When did I imply i was better than anyone, all i stated is what i heard...i agree with you, asking a question is better than nothing, but thats why our company makes POM's...

 

im sure the argument could be settled with a ruler

 

Amen X 2. I'm personally sick of the holier-than-thou attitudes more than anything else.

 

LIOG41,

Jan. 14 was last class of Saab CA or FOs until the Sept 8th class. The individuals hired after Jan 14 - May, when hiring stopped, where all into the CRJs.(Belive May was the last class till Sept 8th without looking at the Seniority List. Sites down again or I'd look to be sure.)

Just an estimate but I'd say between 75-100 all fleets/seats hired from Jan 1 - May 31 of 2008.

 

Perhaps (Man I hope so) they were talking about the new CAT II mins. The original bulletin wasn't very clear, hence why a new bulletin came out recently to clarify the radar alt/baro alt minimums....

 

I haven't really had any problems with any of the FO's, and generally I am the first captain a lot of these guys will fly with straight off of OE. The only thing I don't get is the guys that like to hand fly to 10,000 ft. Don't get me wrong, hand flying the landings is essential, however the takeoffs are pointless. It just puts an unnecessary burden on the other pilot.

 

10,000 feet might be a stretch, but I think hand flying it up to 5,000 is fine. On early mornings, last leg of a 4-day etc....sure, "autopilot on", but where it helps is when maintenance defers the autopilot on a CVG turn as did happen to me once. The autopilot disconnect was taped off limits, so we couldn't try it even if we wanted to. Talk about being worn out after a 2/hour flight back-to-back with no AP. How ironic how training hammers the importance of flying with automation and yet dispatch does something totally different.

On another point....If you're concerned about your FO overloading you, make sure they brief you on the "brief" and not surprise you in the air like some do. A simple discussion afterwards should get that fixed if it was an issue. I know all about getting overloaded myself and it's no fun. If you're going to SE taxi to 30R out of the MSP alley....brief the FO that that's what you're going to do and don't (CA) start criss crossing into my checklists and making radio/PA calls where the FO would normally do that stuff. The CA was flipping switches and making the "FA please be seated" announcement before I had even gotten to the "line" on the Before's and that made me feel rushed. Would any of that really fly during a PC? It's hard to say "stop" when the impression is "go go go, and hurry up already". Then laugh about it later....oh, ha ha, cute...."Was that your first time SE?" Gee....you think? Yeah, I know the FO has the ability to say, "can we slow down, I'm not ready"....but, all of that is unnessary if it's briefed from the beginning.

I have never had a doubt about any of the Mesaba CA's skill since I've been here and I'll buy pretty much anything they throw at me (technique-wise). I'm not implying that YOU as a CA failed at anything here....but some CA's have to set the example if they want their FO to follow along.

 

Ah cry me a river. I wish more FO's would hand fly. Especially from 10000 down to landing. Exactly how much strenuous work is it to reach up to the FCP and push a button? ;-D

 

With the exception of RNAV "off the rwy" departures (DFW) I never do "gear up, spd mode, hdg, A/P on". I tend to like to have it stablized on a hdg and 250kts before I engage the A/P. I flew with one capt in particular that I handflew past 10,000ft and he wasn't too happy with that. He talked to me about it and that was that...no problems.

What I will say is that for a lot of us newhires, this jet is our first and flies unlike anything we are used to in the past. In fact most of us have never flown anything with an A/P. Even once we become comfortable, its still a learning process. I would think that when something unexpected pops up like an RA for example or windshear you would want an F/O who is very comfortable making the airplane do what it needs to in a critical situation with just the yoke, power levers and his/her eyes and hands.

 

Amen to that...