So what is this whole Captain thing?

Well, what does it mean to be a Captain?

I guess we first get into "nomenclature." People still classify airline pilots as 'pilot' and 'co-pilot.' This changed quite a while ago, because the co-pilot is also a pilot, obviously. So, the wording was changed to Captain and First Officer.

Here is the mighty Wikipedia's entry (well, part of it:)

Under U.S. FAA FAR 91.3, "Responsibility and authority of the pilot in command", the FAA declares:^[4]

• (a) The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.

• (b) In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule of this part to the extent required to meet that emergency.

• (c) Each pilot in command who deviates from a rule under paragraph (b) of this section shall, upon the request of the Administrator, send a written report of that deviation to the Administrator.

Well, unless you are a pilot, that is clear as mud.

Basically, it comes down to this-- "The Buck Stops Here." Somebody has to be the fall guy, the decision maker. You cannot make decisions in an aircraft by committee. The job of the First Officer, is to assist the Captain in the handling of the aircraft and the conduct of the flight, but when it comes to crunch time, the CA makes the final call.

This is one of the thorns in the side of pilots. We tend towards Type-A personalities. We generally want to lead.. or at least, be in the front.

I have been very lucky. I have been an FO for American Eagle for almost 10 years (I was hired with a class date of October 30, 2000. If you think the date is not significant, your life has never been ruled by a seniority list.) I posted this on Facebook, but I logged 7,590 hours, and 44 minutes as a First Officer. In that time, I flew with some real tools, yes, but wow, did I get to fly with some amazing people. People who not only knew how to fly the airplane, but knew how to really lead. This is very important where the decisions you make directly impact the lives of the people in your care.

Very few jobs have that level of responsibility. When you get in an airliner to fly somewhere, here is the dealio-- you are paying money to be taken from one place to another, by people you have never met, and have no way of ascertaining their capabilities and skill levels, and can ONLY trust that we know everything we need to know to complete our task successfully. When we screw up... sometimes even minorly... well, people pay with their lives, and they do it by the hundred. At least a doctor can only knock off 1 person at a time.

There is a bit more to it than that, but that is it in a nutshell. When you consider everything that goes into a flight... from designing the aircraft, to the meals (ha!), to servicing, the works, there may be more to things than meets the eye... all happening at once, all hopefully in some sort of synchronicity. I will touch on that in a later post, I think.

I guess that does not get totally down into the nitty-gritty of being a Captain, but I tend to ramble anyway.

More to come.

Scott