Side gigs....
 

I’m all for everyone having other sources of income....

just wondering if anyone else has had issues with the other pilot being more intent on their “side gig” than the job at hand.....

VERY frustrating....

I DoorDash some while sitting reserve.

At my previous company there was a pilot who would be on the phone managing his other job from engine shutdown to just before pushback. It happens. If you follow the salary survey you will realize that FOs at Spirit are making $21,000 in their first 6 months and that can be very difficult on a family. I know you didn’t specify any details but everyone has a different situation.

I have though about doing stand up comedy on my days off, and possibly giving the other guy a preview during flight.

Maybe the guy has a great business and the flying is the side gig... ever think of that? If it's not a safety issue then perhaps you should pay more attention to yourself and leave others to do their thing.

AHHH no, if you are in the aircraft, I need them to back me up, kinda hard to rely on them when they are on the phone,

what if we have a situation in the back and I’m dealing with maintenance, it’s hard to delegate tasks when they are on the phone with their “side gig” without getting a little stern when I shouldn’t have to.

I have told F/Os “If you are gonna be here, then this flight deck is number 1 priority, otherwise maybe this isn’t for you or call out”

So no I won’t stay out of it, cause at the end of the day I’m the one who has to explain

Wait until the person you're flying with goes full MLM hunbot.

That situation is the exception not the rule. Normally you can get the plane ready in about 10 min or less and you just sit around the rest of the time. Sure, sometimes there is an abnormal situation (like something MX) and I'll agree with you that the abnormal situation needs to be dealt with first, but the original poster of this thread seemed like he was complaining about his FO doing his side gig under normal circumstances. As long as the other guy gets their normal duties done, then they can do whatever they want the rest of the time you just sit there and wait.

This is a really easy job. Don't make it harder than it needs to be (because some guys out there definitely do, I guess to justify the fat paycheck?)

You must be the guy who always misses things that I thankfully found and corrected. The professionalism of our FO's is abysmal. I love flying 1.5 pilot.

Thats a bit dramatic. I agree that some FO's could use a lesson in adulthood but to generalize is silly. This is an industry problem fyi..... just talked to a FDX buddy that said they just had another pilot fired for playing on their phone.

just curious. What was the phase of flight when they got fired for playing on their phone?
walk-around, loading, taxiing...

sheesh loosen up a little commander

Yeah and you must be the guy who's busy reading taxiway closure notams and highlighting taxiways on your chart near RWY 10 in ATL when you're landing on 8R, because you know just in case they send you to the south side of ATL coming in from the north (which in probably hundreds of landings in ATL has never happened to me...)

You're proving my point: guys making this job harder than it needs to be.

Sooo... doing what he gets paid very good money to do? Pretty weak argument there bud.

exactly!

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agreed and unfortunately it goes for some captains too. Issue is guys in the industry a while are holding out for legacies a lot of times. We are hiring lower time guys and some corporate 135 and this is their first airline. An unfortunate byproduct of a fast moving industry is guys getting into the regionals don’t stay long and are flying with another guy that hasn’t been around long. There’s not much of a seasoning process and bad habits and lackadaisical cool guy attitudes proliferate.

None of us were great when we first started 121 and some of us were pretty young. Flying with guys that set good examples along with some personal maturing and we all got better. It’s good and bad that we are having these kind of issues that used to be mostly a regional issue but it’s up to us to lead by example and that includes professional FOs flying with less than professional CAs. This goes for actions in the cockpit and in public. I’ve had fellow pilots say things in the gate area either talking to me or the FAs that we’re down right embarrassing. Act like you’ve been here before.

Are you the guy that doesn’t read notams and realizes halfway to the destination that you got dispatched to a closed runway?

That said our notam packet is a complete mess and forget being able to read the ACARS printout if you need to divert to a new alternate

NOTAMS? Yes on occasion there is an important NOTAM but 99% of the NOTAMS have zero impact on your flight. Your job is to look at the NOTAMS and find that one NOTAM that is important to your flight. But no, there are some guys that treat every single last NOTAM like it's the be all end all, that taxiway closure in some obscure corner of the airport you never go to, that 200' crane 2 miles off the end of the runway, etc. I don't care about that obscure stuff and never will. But there is always that guy who obsesses about it. And yeah, they are working too hard. You wanna be that guy? I'll make fun of you for it. I've got tens of thousands of hours of flight time with this philosophy and I've never had an issue.

You done with the hyperbole? You should check the NOTAMs. What one does to scan the NOTAMs is up to them, why do you care? Are you cool, with your “tens of thousands of hours,” that you can find the one NOTAM without scanning

Youre awesome. I’ll be honest, I’m curious to who you work for...who has to deal with your kind of logic.

“tens of thousands of hours”...🙄. So cool.

yikes.......

https://fixingnotams.org/the-problem...-about-notams/

How about we just fix the real problem with NOTAMS? Having a to read through a ton of irrelevant stuff in NOTAMS decreases safety.

if you had to do the ILS then circling to land in SAP then I would probably want to know about a tower around the airport...just my thought.

