Originally Posted by wolferj
FREE FLYER
I totally disagree with you.in the States you have an opportunity to upgrade based on a seniority system. Then you demonstrate a nice circle to land and upgrade. to be a real PIC takes more than that.
Few times when I WAS the fo on the ERJ I had to act as the Cpt. Why? because the guy on the left seat never took action during a RA. Because while loosing Hyd fluid I had to make the decision of declaring an emergency after the Cpt. asked me on what we should do. just to name few..
Now can you imagine CAl hires let's say, someone with 3000 TT 2000 sic RJ and this individual has, like you said, " NO IDEA" on what's going on. I think if you seat for 2000 hrs in any seat and have no idea... then you have bigger problems
Even as an FO if you know your job and take it seriously, you can be very effective.
First off wolferj, I'm sorry that you were put in that situation, but at the same time I'm glad that you knew what to do. The big key here is complacency and lack of overall knowledge of anything to do with aviation. So that I don't get called out for being a chump or anything, I won't mention any names, however I will tell you of one situation that occurred during a recent training event at CAL with a new hire that had 0 PIC time.
Would you ever go 320 knots away from your departure airport with a failed engine in a high terrain environment? Why not stay close so that you can come back in for a landing? Well, their logic was this. "I wanted to go fast to stay away from the mountains." Uhhh, last time I checked, your going to hit them quicker when your're doing 320 knots as compared to 210 knots? And this is the kind of people that are coming through that haven't had the overall experience, but they've got connections through fathers and management. That frankly scares the **** out of me and makes me even more cautious of my job so that if they're daydreaming, I can handle the situation.
That's what aviation is, you help each other out, but for crying out loud, have a clue! Ok, now I'm done ranting. So for you wolferj, I totally understand where you're coming from and I wasn't ripping on just FO's, because I've seen plenty of captains in my day that didn't know what they were doing. I'm just saying that it's very important for everyone to be aware of what's required and have a freaking plan! Fly safe!