Personal versus Professional

Athena

Athena

New Member
Since I started my flight labs at KOSU I noticed that the lines between coworkers/students/instructors/administrators are quite blurred. It seems that there aren't real defined boundries as far as what is fair game for conversation and what is unprofessional. I feel hesitant to talk much because I don't know the "rules" of etiquette. I want to ensure I mantain a high level of professionalism without losing out on the camraderie that occurs there. I also don't want to come across as an ass or cold. In nursing the boundries are very clearly defined. So far I can't figure out the boundries in aviation. Any suggestions ????
 
I'd say that realistically, aviation is much more of a fraternity than it is a amalgamation of large ego's. But a very thoughtful question.

My answer? I dunno. I know within a lot of my aviation social circles, it's pretty loose, but other folks are involved with much more 'uptight' cliques.

You can both have a high level of comraderie and a high level of professionalism. Just the knowledge of when it's time to stop hamming it up and perform a task can make the difference.
 
Good question... without saying too much a few months ago I flew with an instructor who became a friend. Well we were talking in the cockpit and ended up doing something stupid (accidentally) and got a good yelling at by atc. In fact all of this happened on the ground, so our guard was down even more since we weren't 'flying'. And this was with two CFIs flying the plane...

Anyway it was a great lesson that when you're in the cockpit it's not the time to be buddies with the guy next to you.

Outside the airplane I don't see anything wrong with having some fun, even with instructor flying with students fun is what it's all about, plus it reinforces the material when it's fun.
 
When I was instructing some of my best friends today were my students and based on their feedback it worked really well as long as when it came time to do the lesson our roles were defined. Its important to have a good/comfortable atmosphere in the cockpit so that mistakes can be made and fixed and sometimes talking about a flight over a cold one is the best type of debrief. As a FO, I fly with all types of personalities but the majority are really laid back and its a great experience and makes the flights go by so much smoother. I happen to be flying with a captain this bid who is 100% about flying everything by the book and picking apart every single one of my flying techniques which gets really old really fast. He's your prototypical "slam-clicker" though so its okay. Anyways, just my ramblings for the day
 
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Any suggestions ????

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I would stay away from religion, politics or other highly emotional subjects unless you know the other person agrees with you or you're both the type that can agree to disagree.
 
That's true. Religion and politics are certainly a taboo subject in the cockpit. Especially when you're an FO because you're going to lose!
 
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