Great thought mike. I'd like to hear Albie's take.

 

Agree 100%. I have been lucky enough to never have used the avoid function. I'm getting older though...

 

Bro

You definitely don't sound chill at all. You are overseas, correct? Those Chinese pilots like to smoke. Bring some Marlboros over on your next rotation. Have a little powwow with some Tsingtao and heaters n-stuff. C'mon man! If that's what it's like over there, count me out.

Over.

 

Too bad its so hard to just voice our opinion. I dont know why it is.

I notice this about myself. If i am flying with an FO that is a real good pilot and is all over it, I tend to relax a bit....on a few occasions ive been guilty of relaxing a bit too much. Ie, "whats our departure?....did he say left on mike?.....what freq do we use for push?" But when i fly with a new guy that is all over the place.....trying but just not quite up to snuff I AM SKY KING. I am like a check airman the way i run my flight deck, meaning I fly like I'm single pilot and my career depends on it. I definately rise to the occasion when i have to. If the FO is NOT new, then we will have a talk.

The point being maybe he isnt like this with all his FO'S. Maybe he feels confident in your abilities. Doesnt make it right but it does sound like he respects and trusts you. Since he is a nice guy maybe mention it to him over a beer.


If you were my FO and you told me i needed to tighten it up a bit i would take heed.

 

Interesting. At Delta, we don't have captain input avoid lists. Only the FOs can bid avoid a captain.

 

What he wrote is exactly that. If the Capt is on everyone's avoid list then he is a problem. If the F/O has a very large avoid list then maybe he is the problem.

 

I think he's saying that an FO that tries to avoid a lot of CA's is also a potential red flag. Kind of implying that maybe its the FO that has the problem(s) instead of all those other Captains.

I don't like them looking at that however. Its a function of bidding and shouldn't be used to incriminate anyone. There are other avenues like ProStans that can and should be used in confidence without potentially using our own bids against us as a group. That said, I've never avoid bidded anyone and to my knowledge never been avoided. I can't imagine anyone being so bad you'd lock out some great trips and lose out on pay, layovers or time at home just to not fly with a particular person except in the rarest of cases.

 

OOOHH. It's been a long night flying. Mea culpa.

 

Please.... I'm not nor do I care to be your "bro".

When and if you gain experience, you'll learn that crew discipline is applicable to airlines round the world. Mature experienced crewmembers have the proper tools to handle situations with fellow crewmembers as they arise be it in your E145 or my Boeing.

 

PikeAv8R,

Sounds to me like you have a legitimate point, and you're not expressing it in a way that shows red flags about you. You're being pretty rational.

My thinking is this:
1) Unless you really feel the guy is putting you at risk, you need to get off probation first, and deal with this later. Your mission is to show that you are the guy that will deal with anything (within reason). Sounds like this guy is taking advantage of this, but there will always be a good time to address this intelligently after probation.
2) None of the passive-aggressive behavior you might use to get back at him, or even let him know where you stand, is very good idea right now.
3) Once you're off probation, you may not fly with him again, but you can do others a favor by having a calm, objective conversation with Pro-Stans. They need to be aware of this guy and they need to be asking discrete questions. I suspect he's likely to be a bit of a cameleon, and might not treat post-probation pilots the same. Thee others aren't going to turn him in either.