What fleet are you on that most captains are doing the walk around?

I tell FOs I'll do the walk around on their legs because the overwhelming majority of captains I flew with absolutely did not do walk arounds. You choosing to interpret that negatively is a you problem.

 

Day 1 leg 1… plan on working the box, the radios and the walk arounds. I’ll let you know if I don’t want to fly sometime this week. Get off your phone, preflight check! I’m super chill BTW.

 

NB fleet dependent then, 95%+ of captains these days do the PM walkaround without mentioning it.

 

Because you work at the only airline that calls it Air Lines and CA’s rarely do a walk around. When I was on CA OE one of my LCA’s said I better not catch you doing a walk around during your first few hundred hours you need to learn how to manage the operation since you’re new to the left seat.

 

Must be fleet/ base dependent. I can count with one hand how many ATL 320 As I flew with that did walk-arounds

 

A lot more say they do walk arounds than when I was first hired but it's still less than 50% that do it 100% of the time. The majority of the ones that do take their own walk-arounds still have a raining/snowing/cold rule.

 

"managing the operation" as in handing out trading cards 🤣 ? Nothing time-critical needs to be "managed" outside D-45 that requires the left seat to be occupied at all times. Hope you never got caught sneaking out to the lav for a PDP!

"Hey capt, while you were outside I called ops about our missing catering". Crisis averted.

I guess bidding ATL is a choice.

 

FO is there to assist the captain. Literally the job description. Walk arounds have long been an unspoken FO job unless stated otherwise.

In 10 years as an FO here, it was quite rare to have a captain do every other walk around (< 5%). Always appreciated, never expected.

As a captain, I do plenty of walk arounds in all sorts of weather. There are times though, that there are dispatch/MTC/pax issues that need captain attention. Good FOs see that and do the walk around without being asked. Others need prompting, that’s why it is sometimes verbalized.

I was always a fan of the captain flying the first leg. As an FO, you get a good feel of how the trip is going to go. As a captain, you set the tone (hopefully FO not tone deaf). I’ll almost always offer to split ATL landings. Many say they don’t care either way. I liked switching as an FO (not all to ATL legs) so usually go that way.

My opinion only.

 

Habit. As an FO, I always assumed the walkaround was mine unless told otherwise....never understood why this was a big deal to some. I've always done them because I like getting out of the seat, but most FOs still seem surprised that I do them on their legs, even if it's raining/snowing lol.

 

This is how I treat things as a current FO, and is a good mindset to have. If you always plan/expect to do all the walkarounds then you'll never get mad or upset when a CA doesn't do any. And if they do end up doing any/all of the walkarounds on my legs then that's just a bonus (and how I plan to do things if I ever decide I want to take a paycut to upgrade...)