Do you have any CRM habits when flying with another pilot

What this thread has made me realise is this: I have trust issues.

Generally, I ask everyone to use their eyes, pilot or not. I ask other pilots to alert me if they see anything that they feel is wrong or unusual. I don’t appreciate “helpful” interference in other aspects of operating the aircraft unless I suggest it and agree it in advance, specific local knowledge excepted.

I think most pilots have “trust issues” which is why CRM was introduced. The standard (stereotypical) story was that when a load of ex WW2 fighter pilots went into the airlines in the 1950s and 1960s, they behaved like they were trained, which was to grab the bull by the horns and make their own decisions, which is fine if the decision is the right one, but sometimes you get a better one if somebody else is involved who takes out some of the workload, which is more relevant in a complex aircraft.

Personality issues were also often implicated, with this being supposedly one of the biggest cases (everybody in the airline was scared of that LHS pilot). So if they don’t like your face or you are a bit cocky at the airline interview, you won’t get the job (at a 1st World airline) no matter how you ace the simcheck.

I won’t post details but I have flown with some pretty difficult people. One of them just could not stop talking, while I was trying to fly some approaches.

Personnally, I think good habit to avoid expulsing odorous gases while flying with another pilot.
Noisy ones are less inconvenient because they are covered by the engine noise.

Jokes apart, I ask my fellow pilots to signal to me anything they will see out of the ordinary, including actions (or inactions), radio miss, malfunctions, or traffic.
Especially when flying with a more experienced pilot, or even worse, a flight instructor, I underline what I expect from them in case of malfunction during takeoff. Do i expect them to stay calm and let me handle (even if they are more experienced), or do I expect them to take over, and I will keep flying until they say “I have controls” (in case I’m flying with an FI acting as one).

What this thread has made me realise is this: I have trust issues

I’m not sure that trust should come into it at all!

There should only be one captain and that should be really clear to all parties. So while one pilot might be using the radio to negociate airspace crossings and service levels etc, they don’t make decisions. The captain still decides what they service, route, level etc that they want, and it’s up to the other pilot to try negociate that.

If the captain monitors everything and if they aren’t happy with something they ask the other pilot to get it cleared up or changed.

It’s not a case of leaving the passenger pilot to do something and assuming they are doing it! You can delegate authority but not responsibility. So as captain you monitor everything that they are doing, making sure that you’re happy that you have the appropriate clearances etc, you’re just relieved of the job of actually negociating them. Actually it frees up your time for other things too, which can be very helpful.

It also allows the non flying passenger to feel like a pilot and not a passenger so they can enjoy the flight more. For a pilot who isn’t very experienced on the radio, it can be a wonderful learning opportunity too, as they have more time to think about everything and build confidence.

dp

I think the whole question of task distribution among PPLs in single pilot operations is completely irrelevant. There is only pilot. There are no company procedures to define the protocol between two pilots so anything done is just pure improvisation which I do not think is conducive to safety. Quite the contrary.

So another pilot is just an informed passenger. He or she may offer suggestions or express concerns to which I will be very attentive. He or she will also be expected to help acquiring visual contact with other airplanes. But beyond that I do not want any other interaction.

I recently flew with an Air France pilot who was an exemplary passenger. He made suggestions as to what should be displayed by my two GNS430s and I let him change my GPS configurations.

And I recently flew with @Jujupilot who was also an exemplary passenger and made a couple of useful comments IIRC.

Dublinpilot wrote:

It’s not a case of leaving the passenger pilot to do something and assuming they are doing it! You can delegate authority but not responsibility. So as captain you monitor everything that they are doing,

I have delegated in the past, but I found that I watched like a hawk because I didn’t either didn’t trust the other pilot to perform the task, or maybe to complete it to my standards. In the end, I felt it was less work if I just did it myself.

Of course, I’m not perfect, but there’s nothing worse than giving the radio to someone else and then finding that they fall over their words. Sigh.

The main request is lookout, having another pilot looking out adds to safety. In single crew aircraft ensuring clarity who is PIC seems to be the main policy.

As a passenger I will keep an eye out that we have three greens on final – am aware of accidents where there were two pilots and neither bothered to check.

Most of the time I’m flying alone. So I’m used to do everything by myself. But when flying together with my wife – she has her pilot licence too – we have our workload sharing concept. But it works different, when she is PIC or when I’m the one on the left seat.

First the concept, when she is flying my tasks as a co are:

- taxiway guidance
- radio communication
- handle frequencies and nav data on the GTN
- recheck approach briefing
- scan the instruments
- call out “gear down, three green”
- taxiway guidance
- writing down times
- monitor the airspace during the flight (everyone in the plane is adviced to do so)

When I’m flying and she is the co it ist different:

- taxiway guidance
- writing down and doublecheck the radio communication (I’m doing the communication by myself)
- scan the instruments
- recheck approach briefing
- call out the numbers on an instrument approach to the minimum
- call out “gear down, three green”
- taxiway guidance
- writing down times
- monitor the airspace during the flight (everyone in the plane is adviced to do so)
- monitor my habits during the whole flight (to recieve feedback, and avoid establishing bad habits during all the solo flights)

Maybe someone is surprised about the “scan the instruments” in each checklist. We do this since we have had some really worse wrong indications in our planes. i.e. wrong GPS direction due of an antenna or installation failure which no one could ever explain 180 degrees into opposite direction, misleading HSI, unexpected drop of the horizon to 5 degrees bank during the approach, autopilot not holding the altitude and some more. So we both do always check the instruments.

Aviathor wrote:

I think the whole question of task distribution among PPLs in single pilot operations is completely irrelevant. There is only pilot.

I dont think so.

I see no reason why you shouldnt distribute tasks any more or less than in a commercial cockpit. However, I do see that without an understanding of the distribution it will dangerous. I think it is those two apsects that you have in mind, and rightly so.

As eddspeter says you need to be clear on the division of tasks in the same way as commercial pilots working together. Be clear on that and it can be a lot of fun, enables both pilots to be fully engaged with the flight, and reduces the overall work load.

After all there is no magic in CRM, it is a process like any other, its just that the process needs to be followed rather than something made up as you go along and of course is so much simpler in most light singles and twins.