Command Upgrade: From First Officer to Captain

The command upgrade is the step from first officer to commander, the captain who carries final authority for the flight and sits, by convention, in the left-hand seat. It has two gates. The pilot must hold a licence that allows command, in Europe an ATPL(A), together with the experience the operator requires; and the airline must select the pilot for a captain's vacancy, by seniority, by assessment or by both. The pilot then completes the operator's command course of training, checks and supervised line flying as commander.

Seniority, bases and the timing of upgrades are covered in airline pilot ranks, seniority and scheduling, and the licences in commercial and airline transport pilot licences. This article follows the upgrade itself, from eligibility to the first months in command.

Licence and experience requirements

Under Part-FCL, commanding a multi-pilot aeroplane in commercial air transport requires an ATPL(A). Many European first officers fly on a CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating and the ATPL theory passes, the so-called frozen ATPL, so the first step is to complete the experience for the licence. The applicant must be at least 21 and have 1,500 hours of flight time in aeroplanes, including:

For a line first officer, multi-pilot and night hours accumulate with ordinary flying; command experience is the requirement that needs planning. Pilot in command under supervision (PICUS) is flight time in which a co-pilot performs the duties and functions of the pilot in command under the commander's supervision, and it is the usual way an airline first officer builds that experience on the line. Airline minimums may not count it, though: Wizz Air, for example, states that the PIC hours it requires of type-rated direct-entry captains do not include PICUS.

In the United States the certificate comes first. Every Part 121 pilot already holds an ATP certificate, but a restricted ATP does not allow its holder to act as pilot in command in Part 121 operations, so a first officer who qualified on the restricted route must reach 1,500 hours, 500 hours of cross-country time and age 23 for the full certificate, which is then reissued without a new checkride. On top of the certificate, 14 CFR 121.436 requires a Part 121 pilot in command to have 1,000 hours of air carrier experience, such as time as second in command in Part 121 operations or as pilot in command in Part 135 or Part 91 subpart K operations.

Airlines set their own minimums above the regulations. Emirates publishes its internal upgrade criteria as at least 6,000 hours total time, 2,000 hours of operating-seat time on the type to be commanded, six evidence-based training modules completed, and a minimum age of 30 to start the command course.

Selection for command

How first officers are chosen varies widely. At Delta and British Airways command is filled by internal seniority, at British Airways through the bid system. Other airlines select by assessment, with length of service as one factor, and some offer faster routes: BA Euroflyer describes an internal path to command within about 12 months, subject to vacancies and standards, and airBaltic's senior first officers with 2,750 hours of commercial air transport flying and 1,500 hours on CS-25 aeroplanes upgrade within 12 months. Some airlines also recruit direct-entry captains at published minimums, such as Jet2's 3,000 hours with 1,000 hours as pilot in command on medium or heavy multi-crew jets.

A command assessment, where an airline uses one, usually draws on the candidate's training and checking record and adds interviews and often a simulator session flown from the left seat. The questions move up a level from those at first officer selection: technical questions pitched at a commander's responsibilities, and competency questions about decisions the candidate has influenced, conflicts handled, standards kept when nobody was watching and less experienced colleagues supported. The same STAR technique applies (see competency-based pilot interviews).

The command course

The command course is the operator's own programme, set out in the training part of its operations manual (OM Part D), and in Europe it is required by ORO.FC.205 before a co-pilot upgrades to commander. In FAA terms it is upgrade training. The course is less about handling than about command: the commander's legal responsibilities, decisions taken with incomplete information, and leading a crew.

The ground phase covers the commander's responsibilities and powers. Under CAT.GEN.MPA.105 the commander is responsible for the safety of all crew members, passengers and cargo from the moment he or she arrives on board until leaving the aircraft at the end of the flight, and for the operation and safety of the aeroplane from the moment it is first ready to move for taxiing until it comes to rest at the end of the flight with the engines shut down. The commander may disembark any person or cargo that may endanger the aircraft or its occupants, signs the operational flight plan, has the final say on last-minute changes to the load, and is ultimately responsible for every decision made on the flight deck.

Crew resource management runs through the course. EASA requires every flight crew member to complete CRM training appropriate to his or her role, and in an upgrade the emphasis moves to leadership and decision making. The operator keeps the records of the command course for 3 years.

