If First Officers are new to an airline, their first jet aircraft will probably be a Boeing 737, BA146, Fellowship, or MD80 variant. These all being relatively short-range ma chines, there will be plenty of handling practice during and after checkout which may be zero flight time so that their first takeoff and landing are on service. F/Os have the second best job in the world and often the youth and income to make the most of it. As they become more experienced they feel comfortable with the higher speed at which they are now flying and enjoy flying over most of the weather instead of through it. The job is very satisfying to deliver people safely without fuss or bother while on the flight deck every flight is different enough to be interesting. The challenge for a co-pilot is to always do their best. If you don’t try to do your best how can you be satisfied with the result. Many years may be spent in the right-hand seat and to some pilots, this becomes frustrating. The fact, is that we cannot control the promo tion rate, and aviation is a cyclical business, so enjoy the position you are holding and try not to spend your time thinking about being somebody else. It’s a losing battle like trying to change the past. After one of my first commercial jet flights an old friend gave me some good advice I have never forgotten. We were discussing Captains and how to get on with the obvi ously handicapped old gentlemen. A favorite and traditional topic for F/Os especially as the stack of cans grows higher and the evening wears on. His advice was toroll with the punch es. If Captains are casual it’s fine to be casual. If they want to be formal then play the formal game. There is a different routine for every player and every trip should be a pleasure to be on. It doesn＇t mean be subservient or lose your personality, just relax and go with the flow where it＇s reasonable to do so. The F/O is always an understudy for the Captain, and often is ready for the job long be fore it is available. There are still no partically good captaincy courses that I know of so it re mains a puzzle for the F/O to know what will be expected of them. One of the best ways to estimate this is to select two or three Captains who are well respected professionally and analyses what it is that they do differently, and then emulate that in your own duties. It is not possible to change overnight when the rows of braid on your sleeve increase. By practicing and observing the effects, one learns effective methods of leadership and command. Every one’s personality is different so it is neither possible nor desirable to pick up someone else’s personality. Rather the best commander’s features should be adapted to fit your own personal style. If practised, these features will then come back to you naturally when you need them. They must be natural or you will come across as insincere and that is death to leadership as you will no doubt already have noticed. There will be days when the Captain is having a bit of an off day, so when this occurs to be able to lift your game and pick up the extra load.5. How can the First Officer be in the position of the Captain?