Ex Air Force Pilots are... well, let me be more precise, Ex Fighter pilots!
Most are good guys, and can adjust well to civil flying. Some require a little humbling before they come down to earth and start talking to us. Some, a small minority of ex-Air Force pilots, I wish never got their civilian licenses. Some have brains that are programmed to delete any instance of CRM in their memory.
The good guys can be useful when needing stern words to be thrown at the ATC. Some are good when flying into military airports, where their past friendships have enabled us to be given way and the other civil traffic gets thrown into a hold, mixing with pairs of fighters or ground attack aircraft.
But ONE, sticks in my memory the most. He was a cocky bugger. He never respects the guy sitting next to him. I had the unfortunate case of flying with him when he was just released as a Captain for the airline. He sat there like the general, telling the ground crew and me when and how to do things, regardless of company SOPs. The walk around, checking the numbers and loads, the route, the weather, everything and nothing shared. He insists that I check and recheck, but he himself never looks at the numbers nor does he bother even checking a small part of whatever I gave him.
As we pushed back and called ready for taxy to Jakarta's 07R, we were told to leave the apron, go straight on to SP2 to the holding point of 07R. As I repeated the taxi instructions to him, he immediately throttled the plane forward, and turned off at SP1, the parrallel taxiway before SP2.
"Kep, he said SP2, we're in SP1."
"Hey, I've been flying longer than you have, I know where to go!"
"SP2, not SP1, we're on SP1."
"Shut up on the taxying route and do the before take off checklist."
A checklist with him means the guy doing the checklist does everything for him, then reads it out, and he just replies. Checklist was completed, and I was we passed WC1 & WC2, the last opportunity we had to go to SP2.
"We missed the turn at the Whiskey-Charlies Capt."
"We can go this way!" He pressed on.
I thought to myself, this is going to be funny. I expected the tower or ground controller to call us in a minute, and if this was reported I would insist on returning to the gate and ask for the CVRs to be pulled out for evidence. The tower never called.
Within moments we reached the end of SP1 and the only way out was to turn to the right and enter Garuda Maintenance Facility. His face wasn't as confident as before now and a hint of worry was on his face. We turned into GMF and turned left again. I shook my head.
"Wow, big planes they got over here," I said sarcastically. "You sure we're on the right place now Capt?"
He pressed the brakes, slowed the plane down and made a long look out of the right window and then, unbelieveably the made a right hand 180 turn right there. The guys at GMF ran out to look and see what was going on. Embarrassed, he throttled up to get out of the scene faster.
Lo-and-behold, a Garuda A330 was being towed from the north at GMF's apron after it had entered GMF from WC. As the plane revealed itself from behind the hanggar wall, I too begin to get worried thinking to myself, "Oh-Oh, what now?"
I looked at this broken pride guy, he was sweating a bit, he throttled the aircraft up and we lurched forward.
"What are you doing?"
"We gotto get back to SP1 before they close the turnoff!"
"Are you nuts?"
Too late! The guys at the towtrucks and the engineer at the A330 must have pressed the brakes as hard as they could. I held onto whatever I could in the cockpit because at that speed, it would be risky making a turn to SP1.
It wasn't a near miss with the tow truck, but we surely made a quick chicane onto SP1. At that time, I had enough, I pressed the toe brakes and stopped the plane and looked at the Captain.
"Are you out of your mind Captain?"
"Get your feet off and we continue!"
"No! Not like this! You either start working together with me of I shall leave my seat!" I unbuckled.
"SIT DOWN!"
I stood up and said, "No! You make a choice Captain!"
The Tower called "PigFlyer 071, is everything OK?"
The captain sat there for a while, and said, "OK, sorry, sit down please and tell them we made the wrong turn while doing the checklist."
The rest of the day was uneventful, but after that day I requested to crew scheduling to never be put in the same plane as that guy. He jumped carriers a few months afterwards.
Most are good guys, and can adjust well to civil flying. Some require a little humbling before they come down to earth and start talking to us. Some, a small minority of ex-Air Force pilots, I wish never got their civilian licenses. Some have brains that are programmed to delete any instance of CRM in their memory.
The good guys can be useful when needing stern words to be thrown at the ATC. Some are good when flying into military airports, where their past friendships have enabled us to be given way and the other civil traffic gets thrown into a hold, mixing with pairs of fighters or ground attack aircraft.
But ONE, sticks in my memory the most. He was a cocky bugger. He never respects the guy sitting next to him. I had the unfortunate case of flying with him when he was just released as a Captain for the airline. He sat there like the general, telling the ground crew and me when and how to do things, regardless of company SOPs. The walk around, checking the numbers and loads, the route, the weather, everything and nothing shared. He insists that I check and recheck, but he himself never looks at the numbers nor does he bother even checking a small part of whatever I gave him.
As we pushed back and called ready for taxy to Jakarta's 07R, we were told to leave the apron, go straight on to SP2 to the holding point of 07R. As I repeated the taxi instructions to him, he immediately throttled the plane forward, and turned off at SP1, the parrallel taxiway before SP2.
"Kep, he said SP2, we're in SP1."
"Hey, I've been flying longer than you have, I know where to go!"
"SP2, not SP1, we're on SP1."
"Shut up on the taxying route and do the before take off checklist."
A checklist with him means the guy doing the checklist does everything for him, then reads it out, and he just replies. Checklist was completed, and I was we passed WC1 & WC2, the last opportunity we had to go to SP2.
"We missed the turn at the Whiskey-Charlies Capt."
"We can go this way!" He pressed on.
I thought to myself, this is going to be funny. I expected the tower or ground controller to call us in a minute, and if this was reported I would insist on returning to the gate and ask for the CVRs to be pulled out for evidence. The tower never called.
Within moments we reached the end of SP1 and the only way out was to turn to the right and enter Garuda Maintenance Facility. His face wasn't as confident as before now and a hint of worry was on his face. We turned into GMF and turned left again. I shook my head.
"Wow, big planes they got over here," I said sarcastically. "You sure we're on the right place now Capt?"
He pressed the brakes, slowed the plane down and made a long look out of the right window and then, unbelieveably the made a right hand 180 turn right there. The guys at GMF ran out to look and see what was going on. Embarrassed, he throttled up to get out of the scene faster.
Lo-and-behold, a Garuda A330 was being towed from the north at GMF's apron after it had entered GMF from WC. As the plane revealed itself from behind the hanggar wall, I too begin to get worried thinking to myself, "Oh-Oh, what now?"
I looked at this broken pride guy, he was sweating a bit, he throttled the aircraft up and we lurched forward.
"What are you doing?"
"We gotto get back to SP1 before they close the turnoff!"
"Are you nuts?"
Too late! The guys at the towtrucks and the engineer at the A330 must have pressed the brakes as hard as they could. I held onto whatever I could in the cockpit because at that speed, it would be risky making a turn to SP1.
It wasn't a near miss with the tow truck, but we surely made a quick chicane onto SP1. At that time, I had enough, I pressed the toe brakes and stopped the plane and looked at the Captain.
"Are you out of your mind Captain?"
"Get your feet off and we continue!"
"No! Not like this! You either start working together with me of I shall leave my seat!" I unbuckled.
"SIT DOWN!"
I stood up and said, "No! You make a choice Captain!"
The Tower called "PigFlyer 071, is everything OK?"
The captain sat there for a while, and said, "OK, sorry, sit down please and tell them we made the wrong turn while doing the checklist."
The rest of the day was uneventful, but after that day I requested to crew scheduling to never be put in the same plane as that guy. He jumped carriers a few months afterwards.
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