Does the captain fly the first leg?

CaptBill

CaptBill

Well-Known Member
You're a line captain and begin to see lots of new faces showing up in the right seat. Do you fly the first leg to show them how you like to do things
or, let them fly the first leg not really knowing them or their capabilities?

Are there conditions to who flies what?

In my early days, the captains always flew to the out stations and I always flew back into our base. I swear I landed in Houston 500 times before I ever landed at another airport.

I'm interested in hearing First Officer perspectives on what's typical in your world.

As for me, I make the FOs fly every leg :-)
 
Where I work, the captain has always does the first leg, and then we'll alternate every 2 legs. So CA gets leg 1, FO gets 2 and 3, CA gets 4 and 5, etc.

I've had it modified by skippers in a few situations, but they're few and far between.
 
It shouldn't matter unless a time in type issues occurs or a company guideline. I usually let the brand new guys fly first so they can just focus on flying... I'll worry about everything else and keep an eye on them. For a more seasoned FO I could care less.
 
Some of the older skippers ~60s like to fly first to set my standards low, they've told me once I see how bad they fly, I'll relax and be able to keep an eye on them...something to do with the box with funny letters on it....

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Depends here.

As few landings as we get, usually the person that needs a landing, or has the least landings in a month, has a sim ride or has vacation coming up flies.

Since we've had a, ahem, confluence of cultures, it seems the CA flies first within a certain group.

Years ago, when I had any influence, I'd have FO's fly into an airport that I wasn't super fluent with to see where the home team would turn off and try to observe local peculiarities. Never wanted to be "that guy" that backed up the NYC metroplex at rush hour...

There are certain conditions where the CA takes the leg per FOM or OpSpecs.

Also, to avoid the dearth of landing at hubs all week, I'd just fly 1/2 days.

Everyone made it through all the training. Also, they've been indoctrinated under the latest & greatest tribal knowledge - those policies passed via memo, email or check guys saying "this is how you interpret that" - so new faces can help you keep up-to-date so to speak.
 
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CaptBill said:
You're a line captain and begin to see lots of new faces showing up in the right seat. Do you fly the first leg to show them how you like to do things
or, let them fly the first leg not really knowing them or their capabilities?

Are there conditions to who flies what?

In my early days, the captains always flew to the out stations and I always flew back into our base. I swear I landed in Houston 500 times before I ever landed at another airport.

I'm interested in hearing First Officer perspectives on what's typical in your world.

As for me, I make the FOs fly every leg :)
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A lot of guys here have have asked if I have a preference on what legs I want to fly. I get paid the same and get there at the same time so I don't care and let the Commander know that. Guys have been pretty good about splitting the legs so I am not always landing at the hubs, or giving the FNG an extra leg if it is an odd leg trip, but I really don't care. Only special request I did have my first year was to not land in SNA even though it was 'my turn' the first time I was to go there.

BTW, your trip starting the 26th has been in open time FOREVER. That usually means something ;)
 
I sat in the right seat for nine years before moving to the left. One of the things I decided when I actually had a say in things was that the FOs would get to pick the legs with very rare exceptions. One FO elected to fly every leg on a 4 day trip.... OK, by me. I actually like them to fly into some of the more challenging airports ( Quito, Bogota, DCA, LaGuardia ) especially if they've never been in there before, so they get over the initial nerves. It's fun looking at them after the landing and saying "see, it wasn't so hard was it" and seeing them smile.
 
I usually just used to let the FOs decide. Some captains like to fly the first leg and so be it, to each their own. But FOs are just fine at flying too, even new ones, and let's face it - it's not rocket science as much as some like to pretend that it is.
 
Seggy said:
BTW, your trip starting the 26th has been in open time FOREVER. That usually means something ;)
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I noticed that. I see you haven't picked it up :def:. The Thanksgiving day in Boise will be worth it as I have some fun things going on.
There was a new cute Blonde FO on it a few weeks ago but I see she bailed. Apparently even the newbies have got the word about CaptBill :rolleyes:
 
CaptBill said:
I noticed that. I see you haven't picked it up :def:. The Thanksgiving day in Boise will be worth it as I have some fun things going on.
There was a new cute Blonde FO on it a few weeks ago but I see she bailed. Apparently even the newbies have got the word about CaptBill :rolleyes:
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I actually got Thanksgiving and Christmas off!

If I had to work I'd wish it was with you!
 
At my previous gig, as an FO, I preferred the captain fly the first leg so I got a sense of how they flew the plane and didn't feel pressured that I might be doing something they wouldn't like. As a captain I normally tried to get the FOs (especially the new ones) as many outstation landings as I could as those were typically the visual approaches that were never really trained in the sim. The exception to the at rule was if I'd never seen the guy fly before and we were going some place challenging or with a short runway, I'd probably take the first leg. Being on reserve for about 90% of the time I was a captain, I often only got two legs (a turn) with somebody before I was pulled off to do something else.

At my new job I've decided I don't really care. If I fly first and the captain doesn't like something I'm doing (CA no-flaps-5-call-on-approach I'm looking at you... it's a dail-a-flap thing, you wouldn't understand... unless you do) they can just tell me about and and we'll move on. Granted. up until last week I was at less than 100 hours and technically could only land at 2 airports because all of the others are FAA Special Airports.
 
I've seen a mixture at my current company. Some guys ask which ones I want, some offer me the first leg, etc. A lot do it so that I'm not spending the entire trip flying into Philly or Charlotte. As a reserve, I don't fly much. Some Captains tell me I can have all the legs I want. I've even a had a few flip for it. It's a pretty laid back culture in my crew base and no one gets too upset over who flies what.
 
The preflight depends on the weather.

The FMS is usually whoever first gets to it as well as the security/preflight checks. They are split but you can do both (and I usually do) as the Captain is busy with the paperwork, briefing the FAs, etc. Then they will come in and double check what I did.
 
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For the most part I could care less. If it's a newbie and the weather is marginal I'll ask they're comfort level and go from there. I still like to teach & learn so I feel a lot of captains might do their FOs an injustice by hogging all the fun.
 
At the airline I used to ask for every Kapalua landing. That was probably the most fun flying I've had. I did fairly good with only one go around in 70 or so landings at that airport.

Now it's whenever the captain has me fly. We've only flown 15 hours in the last two months and it shows. Rather embarrassing actually.
 
The DL south guys tend more toward starting out on the first leg... North it's more "so watcha want to do?" Some times we do the 1 leg 2 legs thing, sometimes every other leg. I just go with the flow and add my input if asked. :)

When I was CA at a regional I'd do the 1-2-2 thing like jtrain described, giving the option for the more experienced FOs and with guys right off OE I'd usually start out to make sure they were set at easy watching a drunk gorilla fly
 
Seggy said:
The preflight depends on the weather.

The FMS is usually whoever first gets to it as well as the security/preflight checks. They are split but you can do both (and I usually do) as the Captain is busy with the paperwork, briefing the FAs, etc. Then they will come in and double check what I did.
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So, FO >(crappy weather) preflight>security?>preflight>FMS
Captain>paperwork, briefing
 
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