The ‘First Officer’: last line of defence.



First Officer, Co-pilot, and Second in Command, last line of defence.
 

Stuck in the right seat of every aircraft is a person known as the ‘First Officer’. Most people know this but it seems a lot of the media don’t. Anytime there happens to be an aircraft incident on the news, it is reported that ‘the pilot did this….’ Or: ‘the pilot told the passengers that’, as if there is only one person operating the aircraft –i.e. the captain.

Well, passenger aircraft are designed to be flown by 2 flight crew members. They are ‘multi-crew aircraft.’

I remember being an ‘FO’ once. I remember being an ‘FO’ for a second time also. In a pilot’s career progression there may be a lot of ‘musical chairs.’

One may start as an ‘FO’ on a regional turboprop, and then become a captain on the turboprop, then move on to a jet and be an ‘FO’ again.

The one thing that always remains the same is that often, the ‘FO’ is the passengers’ last line of defence, an insurance policy, and the unsung hero.

How?

Well, if the captain has a heart attack or food poisoning –for instance-, then the ‘FO’ has to land asap. It is a full emergency.

If the captain loses perspective because she or he is a human being, there is an ‘FO’ to ask questions like:

‘Hey captain, can we really do the flight with the ‘brakes hot’ light on?’ Whilst knowing full well that we cannot even taxi like that, and that we should look in the checklists and be safe.

Or make comments like:

‘Listen skipper, the cabin crew are saying that the passenger is quite sick. We won’t be at the destination for another hour and a half… do you want me to get you some weather for the nearest alternate airport? Just in case you decide to go there…’ (hint, hint.)

And in extremely unusual cases warn:

‘If you continue to buzz the runway, I will have to make a report.’

And even though I’m not making any of these up; the last case is thankfully rare.

One thing is for sure though…

The ‘FO’ is in a very difficult position. With less experience and more youth (generally) she or he is also less jaded by the industry and more in love with his profession.

The ‘FO’ and aviation are in the honeymoon period. The captain is probably stuck in a secure but dull long-term relationship.

 

 

 

'God is my co-pilot'

But above all else, the ‘FO’ has to master the art of being a chameleon.

If she is flying with a technical captain, she has to show perfect discipline, and superior systems knowledge.

If he is flying with a laidback skipper, he has to relax too; but keep his eyes open.

If she flies with the ‘union rep’, she has to wear her union pin and worker’s face.

If he flies with the chief pilot, he has to be the biggest company man.

When he flies with a friend he sometimes has to become his enemy.

When she flies with an enemy, she must become his friend.

Because for the duration of the flight, the poor ‘FO’ will have many difficult things to face: Like grumpy tones, boring stories, and bad jokes.

But every captain knows: if you have a good ‘FO’, you don’t need good luck.

Copyright © Francisco Rebollo 2014

'Dog is my co-pilot'

 

Image used with permission

 

On training

 

Before you start flying, you do a lot of looking up.

After you start flying, you do a lot of looking down.

Life as a pilot shows you a great variety of views. I started flying in country where airport's elevations of over 5,000 ft are quite common, with minimum en route altitudes of 20,000 ft all over the charts.

 



Iztaccihuatl
 

 

 

Where I've been flying for the last number of years, we cruise around 15,000 ft regularly; If you tried to get over this mountain at that level, you wouldn't make it. Flatter is safer, but I miss the views.

 

 

 

I trained from an airport elevation of 4,000 ft amsl. There’s nothing like the early training days on a Cessna or a piper in my view.

The freedom of building hours flying visually as low as 500 agl (above ground level), doing ‘touch and go’s’, etc. You’ll get that again as a professional pilot. You’re always constrained by regulations, standard operating procedures and the dreaded ‘Flight data monitoring’; the digital black box which companies now download regularly to spy on you.

 

 

 

Even worse, if you fly a bigger plane they know what you’re doing in real time through ACARS. Like everything else; used for good, it enhances safety; conversely, it can -and does- get used to snoop on pilots.

 

 

 

I was thinking that it’s a shame those training days go by so quickly. We all want to get onto the bigger birds asap.

If you’re training right now, take it all in; enjoy. This may be the purest part of your career.

 

Copyright © Francisco Rebollo 2014

 

Propdogs

Emirates 777
 

Here's something I wrote before I was grounded:

I’ve always thought that it doesn’t really matter what you fly. Maybe that’s why I’m not flying a 757 or an A 330. Maybe I just suck. Us regional turboprop drivers exist in a plane of our own. Without the glamour of long haul flying or the performance of a jet aircraft, we fly at the worst flight levels, in relatively underpowered birds for much less money. We fly without a lot of the bells and whistles, we are plainer pilots.

We are propdogs.

 

But the interesting part is this: we do a lot more hand flying than the jet guys and gals do. We still have actual metal wires connecting our controls to the ailerons and elevators, so we feel every turn and every pitch change in our hands, and: ‘Auto-throttle?’ It’s called ‘knuckles’ on my aircraft.

Crucially, we also land and take-off a lot more often. In a 6 hour block duty we will have landed at least 4 times; in long-haul you would barely complete a single leg in that time.

Regionals have traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to the jets, in some places they still are; but for one reason or another, more and more pilots are spending more of their flying lives on board turboprops.

Do we love the flying? Most of us do.

Do we complain about everything else? You bet we do. Most of the time, we have good reason to.

I'm a regional pilot, have been for a while. I want to present the beauty I still see in what I do for a living, and I also want to share some of the things people won't normally hear about but which do happen in my job.

I think it doesn't matter what you fly, as long as your eyes are open the beauty is there; but equally, we can't close our eyes to what's happening to our industry, not matter what we fly.

 

I became a pilot because I wanted to fly, not because I wanted to 'be a pilot'. There’s a big difference.

Considering that I’ve been ‘made redundant’ or ‘furloughed’ twice in my life, I consider myself lucky to have had the career that I've had so far. I'm grateful for every day I can continue to fly for a living; I accept that after all, aviation is all about ‘ups and downs’; but when it comes to Safety, that’ll never be something that I’ll be willing to compromise on.

Now that I'm not up there everyday, I'm glad I saw the beauty in it.

 

Copyright © Francisco Rebollo 2014

Leg is on fire

Had a dream,

I was trying to evacuate the plane.

A fire on the ground,

people sat around.

Doing nothing.

I can't walk very well,

but I'll get them out.

There's babies in here,

scream at people!

get them to leave.

Leg is on fire

 

Copyright © Flycisco 2013



Runway Lights
 

 

 



 

City at night
 

I'll miss looking at things like these, drifting past my window.

Copyright © Flycisco 2013

Hi

flying sunset
 

Flying, getting grounded, philosophizing, living.

 



Copyright © Flycisco 2013