Originally Posted by
forgot to bid
One time in my Captain life I let the FO take the first leg because it was EWR-MSP and he lived in MSP and it was a big deal for him. He was a new hire.
That was a colossal mistake.
Had I taken it I might have picked up on some deficiencies prior to that non existent flare.
Then again I let a new hire take it on his first leg out on his first trip. I don't remember why I did that but luckily for me that guy rocked.
You think he was going to learn to flare by watching you flare first? He was going to pound it in on his leg regardless of it being the first or second leg. I'd rather find out what I'm dealing with asap. You can tell a lot about a man by the way he loads the box! Maybe I've just been very lucky, but I have never had a problem with an F/O not knowing how to fly. I thought that was part of the prerequisite of getting the job.
I did see two 777 Capt.s try to kill me though, one was a LCA 'practicing' an LNAV approach, nearly ended up like Asiana in SFO! The other was demonstrating a flaps 25 landing (we never do those, but he decided he'd try one) and never flared. It was by far the hardest landing I've ever seen, in any airplane.