Originally Posted by
Mesabah
I haven't really had any problems with any of the FO's, and generally I am the first captain a lot of these guys will fly with straight off of OE. The only thing I don't get is the guys that like to hand fly to 10,000 ft. Don't get me wrong, hand flying the landings is essential, however the takeoffs are pointless. It just puts an unnecessary burden on the other pilot.
With the exception of RNAV "off the rwy" departures (DFW) I never do "gear up, spd mode, hdg, A/P on". I tend to like to have it stablized on a hdg and 250kts before I engage the A/P. I flew with one capt in particular that I handflew past 10,000ft and he wasn't too happy with that. He talked to me about it and that was that...no problems.
What I will say is that for a lot of us newhires, this jet is our first and flies unlike anything we are used to in the past. In fact most of us have never flown anything with an A/P. Even once we become comfortable, its still a learning process. I would think that when something unexpected pops up like an RA for example or windshear you would want an F/O who is very comfortable making the airplane do what it needs to in a critical situation with just the yoke, power levers and his/her eyes and hands.