In the early years of airlines and up into the late 80's an airline Captain was king. What they told the crew to do was done. Right or wrong they laid down the law.
They expected everything to be done... their way. Some... like Captain Loco (my nickname for him) wouldn't talk much. After flying with him a month you started carrying a little spiral notebook and would assign a page or two to every Captain you flew with... you kept track of his rules... his laws.
Loco was unusual and the last time you saw him was about 10 years ago and he still wouldn't engage in a conversation. He didn't recognize you but you certainly knew who you were calling when you called a locksmith to get you into your truck. He ignored friendly talk and you paid him and he went on his way.
Loco like to go fast. He broke every single rule about speed that there was. Nothing really bad about flying fast... just don't break the law and get fined... or exceed the design envelope of the aircraft.
- When flying close to an airport you can't exceed 210 knots
- When below 10,000 feet you cannot exceed 250 knots.
- You cannot exceed the maximum speed of the aircraft called "VNE" ... (Velocity - never exceed)
- Flaps have speed limits
- Landing gear has speed limits.
- There are more...
He would takeoff and he would hold the nose level (not climb) so he could accelerate quickly to 320 knots (70 to 120 knots over the speed limit) and then he would start climbing. If you corrected him he would just ignore you. If you were flight planned for 30,000 feet he would still only climb to 10,000 feet and then go as fast as he wanted. Normally he would not exceed VNE because the "Clacker" would sound off... it sounds like a large mean cricket.
Captain loco didn't crash and burn but his airline did... his pension like everyone else's was underfunded... pensions were reduced by 2/3 for their retirement.
There are legends of other dictator-like Captains out there...
Like the Captain that always said; "If I have to crash land I will do so without fuel". He crashed his DC-8 in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon in the dark of the night... WHEN HE RAN OUT OF FUEL. The crash investigation doesn't really blame him as much as it puts the blame on the crew. The airplane had a landing gear malfunction but all of the landing gear made it down and locked in a normal position and the crew knew it. Still they ran out of gas and crashed.
Another Captain was famous for flying through thunderstorms rather than going around them. His Lockheed Electra disintegrated in the air one night. Legend had it he flew through a thunderstorm, yet the accident report doesn't really say that... and the Electra was suspected of having structural problems.
In 1990 you caught a ride on a Pan Am 727 from Miami to Houston. When riding jump seat the crew would put a jump seater in an available seat in the back... often in first class. This Captain wanted you to sit in the cockpit. The captain was a small guy with a custom made 3 piece uniform he had made in Hong Kong. He didn't match the others uniform in color or fabric. You met him at the Pan Am desk deep in the bowels of the building and he had you stay with him and walk with him to the airplane. We arrived at the airplane about 5 minutes after the scheduled departure because he wanted to.
You nicknamed this guy Napoleon... it sounded like a dictatorial name to you. He slowly hangs up his coat after the Flight Engineer offered to hang it up for him. Then he very precisely ties down his suitcase and yours after the Operations Agent and the Flight Engineer both offered to do it. Everyone started needling him to go... go... go. He continued to crawl through his pre-flight items. By then everyone but me was furious and you could feel the hatred and the stares at the captain.
Finally he sat down and the agent closed the door and pulled the jetway back. About 5 minutes later the Co-pilot says something in German over the interphone and the aircraft commenced push back... for about 10 feet or so... then it comes to a strange stop with the tug below still trying to push the aircraft back. The Captain set the parking brake and then proceeds to chastise the co-pilot for releasing the brakes (it is the captains job)... the co-pilot had reached a breaking point with the captain and there was no longer a crew that could work together.
Finally we started taxiing out and when we were getting close to the end of the runway we were cleared for takeoff. The captain was going to be the one flying but he had no idea what the route was. The co-pilot just told him we were cleared as filed. So the captain had to look it up... something that should have been done before we moved. So the Captain pulled out a map and tries to find the first fix on the route... he can't find it and no one was even slightly thinking of helping him. Imagine holding a big unfolded map and trying to drive / taxi. You were just trying to be invisible because this was so embarrassing. Our takeoff clearance was cancelled because we were moving too slow. Soon we received a new takeoff clearance and it was cancelled too. By then the tower was really mad and the radio chatter was close to going really vulgar... there was a line of airliners behind us and we were blocking traffic.
We finally managed to takeoff and the captain still didn't know which way to go... the co-pilot finally helped the captain because he was probably worried about an FAA violation for being off course. Climbing through 30,000 feet the flight engineer noticed that the crew oxygen was reading zero. Some one had left their oxygen mask on and the oxygen was gone... we all checked and everyone said their oxygen was off... I suspect the co-pilot did it on purpose.
The captain got on the radio with Pan Am Operations to determine the right course of action. While doing that he let the co-pilot fly and talk to air traffic control. Without telling the captain, the co-pilot declared an emergency and began a descent and got clearance to divert into Orlando. The captain and the company had decided it was legal to continue to Houston using the portable oxygen bottles that are available ... we just had to descend to 25,000 feet.
