Does the captain fly the first leg?

scooter2525 said:
How about preflights vs fms programming? (Or whatever needs split duties)
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At DL we flip flop... PF loads the box and aligns the IRUs. PM preflights the panels. FO typically does the acars preflight, but that can be who gets to it first. On occassion, some captains don't do the panel prep... so I just go into autocomplete. Doesn't really matter as long as it's done before the checklist.

Walkarounds... for the most part PM does walkarounds, but sometimes its just the FO. (captain variable)

I always did walkaround as PM at Pinnacle unless I was bogged down with mx paperwork (far too common and I much would have rather been walking around the plane rather than doing a deferral and arguing with the puzzle palace)
 
I had a captain "remind" me last week that he was delegating the walk to me when it was in the negs and snowing. Something like "mmm the weather really sucks, I'm going to delegate the walk to you, ha!"

Now I really don't mind doing the walk one bit but there's job expectations and then there's total douchebaggery.
 
I ask the FO: "Do you have your heart set on any particular legs?"

When they say no, I fly the 1st leg to set the tone of the trip, usually saying, "I'll take the first leg, so you can lower your standards." Then we swap turns at the out stations.
 
If I know you or I've flown with you before you can fly the first leg and as many legs after that as you'd like. If I don't know you or your name popped up on my radar at some point I'm flying the first leg to set the tone, after that I don't really care.
 
I like the captain to fly first so I can see how he/she wants things to be done. We generally alternate each leg unless we are doing a bunch of turns. The PF loads the box and the PM does the walk around, even in winter and the rain, it seems.

If I have flown with the captain before, I don't really care who flies first.
 
At my carrier, it's about evenly split between captains who always fly the first leg and captains who ask what you'd prefer. Typically I'm a month or more between trips on reserve, so I prefer for him to fly first so I can get back in the swing of things.

For the ACARS and FMS, the FO pretty much always does it. Some captains offer to do a walkaround here or there, but not often.
 
I like letting the captain fly the first leg. In the grand scheme of things I don't care much as long as there is some semblance of standard up front.

But outside the book there is a lot of technique and personal preference. One example is whether they like to hand fly or not. I enjoy hand flying and usually do until a) we are done leveling off/turning for the most part or b) the other guy is getting busy enough that having to do the PM duties for someone who is hand flying is getting distracted.

Yeah, I could say "it's my leg, I'll fly it how I want." But I'm all about being a chameleon. Don't want to irritate the other guy by keeping him busier than he'd like. Yeah, you can ask, but there are so many different things that it's easier just to observe.
 
E_Dawg said:
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.
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No, it's not rocket science. That's where the talents DOES come in IMO. Some people make this job WAY more difficult than it needs to be. It's the folks that make a 4 day seem easy that are good.
 
scooter2525 said:
How about preflights vs fms programming? (Or whatever needs split duties)
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If it's your leg, you load the box. We each have our own cockpit flows and 9 times out of 10, I'll load the ACARS. It's not uncommon, though for the Captain to call up an INIT Request while I'm doing the walk around, but he'll wait for me to load the flight plan.

I've had a fair share of Captains get the walkarounds, here. It's quite surprising. A lot of them want to do it. I don't argue with them.
 
I don't fly in the morning, The FO gets every leg until my third cup of coffee, sometimes the fourth. Everything else is wholly dependent on how bad I have to pee when we land.
 
We usually switch at the outstations, so that the takeoffs and landings are at least somewhat varied. Some Captains will want to fly first, some will want you to fly first and still more just don't care.

There are a few things that Captains MUST do (e.g. landing at certain airports like Inyokern, when we still went there, or Flaps 45 instrument approaches in IFR conditions), and we usually consider that before getting under way.

scooter2525 said:
So, FO >(crappy weather) preflight>security?>preflight>FMS
Captain>paperwork, briefing
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The typical sequence for FOs on my airplane is:
- get to airplane
- stow your stuff
- do walkaround
- build nest (charts, headset, old-man ass pad as applicable)
- Safety Check items (oxygen mask, emergency equipment, aircraft documents)
- Check for al-Qaeda, guns, bombs, illegal immigrants and @DPApilot (security)
- Airworthiness check (in aircraft's maintenance can - not flying with an open write-up)
- AFIS, FMS entries, clearance, ATIS, performance (max takeoff weight), etc., to fill in the takeoff/landing data card.
- Read Originating Check
- Follow the Captain through on the weight and balance and when your numbers agree, compute takeoff data (speeds, takeoff torque)
- Briefings (takeoff and FA briefings)
- Pre-start, Engine Start checks
- be gone.

That's the general flow. Both crewmembers are responsible (with the Captain of course bearing final authority/responsibility) for airworthiness and preflight tasks.

The Captain, meanwhile:
- get to airplane
- stow stuff
- Safety check (power on, APU start in addition to all the other interior preflight and security items)
- Originating check (it can be long, or longer if the first flight of the day)
- build nest
- Read release and think great Captain thoughts about this leg (or sit there doing nothing with a vacant or peeved look on his face wondering why you aren't done with the walkaround yet)
- Manual manifest (W&B)
- Briefings
- Checklists
- Go fly

If you're lucky, you'll get to trade off walkarounds and such.
 
It's interesting between carriers how the walk around is split. Seems some captains are more willing at certain carriers.
 
scooter2525 said:
Ahhh yes. The perks of responsibility.
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Ostensibly, the release is reviewed for legality, weather, alternates, NOTAMs, you know, all that "all available information" stuff.

Or, just growl in a low tone, "My leg, standard brief, pre-start checklist."
 
Guys are sometimes short on landings at my place of business, so typically the CA asks everyone who needs a landing. Whoever needs one the most gets it, no matter if he's the junior FO.

CA does the box programming as procedure, but I do it occasionally if asked. Doesn't really matter. FO/IRO grabs the walkaround before going up the stairs 99% of the time.
 
scooter2525 said:
It's interesting between carriers how the walk around is split. Seems some captains are more willing at certain carriers.
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I fly with roughly the same 10 Captains most of the time nowadays - we'll trade off duties just to keep everyone sharp. (He'll do a walkaround, I'll do the manual manifest and the power-up and the originating checks, for instance - just to vary things.)
 
ClarkGriswold said:
I hear tapping the Source button a couple times followed with "tell me when to stop", usually works well.
I had one Dbag say " what leg do you want"
Me: " Doesn't matter to me I'm not picky"
Dbag: " Ok, I'll fly them all"
Me: "Huh"
Dbag: " Well you said you didn't care, obviously you do"
Me: "Not exactly what I mean't but ok CAPT" :rolleyes:
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Had a copilot do that to me once.
 
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