I'm going to step up and defend some of the times the landings don't seem like a fair split. I'm happy to be a commander of the radio. I've had plenty of legs in my time.

But, there are times that I'm not going to let the FO take the leg. It's a pretty short list. If he's right out of the schoolhouse, I'll take the first leg. If it's a 900, I'm going to take it until I assess your flying skills. I have a healthy fear of tail strikes. I'd rather hurt your feelings than do a carpet dance over a tail strike. I'll make it up to you later in the trip.

I know landing in the same place is boring. I try to mix it up. I do try to make sure the landings are even.

For you FO's, I can't wait until you make Captain, you will discover that not all of the *******s are in the left seat. I'm just sorry I can't put them on a do not fly with list. Talk about a miserable trip.

Now, let's talk about this long sleeve shirt thing everyone's wrapped around. What is your problem? You need to let it go.

Must be nice to have an extremely wealthy wife.

So...how do you 'assess his flying skills' if you don't let him fly? He passed his sim check, he passed his IOE, but now you have to decide if he's good enough?

When I was flying domestic, I always gave the F/O's as many legs as they wanted, pays the same, just don't wake me up! :D

Now that I'm doing ULR flying, I only take one leg per month, just to keep from having to commute into ATL for bounces on my days off.

You know, I used to see that all of the time on the 88. It's an 88 thing. It got the point that a guy who said want to go 1-2-2 would have be giving him a blank stare because I didn't know what to say to normalcy. When I started flying E120s years ago the Captain did first turn to set the tone and then 2-2-2 so everyone either flew in or out of an outstation for proficiency. ER not withstanding the 717 is the same 90% of the time.

But the 88...

It's really not about the landings but rather one of those "I am pretty laid back" telltale signs of what's to come on that trip and without fail it's accurate. Actually it's probably a more accurate that indication that you're flying with THAT GUY.

Really props, RJs, Douglas jets doing the out and back stuff is the only place this really comes up.

:D

As Capt. I always preferred the F/O to fly the first leg, so I could go talk to the F/A's, get my coffee, do the walk around, stretch out and relax, while Junior does all the mundane crap like loading the box, get the ATIS, get the PDC, etc. That way I don't have to rush to do all of the above...AND load the box. It just seemed to go smoother if we divide up the work, vs. me trying to do it all on the first leg.

Also, I can ass-ess his flying skills on the first leg, so I'll know if I'm going to be able to sleep on the next 3 legs... :D

The other two methods I liked were, flipping a coin, or I'd just ask the F/O which legs he wanted to fly.

Orvil, you're on post 666. Kind of freaky. :D

But no everything you said is completely right. Especially on your plane. I'd probably want to do more 1-1-1 if I was flying a 737 on some of the pairings I have seen there.

I remember when I upgraded to Captain I kind of figured the days of bad Captains would be gone, then I learned FOs can ruin a trip just as fast. But the one upside is you're still the Captain but regardless of whether you were left or right seat flying with a good guy made even a bad trip a good trip and vice versa when the guy sucked.

Put it this way, one of the worst Captains I've ever flown with was a new one with horrible CRM. Ended up talking to a Captain of the plane he came off of where he was an FO, and turns out the Captains there hated flying with him. Go figure.

It's a person thing, not a seat thing.

Timbo, I assess how he rotates on an 800 first. The 900 is a very easy tail strike. If he reefs it off and I get a tail strike warning in the HUD, we're going to have a chat. That's how I do it. We don't have a 900 simulator and they may not have flown one on their IOE. I get them the first time.

You haven't flown a 900. We've already had a couple of tail strikes. I just don't want to be on the list and I don't want to be responsible for someone else being on the list, either.

Now, get off my lawn.

One time in my Captain life I let the FO take the first leg because it was EWR-MSP and he lived in MSP and it was a big deal for him. He was a new hire.

That was a colossal mistake. :D Had I taken it I might have picked up on some deficiencies prior to that non existent flare.

Then again I let a new hire take it on his first leg out on his first trip. I don't remember why I did that but luckily for me that guy rocked.

I was offered the first leg once as a new hire on the ER and I kind of regretted that. It was a nice gesture but the Captain was a micromanager (the only one I ever met on that airplane), it'd been easier not to do that first leg.

You think he was going to learn to flare by watching you flare first? He was going to pound it in on his leg regardless of it being the first or second leg. I'd rather find out what I'm dealing with asap. You can tell a lot about a man by the way he loads the box! Maybe I've just been very lucky, but I have never had a problem with an F/O not knowing how to fly. I thought that was part of the prerequisite of getting the job.

I did see two 777 Capt.s try to kill me though, one was a LCA 'practicing' an LNAV approach, nearly ended up like Asiana in SFO! The other was demonstrating a flaps 25 landing (we never do those, but he decided he'd try one) and never flared. It was by far the hardest landing I've ever seen, in any airplane.

Last software "downgrade" at the CU was/is a disaster. Numerous problems. Waited to talk to 2 reps..long wait. Then asked to speak to some sort of supervisor. Waited again and they finally told me no one was available. Wrote a scathing email complaint and got zero response. Friends of ours just went in as a couple to un-screw all the screwups. I'm considering AllyBank or some other institution. Will look into Schwab. Any other suggestions. OFG