If you’re reading this you most likely fall in one of two camps – (A) you’re either just about to start or have just begun a Command Course or (B) you’re a current F/O learning your craft and preparing for your turn at some later date. If you’re in Camp A, there’s not too much point in reading any further (just spend your time more productively and learn an aircraft system or a new Command skill). If, however, you are a Camp B type, then pay attention.
Your Company might give you the rank of F/O, but in reality you are an Apprentice Captain.
DO NOT waste your apprenticeship.
You should be preparing for your Command Course and learning and refining your individual Command skills. If you’ve got any sense you will have started to do this soon after you became an F/O. If not then start right now.
An easy way to do this is to learn from your current Captains on your current flights. Take control of your own Self Directed Learning – if YOU don’t do it, it’s unlikely anybody else will.
If you fly with 10 different Captains in a month and invest 15 minutes asking them questions and getting them to teach you something, then you’ve invested 150 minutes of valuable, hard to get, practical, experiential learning. And this is usually stuff that you will never find written in a book. If you learn just one new item, technique, method or piece of knowledge from each of them, then you are 10 items richer in your knowledge "bank" than a month before.
Imagine how much you could learn if you did this on every sector you fly for a year; two years; three years.
It’s like compound interest and you will reap the dividends when you actually commence your Command Course. You will be more knowledgeable, more confident, more decisive and a better Captain.
Don’t fall into the trap of just turning up for work and just only doing your job – and no more. Don’t waste your apprenticeship.
Now some Captains might be complete tossers and tell you point blank that they’re not Training Captains, so don’t bother them with this learning stuff! Well, you can learn something from these negative Captains (probably how NOT to be a good Captain!)
Your learning doesn’t have to be active, that is the Captain “formally” teaching you, discussing techniques or transferring knowledge. It can also be passive (learning by osmosis) by observing what your Captains do, how they handle people or deal with abnormalities or emergencies. You can then incorporate the good and reject the bad into your own individual Command “toolbox”. Watch, observe and learn from your current Captains.
Keeping a “Command Journal” can be handy and helpful for you to note how various Captains express their Command “Style”. You might notice common themes or methods that the majority of Captains use to cope with the various situations that are presented to them. List new items, techniques or knowledge so that you can discuss new, novel or contentious issues with other, different Captains.
Don’t waste your apprenticeship – learn from your current Captains.
Your Company might give you the rank of F/O, but in reality you are an Apprentice Captain.
DO NOT waste your apprenticeship.
You should be preparing for your Command Course and learning and refining your individual Command skills. If you’ve got any sense you will have started to do this soon after you became an F/O. If not then start right now.
An easy way to do this is to learn from your current Captains on your current flights. Take control of your own Self Directed Learning – if YOU don’t do it, it’s unlikely anybody else will.
If you fly with 10 different Captains in a month and invest 15 minutes asking them questions and getting them to teach you something, then you’ve invested 150 minutes of valuable, hard to get, practical, experiential learning. And this is usually stuff that you will never find written in a book. If you learn just one new item, technique, method or piece of knowledge from each of them, then you are 10 items richer in your knowledge "bank" than a month before.
Imagine how much you could learn if you did this on every sector you fly for a year; two years; three years.
It’s like compound interest and you will reap the dividends when you actually commence your Command Course. You will be more knowledgeable, more confident, more decisive and a better Captain.
Don’t fall into the trap of just turning up for work and just only doing your job – and no more. Don’t waste your apprenticeship.
Now some Captains might be complete tossers and tell you point blank that they’re not Training Captains, so don’t bother them with this learning stuff! Well, you can learn something from these negative Captains (probably how NOT to be a good Captain!)
Your learning doesn’t have to be active, that is the Captain “formally” teaching you, discussing techniques or transferring knowledge. It can also be passive (learning by osmosis) by observing what your Captains do, how they handle people or deal with abnormalities or emergencies. You can then incorporate the good and reject the bad into your own individual Command “toolbox”. Watch, observe and learn from your current Captains.
Keeping a “Command Journal” can be handy and helpful for you to note how various Captains express their Command “Style”. You might notice common themes or methods that the majority of Captains use to cope with the various situations that are presented to them. List new items, techniques or knowledge so that you can discuss new, novel or contentious issues with other, different Captains.
Don’t waste your apprenticeship – learn from your current Captains.
1 comments:
absolutely right.. flight time spent as a first officer is the main part of upcoming command-training.. the more you learn during F/O time, better and easier your command training would be..
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