“I’ve been driving for 30 years and never once wore a seatbelt, never had an issue, still alive. That should prove definitively that seatbelts aren’t worth the bother”

Another weak argument there bud

Apparently your airline doesn't require that you be stabilized at 1000, right? Because at mine even if you're circling we still need to meet that criteria. If you circle at 200 ft, then yeah I guess that tower would be relevant but I don't circle at 200 ft. But alas, I know I'm not convincing anyone. Just further proving my point that some guys make this job harder than it needs to be, by worrying about stuff that has no effect on the flight (like that 200' tower somewhere in the rough vicinity of the airport). Can't wait to get my next "Pretty weak argument there bud!" :)

No no, your logic is sound and arguments valid. I look forward to more tips and tricks for the suckers working too hard. Fuel hacks are probably a waste of time too, I mean how often are we leaking or short on gas right?

Whoaaaa, hold up. Congrats on saving the day, and “correcting” your FO there, Cappy. Hopefully YOU were professional and helped the guy out. Maybe he didnt know he made a mistake, you know, cuz mistakes are usually not intended.... Could be his first airline gig.... Maybe its you? Judging by your post, you sound like one of those guys who cant get enough of himself.... And maybe your FO just sucks. I dont know, I wasnt there. But at the end of the day, these habits are fixable. If someone isnt performing up to par, mentoring/educating them on the mistakes is the only way to improve them.

But have you seen some of these darling captains we have? I shouldnt have to be embarrassed walking around a terminal with Captain wearing clip on sunglasses indoors, a red suitcase, ripped pants, yellow shirt, and smells like he hasnt showered in a week.

Calling all FOs unprofessional is quite a broad stroke and completely false for 99% of us. I get it, some guys leave alot to be desired, however mentoring new guys is part of the job. Not everyone is straight out of the airforce academy. Calling half our seniority list abysmal, is ****ing ridiculous. Flying 1.5 pilot? Really? Sometimes I feel the same way about some of our Captains. VERY few of them, but not ALL of them. You dont see me calling everyone abysmal.

I agree with you. Some guys make this job harder than it has to be. I’ve had a few conversations with my FOs about some of them. The only time I read notams is going into an unfamiliar airport, one without a tower, or during hard IMC when I have to do an actual approach. I don’t bother marking taxiways because I figure if it has a tower, they aren’t going to send me down a closed taxiway. If the FAA redid notams and made it easier to find pertinent information, I think more pilots would look at them. Anyways to each their own as long as you’re being safe.

Wow...I hope this entire post was sarcasm, because if not, we just hired a doozy....

If this was meant to be sarcastic, it was presented well
If this is your true outlook and thought process, you're actions are nothing short of careless.

"I don’t bother marking taxiways because I figure if it has a tower, they aren’t going to send me down a closed taxiway"
---please tell me this was all a joke

It wasn’t meant to come off as I don’t look at notams. Sorry if it did. I don’t mark closed taxiways though. Never have. IMO that's just your own technique. I make a mental note and use the MKI eyeball. Unless it’s an airport I’m unfamiliar with like I said.

lets hope we never fly together...not reading a closed taxiway NOTAM because there is a control tower is a false sense of security.


If you are coming into land and it’s snowing and you turn off the runway before tower gives you instructions and you turn off into a closed taxiway (just because a taxiway is closed doesn’t mean it will barricaded) you just made a violation. I have heard of people being violated for this. Just one example.


Your probably the kinda of person I hear on the radio ask for the ILS to a runway at the last minute and the control says “it’s NOTAMED out of service” then there’s an awkward silence.

Its not a technique, it’s policy. Read your FOM and spend a little less time on APC.

Discuss your logic with your IOE instructors and see what they think

Ah we’d get along great! But you’re right guys. Always room for self improvement especially for safety. Thanks for the insight. I’ll take a closer look at the FOM.

I haven't found that to be the case.

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Notices to Airmen... if you a women are they still valid?

This sounds like something one of our infamous DFW guys has said before.... followed by “why am I always flying with reserve FO’s?”

I identify a non-binary, gender X. Where are my notices?

Better recheck those FLL notams that you already checked 3 hours ago when you left... honestly it’s like watching Fox News and MSNBC on here have a discussion. Do you think I read through every unlit tower and mark it on my iPad every time I go into Chicago? No. Do I scan through them to see if there’s anything runway or approach specific? Sure. The really pertinent safety related stuff is in the ATIS anyways. If you taxi over cones and flashers because you didn’t read the notams about a taxiway closure or you land on a closed runway because you didn’t read them you’re the weak link not to FO for not telling you.

Most of you guys spouting off on here need to take it easy. This job isn’t that hard. Take the stick out of your butt, find the strengths of your FOs, buy a few beers and an appetizer on the overnight, and do a good job without being an unbearable wanker and you’ll be just fine. Know the pertinent info and fly the airplane safely. No need to start bashing FOs and Captains and ruining CRM when 99% of ours do a great job. This forum may be anonymous but I don’t want the FOs that I’m working with me to show up thinking all our captains are like this.

I can’t think of another profession where we bash and partake in name calling of our fellow colleagues on a public web forum....

doctors, CEO’s, lawyers...just don’t think they do that.