At this age and stage, flying is most enjoyable to me as a social activity. Having someone else along to share the wonder that GA flying provides makes it a lot more fun. It may be the same for you. In that spirit, we have devoted this issue of FAA Safety Briefing to GA flying companions, with emphasis on welcoming non-pilot partners and passengers. We also aim to offer information that, we hope, will make the cockpit a more comfortable place for our companions. Before we close this edition, though, I want to address the topic of flying with companions — be they friends, colleagues, or life partners — who do happen to be pilots.

O Captain …

Early in my passage along the pathways of pilot-hood, I went joyriding in the sky with a pilot who was then a member of my flying club. We launched as friends, but I’m not sure I would have used that word when we landed. Both of us were fairly new to GA flying, but his steady barrage of instructional-style commentary made me wonder if he somehow thought the right seat magically made him a flight instructor. He also had a dismaying habit of “helping” me by, for example, changing trim or flap settings without even telling — much less asking — me first. Since I didn’t relish duking it out in the cockpit, I suffered in seething silence.

I probably owe John and Martha King for the fact that I have lots of flying friendships nowadays. In their typical entertaining fashion, they told a safety seminar audience how a single word — “captain” — helped saved their marriage from foundering on the kind of icy inflight interactions I experienced flying with my erstwhile friend.

The fundamental idea is that the pilot in the right seat always addresses the pilot in the left seat as captain, and provides objective information with no personal pronouns. For example, “you’re getting too slow!” is forbidden. Instead, the right seat occupant might say, “Captain, airspeed is decreasing.” The captain similarly avoids personal pronouns with a response such as, “Noted; correcting.” If the situa­tion isn’t resolved, the next transmission might be something like, “No correction noted.” “You’re still too slow!” is prohibited.

Even if you’re not comfortable calling your companion captain, you can still adopt this crew resource management concept. Omitting the pro­noun is a small change that makes a big difference when human beings (and pilot egos) are involved. It requires the pilot-monitoring to provide objective information rather than accusations, and it enables the pilot-flying to accept it in that spirit.

Roles & Responsibilities

Having this kind of discussion as part of the pre-brief opens the door to the broader conversation you should have with any pilot you invite to join you — and, for that matter, with any pilot who invites you to fly along.

For one thing, it’s important to explicitly estab­lish which pilot will serve as Pilot in Command (PIC). As the rules say, the PIC is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to the operation of the flight. Lawyers will tell you that knowing who has that role is very important if something goes wrong, but a more fundamental reason is safety. The experi­ence with my friend “helpfully” changing the aircraft configuration “for” me illustrates how dangerous it can be when there are, as the cliché goes, too many cooks in the kitchen.

If you are the PIC, state that before you go to the airplane. Tell your pilot companion what kind of assistance you do (and do not!) want. If you are the guest of the PIC, make no assumptions. Ask whether and how you can assist, and stick to terms you estab­lish during the flight.

If not from your own experience, take it from me that freelancing is not a good idea. So in a Pilot² configuration, get these basics squared away so you don’t square off in the sky. (FAA Safety Briefing MarApr 2018)