Recently, I was able to break up the routine boredom of the temp job with a quick flight (during the normal "work" hours...shhh). As you'll note by the photographic evidence of the Diet Coke in the before and after pictures of the flight, it must have been a good flight. (Although I must note that I should really stop doing that, for fear of spills).
When flying two-pilot aircraft, one of the most important things to establish is which pilot has control of the aircraft at any given time. Usually, two pilots--be it in the military or civil sectors--will divy up the duties, each pilot flying half the time and navigating and tuning radios for the other half. Of course, the trick is deciding who flies first. You might wind up with the conversation that I had today.
"So", I said, "do you want to fly first or should I?"
"No", said the other pilot, contemplating, "you can fly first if you want"
"Well, if you want to fly first, you can. I don't have to fly"
"No, it's okay, you go ahead and fly, I'll talk on the radio", he said.
"Are you sure?", I asked, "Because you could fly first".
"No, go ahead. I've got the radios"
"Fine", I concluded.
I pondered on the implications of the conversation for a second. Here we were, two grown men sitting next to each other in a vechicle, and we sounded like the odd couple debating over who gets to decide where to eat this time.
"You know, we're beginning to sound like we're married. I think we're scaring the crew chiefs".
1 comment:
Simple solution: Rock, Paper, Scissors - but you gotta go 2 out of 3. Winner flies, loser chats.
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