Originally Posted by
The Juice
This is what I would do as well. Captain wants the plane flown a certain way, and as long as its within the bounds of the pertinent airline manual, I believe it is their right. However......
It is within my right as an FO to not be treated as just an intermediary step between what the Captain wants and it being done. "Hey Captain, it seems you have specific ways you prefer the airplane to be flown. I am fine with not flying the rest of this trip."
In the end, I get paid the same flying, or working the radios. Plus, if he does all of the flying the rest of the trip, you get the extra satisfaction of laughing inside if he has a rough landing.
That is the way you have to handle it. Let them have it and be done with it and put him on your no fly list. If the idea was to get FOs up to proficiency on the airplane you have to let them call their own shots and learn. I remember when I was a new hire FO on the E120 years ago and I kept asking the Captain "should I put the gear down now? now?" He said do whatever you want. So I called gear down and he threw it down. Then I thought about it and said, maybe that was too early? He said yup. But he did it anyway, and later as a Captain that's how I let my FOs be. I think it's what a good CFI does, they give you a wide boundary and let you learn. A person who wants to fly every leg gives you a tiny boundary because you're stealing their leg. You don't become a better pilot flying with them.
And why is it the micromanager types have the worst landings? If they're so good at flying how can they not manage a flare?