Would you hire
 

I was talking to a guy who had an interview at an unmentioned airline several weeks ago. I asked him how it went and etc. and he gave me this example and said it went good.

He was asked if a captain was not using proper SOP, what would you do as a new FO? He immediately responded report him to the chief pilot.

Then the interviewer said, now I am that pilot, what are you going to say to me or how will you act around me. His reponse "Want to go have a beer?"

Call me crazy but there are a several things I would do prior to reporting him to the chief pilot because there are too many variables.

But then the repsonse with the beer? if in the interviewers shoes, would you hire this guy?

he said it got some laughs and wnet over well, but I can not imagine that

I think the interviewee is a few nuts short of being a fruit cake! That is outrageous!

I would not report him... immediately... I would try to resolve the issue man to man. Talk it over and explain why not using the SOP's makes ME uncomfortable. I would try to resolve the issue before it gets out of hand. At the end of that line I would probably avoid getting myself paired with that individual.

In response to the second question... If I was called out for reporting someone I would man up and take responsibility for my actions and not try to sideskirt the question.

I think this is a classic example of what not to do in an interview.... but then again I too may be a nut short of being a fruitcake!

One poor answer in an interview probably isn't going to determine if he's hired or not, but instead the overall package is what makes an applicant.

That said, there are certainly better answers than "report him to the CP" and "want to go have a beer?". (Although I like beer... the next question I would ask is "what kind of beer?" ;) Better answer it correctly too!)

With regards to the questions- as an FO, your best bet would be to ask the captain about his procedure out of the cockpit or once you land. Bring it up in a non-confrontational way. Such as "hey I was wondering why you do such and such" A lot of time, there is a lot of leeway in the SOP to allow for each CA's personal preferences and modes of operation. If that doesn't work, you can never go wrong by saying that you'd politely point out the way the book says to do it (in a non-confrontational way).

If that doesn't work, the next step I'd take is to approach the union professional standards committee and ask if they would talk to the CA on my behalf. There are plenty of other ways to get the point across before you go to management and create a potentially uncomfortable situation (particularly when you get paired up with the same captain again down the road).

I had a scenario like this yesterday in my interview......

"Your captain is not following the checklist properly and skipping over items, what would you do"

My response was that I would remind the captain of what items we seemed to be missing and offer to handle the checklist myself to ensure nothing is missed. I said that we have a checklist for a reason and it is important not to miss any items, as small as they may be, which might have an impact on safety later in the flight. If the captain continued to break policy and I could not solve the problem, I would mention what was happening to our CP because I would be concerned that the captains actions could be affecting the safety of our operations.

Then he said - "Ok so you reported him and the CP said there was no cause for any disciplinary action and you were scheduled to fly with that captain the next day...how would you handle it?"

I stated that I would go about my duties as normal and try to resolve any conflict the captain may have with me.

I don't think they want to hear that you would immediately run to the CP and rat out your fellow crew members. But also that you would not allow regs to be broken and do nothing about it....

(I don't think it sounded quite that good when I was saying it out loud but I think they got the point.)

so many variables, what sort of SOP did he break? is he a new hired captain, or a long time captain upgrading to a larger plane and having interfernce from his last plane?

agreed with the above responses

Its a sticky wicket for sure, when I flew 130's it usually wasnt a problem as procedure is something that is beat in you from day one of UPT.... but I have had that problem now and again, and usually a nice easy conversation with the AC would clear things up. In the airline world I found that every CA had his way of doing things... some straight by the book... others would decry... "when this was still "Command Airways"...we did it like this and I dont care except on checkrides..... generally I'd go with the flow unless safety was compromised and to be honest the few times a capt wanted to do something that was pushing the limits of SOP's he always told me what he was gonna do and why..... A couple times in a rush at Kennedy I questioned a young CA about something and both times he admitted to having used old procedures.....etc.

Id be real careful about running the the CP. Exhaust other avenues first then if nothing else works.. you MIGHT consider that.

Why is it bad to report to the Chief Pilot. Its still being handled by "pilots" Its not like he went to management like the VP for Ops or standards. I am not an airline pilot so please educate me on this one.

Judging by his lack of discretion in answering basic interview questions...no, I don't think I'd hire him.

There's nothing wrong with reporting something the the Chief Pilot. However before I have an applicant go running to the Chief for every little thing, I would want him/her to exercise their own ability to attempt to solve the problem.

Consider this fact. Some regional airlines have 1000-2000 pilots on their seniority list. If every FO that had a gripe or issue with a captain immediately reported that issue to the CP, the airline would come to a stand still, simply because the CP couldn't take care of the larger issues that come up on a day to day basis.

There are plenty of other options in this situation. Even if you have never worked for an airline, there is enough gouge out there to know the proper action. As a general rule, any time you have conflict, ALWAYS try to resolve it on YOUR level (ie Face to Face) before involving other parties.

Maybe this CA simply didn't know that the SOP had changed. Since the question doesn't specify the deviations in SOP, we don't know exactly how serious the incident was. What if it was something so simple as "the captain used the nose taxi light during the day, when the manual says not to"?

Is that something that really needs to be "reported"?

precisely

but have a beer with me!