Tuesday, October 04, 2011




This is our new F/o. He passed (and did good on) his checkride today! As it was his first jet we had to do some in-aircraft training, so this is our new hire on his first flight in the actual aircraft. For the pilot-geek crowd, the Canadian Air Regulations are written in such a way that if you have not acted as a crewmember on a jet before, you have to do 3 takeoffs and landings in the actual airplane before you are signed off, which must include: normal t/o, visual circuit, normal landing, simulated engine failure on takeoff, simulated engine failure at V1, simulated single-engine landing, non-precision approach, circling approach (if applicable), and at least 1 more landing. I mean, this is on top of spending a couple of weeks at Flightsafety, doing dozens of emergency drills and sweating it out in their simulator with the computer graphics and the motion and whatnot.

You may note that I call him a First Officer but he's sitting in the Captain's seat. Yup. At our company we swap flying legs, meaning we swap between "pilot who is moving the control surfaces of the airplane" and "pilot who is navigating and handling the radios". The placement of the controls / switches / instruments in the cockpit is such that it's a lot easier to actually fly the airplane from the left seat, so that's what we do. All our flight crew are trained and qualified to perform Captain or First Officer duties from either seat, so while our new guy will be sitting in the left seat, the person in the right seat will be a qualified Captain.

Now that he's a flight crew member with us he may turn up from time to time in the blog. I asked him what he wanted to be named online and he had no opinion on the matter, so next up - a contest to give our new F/o an internet handle! Polite suggestions only please :)

16 comments:

david said...

"Danno", as in "Book 'em, Danno".

Frank Ch. Eigler said...

After his taste in headsets, Boseo?

Paul said...

It's difficult to tell with only the back of his head, a popped collar and Bose headset (Ray-Bans for ears) visible- Maveric, Goose, Iceman, Viper, Charlie?

whick said...

jetset..as new in a jet!

Anonymous said...

sparky

Anonymous said...

Happy or Lucky?

Dan in ALB said...

How about Chip? Short, easy nickname that doesn't insult anyone.

david said...

When he's sitting in the wright seat, you could call him "Orville".

Anonymous said...

You gotta give us all some more information on why you hired this guy... I am sure there is a good story to tell about that. Nick-names are sure to follow!

Anonymous said...

Green Bean

SkinnyDennis said...

JAFO, but not like in Blue Thunder.

Just
Another
First
Officer

Bobby said...

No Neck McGuirk.

Dan said...

Nice! I saw you guys taxiing out from TOL when you left.

I hope he had a good experience at my employer!

Anonymous said...

Not Icarus!

Anonymous said...

Knothead

Aluwings said...

I could never call my new babies by their given names until I lived with them long enough to know their character. They had to grow into their names. Until then they were just "baby."

So, I'd just call him NewGuy or Nooby until he grows into a name. You'll know when that happens, and we can all hold an online christening ceremony for him. ??? Who's bringing the champagne?