Needing the company to regulate the other guy to listen to your speech is a sign….

 

I mean, not wanting to have a conversation is a BIG sign.....

 

Oh man. That’s really what you got out of my comment? By that logic, why do takeoff briefings?

 

I do a debrief after every landing!

<thud>

"Well that sucked."

Debrief complete.

 

the sun was in my eyes, there was a stone in my shoe, the grass was too high, aftershocks from that Earthquake in Peru...

 

Very true but not what I was saying. My point is you don’t need the company to write policy for one guy to listen to the other. I’ve never experienced communication barriers relating to flight issues. Captains tell me I’m stupid all the time, without a company policy to have a talk after every leg! In my experience, as soon as a person screws up, they are self announcing it. It’s an ongoing process, not an AAR after each leg. I guess I just don’t see the problem that needs this solution. As far as new hires, I greatly appreciate the amazing and patient MCO captains that just comfortably gave me room to exercise what I had already learned. That was awesome and exactly what I needed! They already knew how and when to place a well worded tip, if needed. They didn’t need to instruct me all over again.

 

If everyone was like you then we wouldn't need guidance/policies. You are likely creating a flight deck atmosphere that allows for open communication and continuous feedback.

Wait until you get the left seat, you'll find many FOs are very "closed" to any sort of mentoring.

 

I laughed out loud at the “closed to mentoring” part because it reminded me of flying with the burnt out and checked out “peaches”.

 

I’ve heard that before and I’m not sure how common it is but what a drain on QOL for the captain! To remedy this, when captain briefs and says “ya got anything?” I do. Usually something like…”if I do anything wacky and you sense you’d like to say something. Please, say it. I don’t want to be doing wacky things and making your life hard. I can accept correction “.

I’m not a black belt FO. I do make mistakes. However, approaching 8 years, I also don’t present too many wacky things anymore. I just don’t want to be mixed in with this “senior FO mentality” that I’ve heard about. I feel like a fairly humble statement at the beginning of a pairing might help to remove the need for the captain to feel me out if I’m one of “them”. We can just immediately start out without that obstacle. It’s a small thing but success is built on getting small things done right. I hoped things like this would be more common.
The very best compliment at the end of a pairing isn’t “good job”. It’s “I fly with you, I feel like I’m flying with me!”. “I wish I could fly with you every time”. “You make my life so easy”. “You are definitely not the norm”. If FOs get that feedback, they are on the mark! It isn’t proficiency alone that gets those comments. It’s attitude, willingness, doing more than is required. Small things like having the FMCs set up for the brief. When you see the captain running landing numbers hit the prog page, on FO side, instead of making him reach across. You already know that he needs it. Pulling up the Cpt side PWB page while you wait for the ding and the captain is calling home. Setting both EO courses, clean up altitudes, announcing if changing radios between ramp and ground, always looking and announcing clearance while turning before asked, and a thousand more trivial things you can do. FOs should strive to be the Chick-fil-A worker on the flight deck. It’s not hard, it helps the other guy, it’s self-rewarding, it’s fun. None of this means flying hands in the cockpit or overrunning the borders into the Captains territory. That’s the opposite ditch that you don’t drive into.

 

On the other foot I offer to set everything up (and know how to do it) so the FO can stretch or get food/use a real bathroom. If the Wx is nice I’ll do walk-arounds (I’ll even do it if it’s cold out…but I don’t like being wet). No point in making easy hard for the other guy. Help out when you can and ask for help if you need it.