Communication in the cockpit

I've flown with a lot of Captains that I had a blast with, and one that.......I was warned about. This Captain flew the panel at an airline that is no more. He actually taught the panel there, and he knew it well, but.........he was a second officer.

Doug, no offense, I know you also worked the panel as a second officer, but there is a difference between being a second officer and being a flight engineer. I'm both. Same seat, different job and pay, and you can bet your backside I took the higher pay(and increased responsiblities). At majors, they put pilots into the engineer seat with about 120 hours of systems training....and good luck.
A flight engineer has an A&P and almost 2,000 hours of systems training, and more than 300 hours of electricity, alone. To make a long story short, I know the airplane pretty darn well, NOT PERFECTLY, but pretty well.

This guy keeps telling me not to touch the freq knobs once the generators are on the Sync Tie Bus, even though the Tie Bus is running at 403 hertz and Gen 1 is carrying more of the load than 2 and 3. "It's not how we did it at brand X, so it's wrong!"
Sure, it's withing limits, but I consider it sloppy engineering.

The biggest thing for me was not "being allowed" to call the runway on a non-precsision approach. The 727FE has the best seat in the house for seeing the approach lights before anyone else. Every other Captain wants me up there with them, this guy didn't even offer approach plates. Later, we had a couple of beers, and he started handing me the approach plates, and I drew the PMG's(permanent magnet generators) which control the phase angle of an A/C generator, and how it affects the load of each generator and the freq of the sync tie bus.

We ended the trip, having a few beers, telling jokes. I can fly with him again, anytime.
 
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I drew the PMG's(permanent magnet generators) which control the phase angle of an A/C generator, and how it affects the load of each generator and the freq of the sync tie bus.

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Is that anything like the wiggly stick or wobbly shaft and do you need a left-handed monkey wrench to fix it?!?
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ex-lousy B727 second officer
 
Yeah!
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Sometimes you can say, in a very dismissive tone, I mean like you really know your stuff, even though......., "That's linked to the thermostatic by-pass assembly, through a redundent set sequencer, to act as a back-up for the primary."
It works for Engines, Weather Radar, Bleed Air, Hydraulics, I mean it's better than Duct Tape!
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As far as the jab at Second Officers goes, I do hope you realize that in many ways I DO evny you guys, especially how quickly a Second Officer moves up front, there are a lot of Engineers that are not going to get that chance, or take that chance. I'm in a good position, and I certainly know it.

*EDIT*
P.S.
I wasn't B.S.ing the Captain about the PMG's, they really do work the way I showed him.
 
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That's linked to the thermostatic by-pass assembly, through a redundent set sequencer, to act as a back-up for the primary

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I like it! Gotta remember that one.

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As far as the jab at Second Officers goes, I do hope you realize that in many ways I DO evny you guys

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No problem. I was a good Second Officer but I have to admit, my heart just wasn't in it. My sights were on the front seat and fortunately I only had to spent a very short time at the panel.
 
Yo...I once was the number 2 s/o at UPS on the 727, behind June.

I never could have cared less whether you should mess with the freq knobs while they were paralelled....much less be able to explain the inner workings of the thermostatic bypass valve or whatever. I've been on the plane for 13 years, in both the back seat or the right seat, and I can tell you I have no idea what cleared ILS is talking about.

I just passed my yearly recurrent and am about to go on my 14th year on the airplane. Some stuff is important and some stuff isn't....

As I'm sure the cleared ILS dude will tell you...it's much important for the F/E to have his head up front and calling out approach lights or calling out which taxiway you meant to turn off of than describing the inner workings of how the CSD drive works.
 
There have been very few captains that I didn't like flying with. As Doug says, usually I just keep it professional and polite when I do run into one of the few.

I normally steer clear of religion and politics until I know someone, unless they bring it up first. I save that stuff for the Squawk Box.
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Since I've learned how to manipulate the system, now I also may try to trip trade around bad captains. This is a particularly good strategy if you can find a trip with higher block.

Additionally, the fact that most of our legs are 1 hour or less tends to limit the number of uneasy silences in the cockpit. For a large part of the time we spend in the cockpit, we are running checklists, briefing arrivals and departures, or actively flying the airplane. For the other times, that's why all those hotels give you USA Today.
 
How does a First Officer know when he's ready to make the upgrade to Captain?

When even the good Captains start to get on your nerves!
 
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