What is your greatest piece of advice

[JordanD]

If I may add something from the right seat now that I’ve beem in the job a very small amount of time. Since you were just in the right seat, remember the stuff that annoyed you time/work load wise as an FO, and help your FO keep stuff at a manageable pace.

I have a very small number of pet peeves, but at least at my shop, single engine taxi out is the expectation, and thus the delayed start up is the FO’s job. I keep finding myself flying with Captains who pride themselves on waiting until the last minute to call for the delayed start, and thus turn me into the aviation equivalent of Vishnu.

I'll start throwing this into my briefs. I was an FO on the same plane, so I'm extremely comfortable sometimes and I'll catch myself. If I get a brand new guy I try to brief "if I'm starting to make you feel rushed, say something." I used to do SNA stuff all the time as an FO, and we parked ins uch a way that after pushback it was pretty much "ok hold short monitor tower." Most guys would just run the before TO checklist right after the after start. Had an out of base guy pick up a trip and I'm fumbling to get the TO checklist done while we're about to line up and wait. Then he says "That wasn't too bad." After the look I gave him he realized how much busier I am on that checklist vs the captains basically just glancing at the EICAS for MINTO.

I'll throw another one on there for the captains that came up from a situation today. Some dispatchers MO seems to be "let me file them through the weather, with TSRA and CB in the TAF and just give them an extra 25 minutes contingency fuel and let them figure it out. Throughly look at your route, check the release, and call them up and demand a new routing if you're not happy. I went along with it and everything was fine, but it made my life way more stressful than it needed to be. Some dispatchers are awesome, some will just go along with whatever the computer spits out.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

I just picked up a SNA 1 day trip (turn). I’ve never been to SNA as a FO nor as CA. Ever.


Should be fun

 

[JordanD]

I just picked up a SNA 1 day trip (turn). I’ve never been to SNA as a FO nor as CA. Ever.


Should be fun

Meh, honestly looking back to when I basically only did SJC-SNA turns at work, it was kind of fun. Good weather flying up and down the coast of California all day. Repetitive and not the best "experience" but it was leisurely and I kind of enjoyed it.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Meh, honestly looking back to when I basically only did SJC-SNA turns at work, it was kind of fun. Good weather flying up and down the coast of California all day. Repetitive and not the best "experience" but it was leisurely and I kind of enjoyed it.

Who was that with? Aren’t you Endeavor?

 

[DE727UPS]

Use your jumpseater as an extra set of eyes aka Flight Engineer. I once forgot to retract the speed brakes and he caught it before it could have caused a problem.

I do believe the flight before the Lion Air Max crash a jumpseater saved the day. He noticed that the big black trim wheel was spinning during a time when the pilots were trying to sort out what was going on. He knew what to do to make it quit spinning uncommanded.

Very little has been said about that as throwing Boeing under the bus is way more fun.

 

[ASpilot2be]

Who was that with? Aren’t you Endeavor?

Wrong Jordan

 

[Richman]

I do believe the flight before the Lion Air Max crash a jumpseater saved the day. He noticed that the big black trim wheel was spinning during a time when the pilots were trying to sort out what was going on. He knew what to do to make it quit spinning uncommanded.

Very little has been said about that as throwing Boeing under the bus is way more fun.

Dumbing down the airplanes so 200 hour MPLs can fly them is politically awkward to point out.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

If I may add something from the right seat now that I’ve beem in the job a very small amount of time. Since you were just in the right seat, remember the stuff that annoyed you time/work load wise as an FO, and help your FO keep stuff at a manageable pace.

I have a very small number of pet peeves, but at least at my shop, single engine taxi out is the expectation, and thus the delayed start up is the FO’s job. I keep finding myself flying with Captains who pride themselves on waiting until the last minute to call for the delayed start, and thus turn me into the aviation equivalent of Vishnu.

“Arriving at the takeoff runway not configured for departure is NOT acceptable.” - SkyWest Flight Operations circa last summer.

There are times where single engine taxi works and is great, but it does add to the workload. Or times where it’s just plainly wrong.

And you can always stop an engine after you turn the corner and go “oh f—, look at that line” too.

 

[ozziecat35]

View attachment 48374

“Arriving at the takeoff runway not configured for departure is NOT acceptable.” - SkyWest Flight Operations circa last summer.

There are times where single engine taxi works and is great, but it does add to the workload. Or times where it’s just plainly wrong.

And you can always stop an engine after you turn the corner and go “oh f—, look at that line” too.

Preach!

 

[DE727UPS]

Dumbing down the airplanes so 200 hour MPLs can fly them is politically awkward to point out.

Yes. Totally agree.

 

[Richman]

View attachment 48374

“Arriving at the takeoff runway not configured for departure is NOT acceptable.” - SkyWest Flight Operations circa last summer.

