Originally Posted by TonyC

I'm willing to make allowances for heat of the battle mistakes. I could have accepted that as an excuse for sending the Captain who bumped a scheduler from the jumpseat an email telling him that he hoped the scheduler would get the opportunity to pay him back. It was NOT an excuse for the followup e-mail saying he meant every word.

This was not heat of the battle. This was a meeting that he called, printed on the schedules of the First Officer Flexes. He had plenty of time to prepare his remarks for the meeting - - HE called it.





Nebulus? It wasn't a bit nebulous to the First Officer Flex Instructors who had been summoned to Cheever's conference room to receive their tail-chewing from the System Chief Pilot. Did I mention it was a room full of First Officer Flex Instructors?


Oh, he was quick to admit the training he had JUST completed in the MD-11, almost exclusively by First Officer Flex Instructors, was by far the best he had ever received. He just thought the whole concept sucked. He thought it made for confusion about Captain's authority. Gimme a break. If you're in the Sim, everyone knows the guy in the left seat is the Captain, the guy in the right seat is the First Officer, and the guy pushing the buttons in the back is the Instructor. Who has trouble figuring THAT one out?


From that point forward, First Officer Flex instructors were prohibited from administering certain events. A few weeks later, 6 MD-11 First Officer Flexes were returned to the line, some with nothing more than an email as notification. Ironically, the Chief of MD-11/MD-10 Training was himself a First Officer. Naturally, none of the FOs returned to the line were senior to him.


Yes, there are FO Flexes now -- after they figured out they can't get enough Captains to volunteer to do the job. That doesn't change the fact that JL did a bit more than just express his feelings about the matter.





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