Narrative:

Several times in recent months I have flown with first officers (first officer) who have demonstrated a lack of proficiency. This lack of proficiency has manifested itself with slow inefficient work; missed items and reduction of confidence. Augmented crew operations and the current scheduling system create a pilot who based on seniority or personal choice spends long periods out of the right seat. When the time comes to sit in the seat for setup; checklist; radio calls; etc.; their lack of currency becomes apparent. You can read about the job in manuals and cockpit panel diagrams and use cheat sheets to guide you but it takes repetition and hands on experience to really retain the skills needed to perform such a complex job.I have recently flown with a copilot who had not sat in the right seat; except for landings class. In just the last few weeks I have flown with several fos who had either just come from or are assigned landings classes in a few days' time. Almost all of these pilots missed things in cockpit prep or forgot how to accomplish tasks in FMC setup to a level well above normal errors. This has placed additional work on the remaining crew members; these distractions and increased workload reduce the effectiveness of the crew as a whole and increase the chance for additional serious errors. A first officer who has not been in the right seat for setup and takeoff for months should fall under threat in the CRM/tem matrix. Not something that is desirable.this is a systematic problem that has created a normalization of deviation. Non confident; inexperienced crew members have become the norm; in this section of the seniority list for wide body augmented crews.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported a situation with general First Officer proficiency among the international relief pilots.

Narrative: Several times in recent months I have flown with First Officers (FO) who have demonstrated a lack of proficiency. This lack of proficiency has manifested itself with slow inefficient work; missed items and reduction of confidence. Augmented crew operations and the current scheduling system create a pilot who based on seniority or personal choice spends long periods out of the right seat. When the time comes to sit in the seat for setup; checklist; radio calls; etc.; their lack of currency becomes apparent. You can read about the job in manuals and cockpit panel diagrams and use cheat sheets to guide you but it takes repetition and hands on experience to really retain the skills needed to perform such a complex job.I have recently flown with a copilot who had not sat in the right seat; except for landings class. In just the last few weeks I have flown with several FOs who had either just come from or are assigned landings classes in a few days' time. Almost all of these pilots missed things in cockpit prep or forgot how to accomplish tasks in FMC setup to a level well above normal errors. This has placed additional work on the remaining crew members; these distractions and increased workload reduce the effectiveness of the crew as a whole and increase the chance for additional serious errors. A FO who has not been in the right seat for setup and takeoff for months should fall under Threat in the CRM/TEM matrix. Not something that is desirable.This is a systematic problem that has created a normalization of deviation. Non confident; inexperienced crew members have become the norm; in this section of the seniority list for wide body augmented crews.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.