There are times where single engine taxi works and is great, but it does add to the workload. Or times where it’s just plainly wrong.

And you can always stop an engine after you turn the corner and go “oh f—, look at that line” too.

My personal favorite is guys who single engine taxi, knowing that crossing a busy runway is part of the program, then have to spool it up to METO power to get moving while blowing everything behind them to Oz. Oh yea, bonus because despite that, you creep across the runway and shake the hell out of everyone in the back.

 

[JordanD]

Wrong Jordan

I was first! The OG! Or OJ...

 

[JordanD]

My personal favorite is guys who single engine taxi, knowing that crossing a busy runway is part of the program, then have to spool it up to METO power to get moving while blowing everything behind them to Oz. Oh yea, bonus because despite that, you creep across the runway and shake the hell out of everyone in the back.

And unless you're sitting in line for an appreciable amount of time I've noticed single engine you have to spend the majority of the taxi with the one engine spooled up to about 40%... which has the same fuel burn as both engines at idle.

 

[JordanD]

View attachment 48374

“Arriving at the takeoff runway not configured for departure is NOT acceptable.” - SkyWest Flight Operations circa last summer.

There are times where single engine taxi works and is great, but it does add to the workload. Or times where it’s just plainly wrong.

And you can always stop an engine after you turn the corner and go “oh f—, look at that line” too.

I'll routinely brief that. Between the potholes in LGA you get stuck in and the little slope at the bottom of the south port in ORD, it's far less embarassing than getting stuck.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Preach!

Omni, Omni, ADF, amen. Please be seated. The Lord be with you.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

My personal favorite is guys who single engine taxi, knowing that crossing a busy runway is part of the program, then have to spool it up to METO power to get moving while blowing everything behind them to Oz. Oh yea, bonus because despite that, you creep across the runway and shake the hell out of everyone in the back.

Fan blades are expensive.

Fuel is cheap.

Disregard the constabulary, start both engines.

 

[bimmerphile]

I was first! The OG! Or OJ...

Name's OJ. No pulp.

 

[Nark]

Use your jumpseater as an extra set of eyes aka Flight Engineer. I once forgot to retract the speed brakes and he caught it before it could have caused a problem.

I’ve spoken up a few times in the jumpseat.
Maybe I’m in the minority of actually believing the J/S is an additional crew member.

Last week on taxi out, the before takeoff checklist “status” actually had a status, which wasn’t there before hand. I pull off to the pad to work on it.
It was a 5:30am departure, and in spite of checking the logbook before every flight, I didn’t see a write up for the that message. But it was also 5am when I went through it.
Parking break set, I give the logbook to the jumpseater and told him to review it for any write ups both of us might have missed, told the FO to dig through the COM, and I whipped out the phone to call MX.

In the spirit of vindication, it was a new issue that required a C/B reset. Point being, use your jumpseater, delegate tasks.

As the almighty Captain sky-god, learn to enjoy the bitter taste of humble pie. You will be served slices throughout your career.

 

[JaceTheAce]

My advice: Always be learning. Be professional. And don't be grumpy.

Establish a tone that makes the FO and other crew feel they have equal input as to suggest a correction for an SOP violation or unsafe decision, or for whatever will allow you to come back safe to your family!

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Oh, something else I forgot about this morning.

I use a long “retractable” dog leash leadership style. I’m not going to micromanage and I expect my first officers are going to make mistakes, discover “ooh! crap!” and then course correct back to where they should be. That way they learn, let their own “inner voice” develop and makes for a more cohesive operation. If they’ve “walked down the wrong alleyway” and are about to get hurt, I’ll step in right when I almost can’t save them and then we’ll talk about it.

However...

Some copilots will interpret an open, friendly, “make your own decisions and I’ll veto when appropriate” as an “I’m the alpha, anything goes, amma do whatever I want without regard to convention and procedure”. You’ve got to be swift to learn about the personality you’re working with that is going to misinterpret your “niceness” as “weakness” and think it’s their airplane. Don’t be afraid to confirm that you’re Alpha wolf if you have to. 95% of guys you fly with will flourish in an open leadership style, 5% of them might need to have corrective action. (“Hey, close the cockpit door, it’s cold”, “Are you asking me or are you telling me? If you’re cold, close the door, but either way bring a grey bag from the galley” and then smile widely so he doesn’t really understand if you’re serious or being sarcastic)

I’m actually suffering/learning a bit from this, primarily the second part where that 5% need corrective action because like you said they take niceness as weakness. Trying to learn how to establish alpha in a case like that but without hurting CRM. For the first 200-300 hrs, it was the mechanics of the new left seat, eg, dealing with flying with left hand, dealing with ops, dispatch, the operational stuff. But now I think for the 300-700 hr mark in the left seat as new, is learning how to deal with these kinds of FO dynamics.