From the beginning of their aviation career, during their first hour of flight instruction, a pilot is introduced to the concept of a shared cockpit, although in this case, with an instructor in charge of the lesson. Without realizing it, they are taking their first steps in crew resource management (CRM), a concept that will accompany them into the more professional stage of their career flying for an airline.
For a significant portion of a pilot's career, this concept of a shared cockpit does not apply, as the pilot often flies solo, with friends, or with non-aviation-related passengers. After receiving their private pilot's license, the new pilot starts flying to accumulate flight hours, and during this period, the concept of a shared cockpit is not a requirement, although it should be.
In this manual, we aim to provide a definitive solution to this gap in the aviation training system and introduce the concept of a shared cockpit to pilots at all levels from the initial student pilot about to embark on their first solo flight to the professional pilot entering the airline environment.
Learning to fly in a shared cockpit does not refer to the technical flying skills a pilot may have when operating the aircraft; rather, it refers to the human resources inside the cockpit and the management of these resources in the interest of flight safety. One of the cornerstones of this concept, which we will learn, is understanding that every procedure can be shared between two pilots. This approach not only ensures procedural effectiveness but also maximizes available resources for the flight.
Once you have learned this concept and applied it in real-life flights, you will notice that flying in a shared cockpit not only makes the flight more enjoyable but also more efficient.
This will be the objective of our work: to teach you all the principles of crew resource management, so you can become a more efficient pilot than you were before reading this book.
