airdett

Dear pilots.
I am asking for some advise on how to deal with captains that have really bad attitudes.
I have been a captain for some other companies 135's and treated my co-pilots with respect and professionalism.
I accepted a job as a SIC, to find how miserable someone could get just to get some jet time.
By the way, I've never filed so many Nasa reports in my life, to protect my ticket!
This company had many Captains and most of them were very nice, but I got stuck with 3 or 4 that were really something.
Showing off (hey, look what I can do!), not following the rules, deviating from clearances, and when they were questioned, a bad answer was always followed, together with some attitude.
Not to mention making the flights a lot harder, because everybody had their own way to fly, not the standard from Simuflite.
How about insecured captains afraid of IFR???
I guess, I'll be back flying those Metros on my own.
I was happy and I didn't know it.

HercDriver130

Well if it was a union shop.... first stop would be the professional standards committee.... if not... I suppose I would have to make a trip to the Chief Pilots office... WITH a detailed list of incidents etc. Good Luck.

Ewfflyer

Document everything, accurately as possible with times, deviations, responses, actions, words, etc... Take it to the Chief Pilot, and if they don't care, then going above them maybe? I don't know, after that you're on thin ice yourself, but safety of the program should always be any respectable operations first concern.

LastTraintoMEM

Hahahaha! This sounds like my old job. I had experience with everything you mentioned. Find something new and leave quickly. They burned me out on flying, and made it a job I hated to go to. I was laid off and happy to leave. After 4 years I am just now getting the itch to get back into flying. Don't hang in there just to get some good time in a good machine.

Flyinhawaiian

Flying with guys like that only will make you a better captain when you upgrade. Just suck it up and don't let them get you too down.

airdett

I tried, he didn't care, FO's have no voice at this company.

airdett

I was laid off after 7 months, and I was happy because I was free of the contract.
On the other hand my chances to be upgraded would go downhill as some of the captains mentioned to me, couples of guys talking behind your back already.

Thank you all, I feel much better

airdett

Maybe I will start a new post about companies we should avoid, with names and everything.
Good idea!!!

LastTraintoMEM

Might not be a bad idea.

Another bit of advice: The aviation world is small, and reputations get around. I remember getting that winced look from more than one hiring chief pilot when I was interviewing and told them where I worked. The "guilt by association" factor can cost you a job.

INTERNET PILOT

I feel your pain. My last company had 4 captains who were totally cool, and one captain who was a total douche bag. This guy had the attitude that "I'm the captain therefore I know everything, you're the FO therefore you know nothing", when in reality it was kind of the other way around. He would go out of his way to make my life miserable. He always acted like he was the only person on board that could do anything right. For instance he'd tell me to do the landing weight/distance calculations. After I do the calculations and tell him my results, he'd almost always quip back, without even thinking "THATS WRONG, do them again". He's not doing this because he thinks it'll be better for the safety of the flight. He's doing it to drawl attention to the fact that he has power and I don't. This kind of crap gets old after a while. Eventually I figured him out though. He himself was very unknowledgable when it came to many things. He was very unconfortable with icing, flying in IMC, heck even talking with ATC. His "tough guy" attitude was to cover up his vulnerabilities. He was afraid that if he admitted to not knowing something, I'l lose all respect for him. So he made damn well sure that I had the impression of him as being a real tough decissive guy who doesn't let anything pass. But it didn't work because I could see right through it.

I have a feeling that in my long career in aviation that lies ahead of me, I'm going to run into a large percentage of captains who have this "I need to beat these four bars over my FO's head or else they won't respect me because I suck at flying" attitudes. It sucks but what are you going to do?