Two Pilot Crew
Operating as a Two Pilot Crew
Safety is the primary issue in corporate flying, now and forever. Owners are realizing that transitioning from one to two pilot crews could add a significant margin of safety.
So how to do this to maximize safety? Managing the resources and coordinating the crew is the driving force behind CRM development. The first item to discuss is Checklists and Flows.
Checklists and Flows
There are two types of checklists: “Do” lists (challenge/response) and “Flow lists” check to see the flow has been done.
There are also two phases of checklists: In flight and on ground.
IN FLIGHT
In flight the checklists are completed by both pilots. They are read by the Non Flying Pilot (NFP) alternately referred to as the Pilot Monitoring (PM). Responses are either SILENT, NFP or Flying Pilot (FP). Also, the entire checklist section could be silent, but the NFP would announce at the end “
ON GROUND
Items are completed and/or read out by Captain (CA), First Officer (FO) or Both, but in most cases the FO reads off the checklist and one or both pilots respond as required.
Here is an excellent example of a two pilot checklist. They refer to the PF and the PM, rather than FP and NFP
Most notable about the checklist above is the reference to Mobile Phones. Sounds funny but is not. Phone usage in cockpits is increasingly becoming a problem.
Following Up the Flow
It’s important to remember a Flow does not replace a checklist. The checklist must be at least read after the flow. It can be a silent checklist in certain situations (after landing for example).
In most cases the post-flow checklist is read by the NFP or the FO.
Reading Out Loud
Let’s leave with this important fact. More and more aircraft are now equipped with some sort of cockpit voice recorder (almost all Pilatus aircraft have them by the way.) Let’s give them something to record. If you have an incident, or worse, an accident, let’s make sure the NTSB hears you doing all the required checklists on that recording. You can do that, right?