Simulator training and checks

The simulator phase is flown from the left seat, which is a bigger change than it sounds. The hands swap: with the thrust levers on the centre pedestal, the captain flies the control wheel or the left-hand sidestick with the left hand and works the thrust levers with the right, the reverse of the first officer's habits. Scenarios are built around command decisions as much as handling: failures that leave the crew choosing whether to continue, return or divert, with weather, fuel and passengers to weigh.

The phase ends with the operator proficiency check (OPC) flown as commander, one of the elements ORO.FC.205 requires alongside simulator training that includes line-oriented flight training. From then on the new captain follows the recurrent cycle of every line pilot (see airline pilot training and checking).

Line training and the line check as commander

Line training follows on scheduled flights, the candidate in the left seat and a training captain in the right, ready to take over. For a pilot already qualified on the type, the minimum is 10 sectors of line flying in command under supervision, and more are flown if the candidate's progress requires. The phase ends with a line check as commander, an assessment on a normal commercial flight in which the conduct of the whole flight, the crew included, is now the candidate's own.

The commander must also hold route and aerodrome competence: knowledge of the routes or areas to be flown and of the aerodromes to be used, much of it found in Part C of the operations manual, which also gives the aerodrome operating minima. It is valid for 12 months beyond the end of the month of qualification or of the latest operation on the route or to the aerodrome. US rules handle the most demanding aerodromes through special airport qualification: to act as pilot in command at an airport the FAA has designated for its terrain or procedures, the commander or the first officer must have made an entry there within the preceding 12 calendar months, or the commander must have qualified by pictorial means, unless the ceiling is at least 1,000 ft above the lowest minimum en-route, minimum obstacle clearance or initial approach altitude and the visibility at least 3 miles.

The US equivalent of line training is operating experience with a check airman: for a new captain on a two-pilot turbojet at least 25 hours, followed by a line check.

Leadership and decision-making

The technical step from the right seat to the left is small; the change of role is not. As first officer the pilot advised; as commander he or she decides, and remains ultimately responsible for every decision made on the flight deck, however it was reached. Human performance texts distinguish leadership from authority: authority comes with the rank, while leadership, the ability to get work done with and through others while winning their confidence and willing cooperation, is acquired and has to be earned (see flight deck leadership and the authority gradient).

In practice a new commander's leadership shows in a few habits:

• Setting the tone in the briefing, inviting the first officer to speak up and meaning it, so that the authority gradient stays moderate.
• Speaking last on non-urgent decisions: asking for the first officer's view before giving one's own, because a junior pilot may not voice an idea that seems to contradict the captain.
• Deciding with structure: a model such as DODAR, which ends by assigning tasks and then keeps reviewing whether the situation has changed.
• Giving crisp direction when time is short: in an emergency the commander gives clear orders, then returns to consultation.
• Arbitrating, not negotiating: in flight the commander makes the decision and explains the reasons, afterwards if there is no time before.

The risk is greatest where the gap is widest. An autocratic cockpit is at its most dangerous when a senior captain flies with a much less experienced co-pilot. In the 1972 Staines Trident accident the junior second officer had less than 250 hours on type, and his inexperience made it harder for him to challenge a senior captain; all 118 people on board died. The reverse also occurs: a new commander may be paired with a first officer of longer experience, and the answer is the same professionalism, using that experience without giving up the decision.

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After the upgrade

The first months in command carry extra safeguards:

• Inexperienced crew rules. Under EASA guidance (AMC1 ORO.FC.200(a)) a pilot who completes a command course counts as an inexperienced flight crew member until flying, on the type, 100 hours and 10 sectors within a consolidation period of 120 days, or 150 hours and 20 sectors, and no flight crew may include more than one inexperienced member. Rosters therefore avoid pairing a new captain with a newly converted first officer.
• High minimums. Under 14 CFR 121.652 a Part 121 captain with fewer than 100 hours as pilot in command in the type adds 100 ft to the decision altitude or minimum descent altitude and half a mile, or the RVR equivalent, to the landing visibility. The raised minimums need not exceed the airport's alternate minimums but may never be lower than 300 ft and 1 mile, and the 100 hours may be cut by up to half, one landing replacing one hour, for a captain with 100 hours as pilot in command of another type in Part 121 operations.

Age limits apply to captains as to every pilot: from 60 a pilot may fly in commercial air transport only as a member of a multi-pilot crew, with the Class 1 medical renewed every 6 months, and from 65 not at all.

Library articles are written for study and exam preparation. They do not replace your aircraft's approved documentation, your operator's procedures or the regulations themselves.