AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 18

PROFICIENT PILOT

Riding shotgun

BY BARRY SCHIFF

Scrooges, tyrants, and a good skipper
A FIRST OFFICER, commonly called a co-pilot, has two
functions. One is to assist the captain in operating
the aircraft, and the other is to learn by osmosis how
to be a captain. A co-pilot flies with, observes, and
learns from a wide variety of captains. He can adopt
the techniques he finds most useful and ignore the
others, an opportunity not afforded general aviation
pilots-who graduate from student pilot to " captain "
with the stroke of an examiner's pen. The co-pilot
must be a chameleon and adapt to each captain with
whom he serves and, while most captains are agreeable, there are some who make the job unpleasant.
One of my classmates at TWA, Dusty Spain, tells of
when he was a new Connie co-pilot flying with a captain who had a reputation for harassing co-pilots. While
at cruise altitude, this captain barked at Dusty, " Open
your side window. " This was the first pressurized air-

The tyrant in the left seat said, " When a
captain tells you to do something, you do it
immediately. "

BARRY SCHIFF

began his airline
career with TWA
as co-pilot on a
Lockheed
Constellation
in 1964.

18 | AOPA PILOT January 2021

plane Dusty had ever flown, and he was reluctant to
comply. The captain, now shouting, said, " I told you to
open your window! " Dusty pulled on the handle and
was relieved to discover that the window would not
budge. He could not overcome the pressurization. The
tyrant in the left seat said, " When a captain tells you to
do something, you do it immediately. "
Back when TWA operated Martin 404s, a large
twin-engine, piston-powered airplane, there was a captain who allowed his co-pilots to fly every other leg but
never let them make the landing. Upon reaching cruise
altitude, he would tilt his seat back, go to sleep, and wake
up in time to take over and make the approach and landing, frustrating and irritating his co-pilots.
On one flight, the co-pilot-who shall remain
nameless-had had enough of Captain Scrooge. He
made every effort to descend and approach the destination airport as smoothly as possible so as not to
awaken the captain. He flipped off the captain's audio
switch, reduced power ever so gradually, and slid the
airplane into the overcast obscuring Kansas City. He
then silenced the marker beacon receiver and got
to within a mile of touchdown, something no other

co-pilot flying for this captain had ever achieved. The
captain, however, woke up; grabbed the controls as
the runway lights began to appear in the nighttime
mist; and landed the airplane...at the wrong airport.
It was not that long ago that airlines used threeman crews. A major advantage of being a member
of such a crew is that if you were to inadvertently
flatulate, no one could know with certainty that you
were the guilty party. Not so in the case of a two-man
crew. The co-pilot's job was also easier in those days
because the flight engineer did the grunt work. When
my son, Brian, was a co-pilot on a three-man crew-
he's now a captain for American Airlines-he would
describe his simplified duties by saying, " Pitot heat,
window heat, what's to eat? "
Co-pilots these days are trained to be more assertive. Instead of merely " hinting and hoping " when
they see a captain doing something questionable, they
are taught to be both direct and respectful.
My good friend, Al Desrosiers, for example, was
co-pilot on a Boeing 707 flight into Honolulu at
night. The aircraft was south of Oahu and cleared
from 8,000 feet to 2,000 feet msl. Being too high, the
captain pulled off the power and shoved the nose
down. Passing through 3,000 feet, Al gave the requisite warning, " Out of three for two. " But the captain
showed no sign of leveling off. He then busted his
altitude and continued diving for sea level, his mind
obviously elsewhere. Al yelled out, " Skipper, we're
only 10 seconds from swimming, and I don't know
how! " He grabbed the control wheel and hauled back,
flexing the wings as the dive was arrested.
My favorite TWA captain was Frank Timoshik.
My first flight with him was on a Boeing 707 cargo
flight, a red-eye to New York. While we were in dispatch he told me, " You fly it to Kennedy, and I'll fly
it home. I don't care how you fly the airplane as long
as it's safe, legal, and comfortable-in that order, " a
mantra that I applied when I became a captain. It is
advice that I also apply to my general aviation flying.
The goal of serving time as a co-pilot is to become
a captain. According to a retired Air New Zealand
captain, Brian Souter, " Being a captain is no different than being a co-pilot except that when you look
to the left for assistance and ideas, you see only your
own reflection in the window. " 
AOPA
barryschiff.com


http://www.barryschiff.com

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021

Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - Intro
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 8
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 9
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 10
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 11
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 12
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 13
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 14
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 15
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 16
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 17
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 18
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 19
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 20
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 21
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 22
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 23
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 24
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 25
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 26
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 27
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 28
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 29
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 30
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 31
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 32
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 33
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 34
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 35
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 36
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 37
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 38
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 39
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 40
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 41
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 42
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 43
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 44
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 45
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 46
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 47
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 48
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 49
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 50
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 53
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 55
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 56
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 58
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 65
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 112
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - Cover4
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