"? Instead of being mad at the jumpseater why not get back in the Paper Tiger and learn those flows! If you still make mistakes consider flying freight in North Carolina instead of risking innocent passengers lives!

Just kidding... See ya in IAH, and btw, you suck at returning phone calls now!

Yeah, I've witnessed some pretty big mistakes. But every flight crew makes 'em, continues to make 'em, and hopefully catches most of 'em with check lists and simple cross-checks. I make a lot of mistakes, but unless you see me pulling the wrong fire handle, shut up!!!!!!

 

[dasburt]

Jump Seat

When I used to jump seat with Continental Airlines from W Palm Beach to Newark the Captain would always briefed me, as I was a member of his cockpit crew. This was common with all the Captains at Continental that I jump seated with for almost 3 years.

They would always tell me that while I am sitting up front that I was obligated to speak up if I saw or heard anything that might be suspicious to me.

Great bunch of people at that airline. They always treated me like a member of the family.

My only complaint when jump seating was when the head FA would call me the JR Pilot with a smile of course.

Dasburt

 

[TWA Dude]

Re: Jump Seat

Almost everytime I jumpseated I did my best to help out the crew -- by promply falling asleep and staying out of their way.

One day I was on the jumpseat of an ATR going to ORD but sleep just didn't come. The captain was deep in conversation on the radio with Ops while the f/o was in command of the autopilot. The airplane finished a descent and levelled off but the f/o had his nose buried in the L-chart. The power levers were still at idle, of course, so the airspeed rapidly bled away. The captain sensed that something was amiss and he looked at the gauges, then at the f/o, then he simply pushed up the power levers and continued with his conversation. (Had it been necessary I would've politely tapped the f/o on the shoulder and pointed.)

 

[wil]

When your the Captain never forget the "Jumpseat Creed", Leave no man behind!! When I'm on the the other end I try to blend into the door and while I keep a keen eye I try hard to stay out of the way! And, I always have gum or mints JS safe- Wil

 

[AWACoff]

I've spoken up once while jumpseating. I was on a 777 flight from DEN to ORD. The FO was recieving OE and the captain was busy helping/assisting. The wrong loc freq was plugged in and the autopilot thought it would be a good idea to fly towards a 757 on the ajoining parallel. I pointed out the noise abatement issue. Doh...the wierd part was when we began our descent with no lateral guidance down into an overcast. It was a high overcast (1200) but it still seemed a bit out of wack for a check airman to do such a thing. Oh well, we didn't hit anything and the airplane was still flyable. That's what counts.

 

[OtterFO]

There have been a couple of times where I have contributed on a flight I was jumpseating on. First was on a WesternPacific 737 from DEN to ORD, the Capt and FO where engaged in conversation about a system anomoly on the airplane when center advised us of aome traffic we where overtaking. I spoted the traffic and pointed it out to the crew. Another time riding from LAS to LAX in a 757 with the ACARS MEL'd, The crew was pretty busy and the FO asked me to get the atis and write it down. Most of my expierance has been that a flight crew member would brief me to not hesitate pointing out things. One crew also wanted me to respond to the "seatbelt and shoulder harness" call in the checklist. Other than that I pretty much wouldn't speak unless spoken too.

 

[inthepool]

when I interned I jumpseated almost every weekend. The crews were always happy to have me, and 99% of the captains I rode with went out of there way to try and educate me on systems, company policy, etc. They also made it obvious that they wanted me to speak up if I saw traffic, etc. The only time I tried to help other than pointing out traffic was when a conversation was going on in the cockpit and the capt and FO both missed a handoff. I just interjected politely and advised them the handoff was for us, and what frequency it was to.

 

[acaTerry]

Whenever I got a jumpseater my briefing would go something like this:
"...glad to have you. Ever jump on this type before? Then STFU. I don't like what you're doing with those RJ's. I don't like that you won't give our pilots preferentail hiring. You paid for training? Get off my plane! You signed what? Get off my plane!
Oh, your whole career was given to you. Get off my plane. No, you can't put your bag up here...check it. Get off my plane.".

Give a guy a break, man.

 

[jetexas]

There was a guy who would jumpseat on the ATR outta SJU a few years back. He was really nice.
After the flight there was always a bottle of fine Dominican rum behind the Captain and FO's seat as a token of appreciation. I seriously doubt anyone ever denied that guy that jumpseat.
disclaimer: the rum was promptly put into overnight bag for disposal off duty and within FAR limits.

 

[ExFokkerFlyer]

The rum would be nice... Used to have a Hawaiian Airlines j/s from time to time who would bring a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts for the crew...

Whenever I jumpseat, or used to... unless I was dying of thirst I would always pass on coffee, water etc. Had a United guy once that once he got strapped in, he got the FA's attention and practically gave her a shopping list... two bottles of water two cookies if you have them, if not then one bag of snack mix and a napkin... If it hadn't been the last flight of the night/trip, and had we not been running late... I would have said something. Surprisingly, the FA got it for him... if I would have asked... <smack>! but that's another story...

 

[chperplt]

I was on the JS of a 757 and had the pleasure of watching the cpt yell at the fo almost the entire flight. On approach (FO's leg), he pulled the spoilers out and forgot about them. As the flaps were hitting 30, the captain starts screaming at the FO.. Are you going put the f-kn spoilers down. You can't have the spoilers out with the flaps extended you f-kn moron.

Now I'm just a dumb a@@ Beech 1900 pilot. I don't know crap about spoilers. But, I do know that 1000 feet is not the time to be having that argument. We got on the ground safely and not another word was spoken from that point until shutdown when I opened the door, said my thanks and left very quickly.