SIC Blues

[aeronautic1]

All good advice

I too flew with a Lear captain (George A. in Tahoe) who was a flaming a-hole. Bad alcoholic even worse anger management (or lack of). But thru my association with him I met other Lear captains that I have flown with and it just perpetuates itself from there. Smile and nod alot. Some of these people get vicarious pleasure at other's discomfort. And by all means, join AOPA and make sure you sign up for the legal fund. It will save your bacon to have a legal team on your side when the pilot flying pulls a stunt that gets you violated. Believe me, it hapens!!

 

[aroundtheblock]

As a young pilot coming up through the ranks you are learning what kind of captain you are going to be. You take examples from the pilots you admire and also take examples of what not to do from bums like this. Make it a learning experience, and if it's like many 135 jobs, it won't last too long.

 

[falconpilot]

Ok...... This can be a difficult thing to go through.... I had the same problem with a capt I flew with. He loved to everything himself.... Put the gear up, put the flaps out, I was just basically a warm body in the right seat. This guy thought he was untouchable... (until the FAA suspended his license, but that a whole other story) You have to try your best to just stay cool and do your job, even though I know that you want to slap him with the checklist! Just make sure you cover your own ass.... He's the PIC so if he F*cks up.... He's the one responsible.. But store this experience in the back of your mind, so when you get to sit in the left seat and there is a new guy in the right seat, you will know how NOT to treat him/her.

 

[Kingairrick]

I'd second the learning experience opinions above.

Here's a story to ilustrate. When I first began doing SIC duties in the King Air 90, I took the SIC/CRM thing seriously, and still do. I was lucky enough to be broken in by a very experienced, laid back captain who had really been there, done that. (He in now a Capt at Netjets.) He was awesome, taught me the airplane and lots about corporate aviation. He left for Netjets, and I began flying with other Captains. Eventually, I was under consideration at another company for a full-time job as FO-soon to be Capt on a 90. The interview consisted of me flying with their present Capt. for about a month. After this time, the CP called me and said that I was no longer under consideration for the position, as I was considered to be poor in the CRM skills department. Specifically, I was too aggressive and over assertive in the cockpit.

I was shocked! I studied CRM techniques, and SOPs and believed that I was GREAT in CRM! I took the learning approach and polled the captians I had been flying with at company "A", and 3 out of 4 said that I was great. However, the 4th said that he agreed that I was too agressive, but that he knew that I was just "gung ho."

Here's where the learning came in. CRM is about personalities. There IS a personality type that is your opposite. All of us have this. This personality type for me, interprets my "opinions" as over-assertivness. Maybe your problems with this captain are personality based.

SOPs are supposed, in theory, to deal with this issue. I would take the advice offered above, and make sure that everything is done by the book. It will make you a better captain in the NEAR future.

Oh yeah, when someone else is flying, if it isn't outside the flight envelope for the aircraft or operation, keep your mouth shut. You "opinion" may be seen as critisizing their technique. That's a freebie from me, after a hard lesson learned.

 

[jasonwb]

i feel sorry for you man, i know guys out there like that and i know guys who fly with guys like that. like everyone else has said...learn from this guy, one of these days you will be capt. and you will know how NOT to carry out your captain duties. this guy is going to have a rude awakening one of these days when he is searching for a job in this tightly knit community and he is going to have a hard time even when there are jobs available because people will know of him and will not reccomend him.
i am fortunate to be flying with a Captain who is one of the best kinds of captains there is....one who is molding his co-pilot to be a captain one day. i have a lot of respect for him for that.
not a day goes by that i dont look forward to flying with this capt. and that is the way it is supposed to be.

To this Captain......i just want to say Thanx!!!!

 

[bafanguy]

kingairrick,


Good post...good points. Hard to tell from here, but maybe the company or pilots at the new company didn't really understand CRM, and YOU did. When they saw it in action, they misinterpreted from lack of understanding. And since it was their party, they got to send out the invitations. Hard to say.

As I said in my earlier post, it's difficult to imagine a more difficult job, in the routine scheme of ops, than being a copilot...CRM or no CRM. Like many other people, I've got a bit more FO time on my resume than I would've wanted and it was all before the industry could even spell CRM. Add a lack of standardization to that and you've got a tough day for the copilot. And I was flying with pretty good guys. You can't tell me too many copilot stories I can't match, up to and including taking the airplane away from the captain. I FEEL your pain.

All I can say is that, CRM not withstanding, sometimes it's not WHAT one says, but HOW one says it; how it plays in the personalities game, as you said. Even if a guy rubbed me the wrong way, I was hard pressed to get mad at a FO who was obviously trying to do the right thing. If he caught ME screwing up, guess who I had to be irked at !!

It was always a mystery to me why a FO would come out and, right off the bat, be wildly non-standard. This left me no choice but to pound the square peg into the round hole...no fun for either of us. SOP's, FAR's, AIM, company policies, etc., are the best friend a copilot ever had. Do them ( this requires book work...) until El Magnifico says not to. If he wants something different, you won't feel picked-on...you were just caught doing your job. How upset can you be about that ?

This is an interesting and very important subject. I'm sure lots of guys can shed more light on it.