There was a major meltdown at that point. Then the captain called the flight attendants to ask them to bring their portable oxygen bottles to the cockpit and she offered you a seat in First Class. You exited the cockpit wondering if we would reach Houston... we did. Pan Am shutdown for good later that year. You never before or again witnessed such a total breakdown of a crew.
Captain loco didn't crash and burn but his airline did... his pension like everyone else's was underfunded... pensions were reduced by 2/3 for their retirement.
There are legends of other dictator-like Captains out there...
Like the Captain that always said; "If I have to crash land I will do so without fuel". He crashed his DC-8 in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon in the dark of the night... WHEN HE RAN OUT OF FUEL. The crash investigation doesn't really blame him as much as it puts the blame on the crew. The airplane had a landing gear malfunction but all of the landing gear made it down and locked in a normal position and the crew knew it. Still they ran out of gas and crashed.
Another Captain was famous for flying through thunderstorms rather than going around them. His Lockheed Electra disintegrated in the air one night. Legend had it he flew through a thunderstorm, yet the accident report doesn't really say that... and the Electra was suspected of having structural problems.
In 1990 you caught a ride on a Pan Am 727 from Miami to Houston. When riding jump seat the crew would put a jump seater in an available seat in the back... often in first class. This Captain wanted you to sit in the cockpit. The captain was a small guy with a custom made 3 piece uniform he had made in Hong Kong. He didn't match the others uniform in color or fabric. You met him at the Pan Am desk deep in the bowels of the building and he had you stay with him and walk with him to the airplane. We arrived at the airplane about 5 minutes after the scheduled departure because he wanted to.
You nicknamed this guy Napoleon... it sounded like a dictatorial name to you. He slowly hangs up his coat after the Flight Engineer offered to hang it up for him. Then he very precisely ties down his suitcase and yours after the Operations Agent and the Flight Engineer both offered to do it. Everyone started needling him to go... go... go. He continued to crawl through his pre-flight items. By then everyone but me was furious and you could feel the hatred and the stares at the captain.
Finally he sat down and the agent closed the door and pulled the jetway back. About 5 minutes later the Co-pilot says something in German over the interphone and the aircraft commenced push back... for about 10 feet or so... then it comes to a strange stop with the tug below still trying to push the aircraft back. The Captain set the parking brake and then proceeds to chastise the co-pilot for releasing the brakes (it is the captains job)... the co-pilot had reached a breaking point with the captain and there was no longer a crew that could work together.
Finally we started taxiing out and when we were getting close to the end of the runway we were cleared for takeoff. The captain was going to be the one flying but he had no idea what the route was. The co-pilot just told him we were cleared as filed. So the captain had to look it up... something that should have been done before we moved. So the Captain pulled out a map and tries to find the first fix on the route... he can't find it and no one was even slightly thinking of helping him. Imagine holding a big unfolded map and trying to drive / taxi. You were just trying to be invisible because this was so embarrassing. Our takeoff clearance was cancelled because we were moving too slow. Soon we received a new takeoff clearance and it was cancelled too. By then the tower was really mad and the radio chatter was close to going really vulgar... there was a line of airliners behind us and we were blocking traffic.
We finally managed to takeoff and the captain still didn't know which way to go... the co-pilot finally helped the captain because he was probably worried about an FAA violation for being off course. Climbing through 30,000 feet the flight engineer noticed that the crew oxygen was reading zero. Some one had left their oxygen mask on and the oxygen was gone... we all checked and everyone said their oxygen was off... I suspect the co-pilot did it on purpose.
The captain got on the radio with Pan Am Operations to determine the right course of action. While doing that he let the co-pilot fly and talk to air traffic control. Without telling the captain, the co-pilot declared an emergency and began a descent and got clearance to divert into Orlando. The captain and the company had decided it was legal to continue to Houston using the portable oxygen bottles that are available ... we just had to descend to 25,000 feet.
There was a major meltdown at that point. Then the captain called the flight attendants to ask them to bring their portable oxygen bottles to the cockpit and she offered you a seat in First Class. You exited the cockpit wondering if we would reach Houston... we did. Pan Am shutdown for good later that year. You never before or again witnessed such a total breakdown of a crew.
Fortunately things changed over time and more emphasis was placed on standardization and crew coordination. The crew gradually became one. The key term was CRM or Crew Resource Management. Day after day of training was done on CRM with excellent results.
Out of the blue the FAA started holding co-pilots responsible for deviations and fining him along with the captain. No co-pilot wanted that change. But it forced the co-pilots in to being more assertive and questioning the captain.
Out of the blue the FAA started holding co-pilots responsible for deviations and fining him along with the captain. No co-pilot wanted that change. But it forced the co-pilots in to being more assertive and questioning the captain.
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