All my pilot friends surely have been asked this question:
"Are you a pilot?"
And when you answer "yes," they'll ask:
"Are you a captain?"
Then if you say "no, I'm a First Officer," the inevitable reply to that will be...
"oh... you're only a co-pilot."
I was a First Officer (or "FO" for short) for almost 13 years. I was asked that question a lot. A lot!
I'm not anymore but it still pisses me off when I hear that conversation.
Why?
Simply because it's not true.
A pilot is a pilot.
A 'co-pilot' may imply that he or she is not a Captain (yet) but it does not imply that he is not a pilot.
The 'co-pilot' has a flying license too. He or she knows how to pilot a plane.
He's just not ranked a Captain.
Here's from Oxford Dictionary:
In a modern airliner, there are at least 2 pilots. Normally, the Captain and the FO.
So what's the difference between an FO and a Captain?
Mainly it's all about responsibilities. The Captain makes all the decisions and has ultimate responsibility. And the FO helps the Captain make those decisions.
What are the similarities then?
The Captain & FO shares the task. Sometimes the FO flies. He is at the controls, makes all the calls to change configuration and steers the plane. And he is at the controls during the actual takeoff and landing.
Of course, the Captain can always say no or give different directions then what the FO wants. Modern flying is all about CRM - that's short for Crew Resource Management.
You can read about it here. This rant is not about CRM!
So why can't an FO become a Captain, right now, right away?
The training that I went through to become a Captain wasn't about flying. When I was an FO, I already knew how to fly. That move from the right-hand seat to the left-hand seat may just be about one metre, but the whole world changes. When I was trained to become a Captain I was trained to change my mindset.
The mindset that in a lot of situations, the decision is mine and only mine. There's nobody to fall back to.
I AM ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE.
If I made a mistake, the consequence can be fatal.
And all that came from experience; experience that I got watching all kinds of Captains and their style of leadership, over the 13 years that I was an FO.
But flying... that I knew how to do already.
And guess what, during an emergency, the Captain is actually trained to hand over controls of the actual flying to the FO. Yes, during most emergencies, the so called 'co-pilot' is the one at the controls.
What then does the Captain do?
Well... he manages. He gives out instructions and carries out checklists. He talks on the radio to ATC and coordinates the actions of crew. He makes the decisions.
The actual task of flying the plane can be demanding and the pilot doing it runs into the risk of 'task-saturation.' That is when your so engrossed in a task that you disregard everything else that is happening in front of you.
Don't think it can happen to you? Try this.
So, the captain, hands over a highly demanding task to the FO.... simply because he already knows how to do it.
The captain can then be the "big picture guy," doing the most important thing - which is making decisions.
And the FO, is the pilot. Yep.
Don't believe me?
Check out what Oxford Dictionary has to say.
So the next time you ask someone if he or she is a pilot and the answer is "yes," move on.
"Are you a pilot?"
And when you answer "yes," they'll ask:
"Are you a captain?"
Then if you say "no, I'm a First Officer," the inevitable reply to that will be...
"oh... you're only a co-pilot."
I was a First Officer (or "FO" for short) for almost 13 years. I was asked that question a lot. A lot!
I'm not anymore but it still pisses me off when I hear that conversation.
Why?
Simply because it's not true.
A pilot is a pilot.
A 'co-pilot' may imply that he or she is not a Captain (yet) but it does not imply that he is not a pilot.
The 'co-pilot' has a flying license too. He or she knows how to pilot a plane.
He's just not ranked a Captain.
Here's from Oxford Dictionary:
Definition of co-pilot in English:
co-pilot
Line breaks: co-pilotIn a modern airliner, there are at least 2 pilots. Normally, the Captain and the FO.
So what's the difference between an FO and a Captain?
Mainly it's all about responsibilities. The Captain makes all the decisions and has ultimate responsibility. And the FO helps the Captain make those decisions.
What are the similarities then?
The Captain & FO shares the task. Sometimes the FO flies. He is at the controls, makes all the calls to change configuration and steers the plane. And he is at the controls during the actual takeoff and landing.
Of course, the Captain can always say no or give different directions then what the FO wants. Modern flying is all about CRM - that's short for Crew Resource Management.
You can read about it here. This rant is not about CRM!
So why can't an FO become a Captain, right now, right away?
The training that I went through to become a Captain wasn't about flying. When I was an FO, I already knew how to fly. That move from the right-hand seat to the left-hand seat may just be about one metre, but the whole world changes. When I was trained to become a Captain I was trained to change my mindset.
The mindset that in a lot of situations, the decision is mine and only mine. There's nobody to fall back to.
I AM ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE.
If I made a mistake, the consequence can be fatal.
And all that came from experience; experience that I got watching all kinds of Captains and their style of leadership, over the 13 years that I was an FO.
But flying... that I knew how to do already.
And guess what, during an emergency, the Captain is actually trained to hand over controls of the actual flying to the FO. Yes, during most emergencies, the so called 'co-pilot' is the one at the controls.
What then does the Captain do?
Well... he manages. He gives out instructions and carries out checklists. He talks on the radio to ATC and coordinates the actions of crew. He makes the decisions.
The actual task of flying the plane can be demanding and the pilot doing it runs into the risk of 'task-saturation.' That is when your so engrossed in a task that you disregard everything else that is happening in front of you.
Don't think it can happen to you? Try this.
So, the captain, hands over a highly demanding task to the FO.... simply because he already knows how to do it.
The captain can then be the "big picture guy," doing the most important thing - which is making decisions.
And the FO, is the pilot. Yep.
Don't believe me?
Check out what Oxford Dictionary has to say.
Definition of pilot in English:
pilot
Line breaks: pilot
Pronunciation: /ˈpʌɪlət
/
So the next time you ask someone if he or she is a pilot and the answer is "yes," move on.
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| The FO at the controls for landing |
