Now, let's talk about constituted crews — Page 242, Lesson 389

I want to walk you through a topic that gets right to the heart of how crews work together — and sometimes fail to. Let's start with a real accident snapshot: an aircraft touched down halfway along the runway, leaving far less landing distance available than it needed. That's the kind of outcome we're trying to prevent by understanding group dynamics. Now, let's talk about constituted crews. In military aviation, aircrews often fly together as what's called a 'constituted crew' — meaning the same group of people fly together repeatedly over time. That has certain advantages: the crew members come to know each other's habits, as well as each other's strengths and weaknesses. They develop a kind of shorthand. But here's the key point: a constituted crew is not a practical option in civil aviation. In a large airline, it's quite possible for crew members to be flying together for the first time. That reality reinforces the need for standardized procedures for all aspects of the flight. Why? Because standard procedures enable each of the strangers in the cockpit to know what the other crew members will do, even if they've never met before. Now, there are benefits to constituted crews — I don't want to dismiss that. But without great care, they may introduce particular risks. Imagine this: one crew member is ill and temporarily replaced. The new crew member will be unaware of the adopted procedures that the rest of the crew has been using. He or she won't be aware of any hand signals or shortened procedures that the constituted crew has adopted. Here's a concrete example: a thumbs-up sign on finals may have been an understood signal between the regular crew for selecting landing flap position. But the new co-pilot may merely take it as an appreciation of his flying skills — a compliment, not a command. That misunderstanding could be dangerous. There's another danger: if a crew has remained together for a long time, any bad habits will not be noticed — they'll be absorbed into the crew's operating procedures as if they're normal. Because of all this, a constituted crew policy is not considered a good policy in modern aviation crewing policy. Let's move to a related concept: role and norm. Behaviour within a group may very well depend upon the social expectation of the role played within that group. For example, an individual who finds himself or herself 'Chairman' of a committee will tend to behave in a different manner to that shown when he or she was a normal member. So a newly promoted Commander of an aircraft may show a distinct behavioural and attitude change once in the Captain's seat. The role itself shapes the behaviour — and that's something we need to be aware of as pilots, because it affects how we communicate, how we assert ourselves, and how we lead.