Opinion on flying with a russian pilot.
Thread Starter
Opinion on flying with a russian pilot.
Hello all,
No surprise to all that Russians are now perceived as ultimate evil and many airlines in EU will simply not hire one even if he/she meets all the requirements. I would love to hear what you think of sharing a cockpit with a Russian. Would you refuse to fly with a Russian even if he is liberal and against politics of his country?
I know many pilots with a Russian passport and all face some level of descrimination in EU. Many failed background checks and one contractor was fired for having a Russian mother and French father.
Some groups of minorities are protected by law and cancel culture while others are openly discriminated against and that is encouraged by some left wing officials.
Please no politics and trolling. I would love to hear your honest opinion with an example of how it can affect CRM and safety of an aircraft in a multicultural company.
No surprise to all that Russians are now perceived as ultimate evil and many airlines in EU will simply not hire one even if he/she meets all the requirements. I would love to hear what you think of sharing a cockpit with a Russian. Would you refuse to fly with a Russian even if he is liberal and against politics of his country?
I know many pilots with a Russian passport and all face some level of descrimination in EU. Many failed background checks and one contractor was fired for having a Russian mother and French father.
Some groups of minorities are protected by law and cancel culture while others are openly discriminated against and that is encouraged by some left wing officials.
Please no politics and trolling. I would love to hear your honest opinion with an example of how it can affect CRM and safety of an aircraft in a multicultural company.
I have flown with a Russian captain recently. He was one of the most pleasant, experienced and standard colleagues I flew with. Absolutely no difference with a European commander. Actually, all of my fellow FO's like to work with him.
We didn't talk about the ongoing situation in Ukraine since he is not involved and I believe it would't be fair to judge him about this.
We didn't talk about the ongoing situation in Ukraine since he is not involved and I believe it would't be fair to judge him about this.
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Would you refuse to fly with a Russian even if he is liberal and against politics of his country?
I live by the idea that there are three things that should never be spoken on the flight deck: politics, religion, and money. Can the person I'm working with do the job safely and do they follow the procedures as laid out? We're not hired to fly airplanes and be friends. We're hired to safely fly the airplane with whomever we are paired with and be professional about it. CRM can be hard enough when dealing with people who are too passive or too aggressive to suddenly bring in something immutable as birthplace into the mix. I've flown with a few Russian nationals before, and I find they're just like everyone else. The vast majority are pleasant and professional and I'd have no problem working with them again. Another few I wish I was gouging my eyes out with a rusty nail instead of working with them. But I've had that same experience with all the other nationalities I've worked with.
I'm not naïve enough to think simply being Russian (or any other nationality) cannot affect CRM. Pilots are people, and personalities will clash, all it takes is a spark. For some people, that spark is politics. For others it's religion, money, and sports. Yet for others it's who was the better Captain: Kirk or Picard? Whatever the spark, the effect on CRM can be subtle or obvious, and not always negative. Sometimes these differences and the arguments that come from them can build a crew up. Working through differences is powerful stuff, and I've seen where it improves crew performance. But when it is negative, it can be in the form of a simple breakdown in communication to ignorance to fist fights. I simply try to avoid that spark where possible. It might make the flight or the pairing dull, but we can find other things to talk about. Or not. That's fine too. People are strange, when you're a stranger. So try not to be a stranger and find out more about the person than just the surface level "oh you're xyz and believe abc." And if you do eventually break into politics, religion, or money, hopefully it's from a sense of interest and seeing other people's ideas, rather than from an adversarial standpoint.
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Only comment would be their familiarity with the western attitude indicator, thought to be one of the factors in Crossair 498 crash. From the report,
The Russian attitude indicators (artificial horizon) are based on a different construction principle from the western variants. Whereas in the west a so-called inside-out representation was chosen, the Russian instruments follows the outside-in principle in their representation.
In the case of the inside-out representation, the artificial horizon represents the situation which the pilot would see when looking out of the window with a view of the natural horizon. A symbol in the centre keeps its position stable in relation to that of the aircraft, whilst a mask in the background changes its position. A dividing line between the blue (the sky) and the brown (the ground) part represents the actual horizon. In the event of a change in pitch, the visible part of the blue and brown areas shift. In a climb (pitch ANU) the visible brown part (the lower half of the display) diminishes and the blue part (the upper half of the display) increases. The symbol in the centre of the instrument therefore appears in front of the blue background. A scale with subdivisions indicates the angle of climb or descent.
With regard to pitch, the display of the Russian horizon behaves identically.
The roll of the aircraft is represented on the western type horizon by the slope of the horizon line. The horizon line moves in the opposite direction of the actual roll of the aircraft. The bank angle is indicated by a sky pointer, which travels over a scale in the upper part of the instrument.
In contrast, in the Russian horizon, an aircraft symbol (model) indicates the attitude of the aircraft in front of the horizontal blue-brown dividing line which remains stable. The aircraft symbol is inclined to the side on which the aircraft is inclined. The angle can be read off at the tip of the lower wing on a scale with graduations on the outer ring of the instrument housing.
In addition to the inverse representation of roll, mention should also be made of the decoupled representation of roll and pitch in the Russian instrument compared with the combined representation in the western type.
In Russia, the risk of confusion when interpreting the artificial horizon display and when reading off the roll angle is well known since the introduction of the western type horizon on a number of aircraft types (TU-154, all western types). Several accidents have been caused by this.
In the case of the inside-out representation, the artificial horizon represents the situation which the pilot would see when looking out of the window with a view of the natural horizon. A symbol in the centre keeps its position stable in relation to that of the aircraft, whilst a mask in the background changes its position. A dividing line between the blue (the sky) and the brown (the ground) part represents the actual horizon. In the event of a change in pitch, the visible part of the blue and brown areas shift. In a climb (pitch ANU) the visible brown part (the lower half of the display) diminishes and the blue part (the upper half of the display) increases. The symbol in the centre of the instrument therefore appears in front of the blue background. A scale with subdivisions indicates the angle of climb or descent.
With regard to pitch, the display of the Russian horizon behaves identically.
The roll of the aircraft is represented on the western type horizon by the slope of the horizon line. The horizon line moves in the opposite direction of the actual roll of the aircraft. The bank angle is indicated by a sky pointer, which travels over a scale in the upper part of the instrument.
In contrast, in the Russian horizon, an aircraft symbol (model) indicates the attitude of the aircraft in front of the horizontal blue-brown dividing line which remains stable. The aircraft symbol is inclined to the side on which the aircraft is inclined. The angle can be read off at the tip of the lower wing on a scale with graduations on the outer ring of the instrument housing.
In addition to the inverse representation of roll, mention should also be made of the decoupled representation of roll and pitch in the Russian instrument compared with the combined representation in the western type.
In Russia, the risk of confusion when interpreting the artificial horizon display and when reading off the roll angle is well known since the introduction of the western type horizon on a number of aircraft types (TU-154, all western types). Several accidents have been caused by this.
Last edited by megan; 29th Jun 2024 at 03:55.
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Thread Starter
I have only one concern flying with a russian pilot - sometimes they have bad crm and tend to risk to impress the management. But this is common with a lot of other nations.
Even though I asked not to bring any politics I have to say that Russian pilots are having terrible days - because of the war they are seen as 'undesirables' and no one hires them. Russian ferry and corporate pilots with EASA/FAA licence took the biggest hit and many are unemployed and starving. They can't fly in Russia and they can't be employed in EU due to discrimination.
