Quote:

Originally Posted by aa73

Logic and good CRM would suggest this as the correct course of action. Unfortunately, our company is strict on fulfillment of duties and a CA who delegates CA tasks to the F/O would probably earn some questioning from a check airman on a check ride or the sim (hey CA thats your job, not the F/Os). So because of this philosophy, its very unlikely a CA would delegate that sort of stuff. That's just how our cockpit philosophy is.

aa73:

Is the separation of duties mandatory, a limitation, or caused by the momentum of the 'philosophy' you mentioned above? In your Ops Manual, might there be a statment about 'Captain's Authority' allowing captains to modify procedures or use techniques that might be better accomplished by the F/O, if the situation warrants it? If safety is improved?

If some LCA or suit wanted to dress me down or start an inquisition, I'd want to be sure the FAA and APA lawyers were there. The meeting would probably get cancelled, and some new VPs created, to "refresh our outlook and operation." Just wondering...

Nothing like a merger to prompt change. (Had some in ATL. )

Good Luck to All Y'All!

DFW

 

Man, makes me want to dust off the old uniform and sign back up. It is going to be a riot watching the two cultures collide, AA guys should loosen that stiff shirt collar, ya'll gonna love flying with US

 

Martin Stenvall, the Swedish Finn. Dude was awesome. His wife was some European TV reporter and I'm really not sure why he was still flying except to get out of the house for the day. Spent the whole day talking about hockey. Sterile cockpit was a foreign concept. He'd be telling story's during hard IFR approaches. Did I mention I flew every leg except the last one? I actually learned a lot from him and he certainly taught me to multitask.

Everyone remembers Debbie.

 

I had a leg out of San Salvador a year ago... at 100 knots, I'm feeling uneasy because it didn't seem like the airplane is accelerating well, and am about to mention it when the CA says "rotate."

My IAS now says 80 knots. We're obviously much. much faster than 80. I check his side and the standby, and we're at V1. Away we go.

Now I've got continuous stick shaker, IAS disagree, altitude disagree, 2 or 3 other issues, including weird stick forces. His side is the "good" side. We level 2,000' as we turn to downwind.

I ask him "You got all the good instruments. You ready to fly this?"

"Naah, you're doing fine. It's VMC. You land it. I'll do the checklist." So I do, by referencing CA and SBY airspeed and altitude.

Point being, the CA as PIC has complete latitude to designate. To this day I thought it was odd that he didn't take the jet. In the end, we found out that my AOA vane had departed the aircraft (738) and this caused far more problems that I would have suspected.

The culture at AA is fine. As FO, you will have plenty to do and there is a lot of trust between crew to get the job done.

 

Doesn't matter to me.
There are a dozen ways to skin a cat.
I will comply with whatever is decided.

 

Forget that name. Barry (SBY - tall blonde guy) was my next choice.

 

What's the policy at Airways for the girls at the bar? My experience is the Capt always gets the hot one.

 

As long as the hot one is into guys who use a walker and are asleep by 8pm.

 

It's not so much a manual/FOM thing... It's simply the way our CAs are trained. AA trains CAs to do a lot of stuff the F/Os at other airlines do, that's all. Like ForeverFO says above, the system works the way it's designed to do, and we F/Os are plenty busy with our duties, as busy as all other F/Os are. The difference is that we're busy with the industry's longest checklists, whereas OAL F/Os are busy with PAs and engine starts.

As far as emergencies go, AA is up there with the best of them. Very CRM-friendly cockpit, keeping the CA in charge.

It's the day-to-day stuff that is normal at other airlines but odd at AA.

-To this day, most of the CAs still do the takeoff briefings, even though it may be the F/O's leg. (PF at most other airlines)

-On climbout, even if it it is the CA's leg and he is hand flying, only the CA is allowed to chime the F/As passing through 10,000. (PM duty at all other airlines)

-PAs are the CA's job, although many will offer it to the F/Os. (PM or PF duty at most other airlines and F/O duty ALWAYS on the ground when taxiing.)

- We don't have a very good "Lights On" policy. Most CAs just do their own thing with the lights, and it is also fleet-specific. Example, on the MD80 fleet, only a few CAs will use the Wing Landing lights, most of them have been beaten into submission by the company to not use those lights in order to save wear and tear on the bulbs. Same thing with F/Os and the Ground Flood Lights/Wing/Nacelle lights. Result, you'll have completely dark MD80s at night until the gear comes down, then it's only the Nose Light that's on. (All Lights On for T/O and Landing is standard at all other airlines.)

-It's also very rare for an AA CA to turn on any exterior lights (other than the taxi light) when crossing runways - yes, even at night with an aircraft in position and hold. It's simply not taught, nor is it a procedure here. (Standard to illuminate when crossing at all other airlines.)

These are just some of the things AA does very differently from the rest of the industry. Call it ancestral worship, or whatever - as you can see, many of our procedures need to be updated to come up to OAL standards (read: 21st century standards.)

Again - AA does quite a few things I absolutely love. The above things are procedures I don't particularly like.

 

aa73:

Thanks for the reply. Still, Good Luck as your 'adventure' un-winds.

DFW