You're the FO (part II)

meritflyer

Well-Known Member
Share your stories about a time you saved the captain's behind.

I'll go first -

Once in a snowstorm in MKE, we just landed and we're taxiing. The snow drifts made it somewhat difficult to see the taxiway markings. We received our taxi instructions and proceeded. I read them to him and he read them back correctly and also informed me he had been here [there] a hundred times. Doing my after land checklist, I told him my head was inside. He acknowledged. After completing it I looked up only to notice rather than taking a left, he was going straight. Problem being the taxiway ended. Last second, I stomped on the brakes to save us from going off the taxiway.

He was very very grateful that I did something. He said he would've taken us right off (when we should've turned left). Good trip and even better free round of beers on the skipper!
 
I was a month out of IOE at my first 121 gig. I was flying BE-1900D's out of upstate NY.

It was the last leg of a long day. We were taxiing after dark at LGA.

We were cleared to taxi up to and hold short of Rwy 4 midfield. I noticed we were getting awfully close to the hold short line.

"That's the hold," I stated.
I waited a half a second. "THAT'S THE HOLD." I repeated.

The Captain jammed the brakes and the aircraft lurched to a stop, the radome right at the edge of the hold short line.

A second later, an MD-80 rolling out on Rwy 4 flashed in front of us.


Never assume the other pilot- whichever the seat you're in- can't lose their focus.
 
captains on the approach but not cleared, gets cleared down to 8000 or something, then via the arc to hold at whatever fix. He's following the plate, and without thinking starts down to 3600 (the altitude on the arc.

"Dude, we can't go down yet."
"What?"
"Dude, we can't go down yet, we aren't cleared the approach."
"####!" As he yanks it to level off right at 8000 my hands just about 1/8th of an inch away from doing the same.
 
Kept one guy from turning the wrong way in 1000 RVR on a taxiway somewhere in upstate NY.....errr I mean I prevented that taxiway from getting in the way of my captain's expert taxiing. Of course, my FO's have never done the same thing for me now that I'm on the left side :sarcasm:
 
Taxiing into a gate in SLC I saw someone driving a baggage cart, not paying attention and was going to go right in front of us. I hit the brakes and before the captain could say anything he saw her zoom by right in front of us.

Riding jumpseat and brought it to the crews attention that they were using flaps 20 speeds with the flaps set at 8.

Talked an Air Force guy out of landing in a microburst alert.
 
Captain: "Set altitude to 2,000 feet....no wait. I'll just wait for the glide slope."

FO: "Glide slope is below us......sir"
 
Share your stories about a time you saved the captain's behind.

I'll go first -

Once in a snowstorm in MKE, we just landed and we're taxiing. The snow drifts made it somewhat difficult to see the taxiway markings. We received our taxi instructions and proceeded. I read them to him and he read them back correctly and also informed me he had been here [there] a hundred times. Doing my after land checklist, I told him my head was inside. He acknowledged. After completing it I looked up only to notice rather than taking a left, he was going straight. Problem being the taxiway ended. Last second, I stomped on the brakes to save us from going off the taxiway.

Same thing, same airport, but we were leaving and it was during IOE.

Similar thing in ATL, was down doing a checklist and looked up and the captain was pulling onto the wrong taxiway. We stopped in time, but we were at the point of no return and ground noticed and just told us to continue.

Hazy day, landing with the sun in our eyes in ATL with a pretty good crosswind at altitude. Anyone who flies the CRJ knows how well it does at intercepting a LOC with a 35 kt crosswind. We kept losing the loc signal but were cleared visual. Captain started moving in the general direction of the wrong runway, I pointed it out, he fixed it.

Moral of the story, pilot monitoring should actually monitor stuff. All of these captains were great and thankful for me pointing out what I saw to them. Don't hesitate to bring something up. To me the best demonstration of CRM skills is if you point something out that doesn't look right out (but is), the guy you're flying with double checks it, you say "oh, sorry, I thought..." and they say "nah, don't worry about it. Thanks for bringing it up". You should never feel scared to bring something up.
 
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