Originally Posted by
rollercoaster
I believe the new procedure at Eagle is that a flight crew placardable MEL will be performed by the crew irregardless of location - maintenance base or outstation makes no difference.
If you're a Delta crew and the TCAS fails enroute to ATL, do you flight crew placard the TCAS in ATL yourself or simply write up the discrepency and call Delta maintenance?
You send maintenance a message on the ACARS en route to give them the heads up and then once you land you put it in the logbook and let them come take a look.
If, however, they want you to MEL it (not likely on a TCAS issue per se but definitely on some of the other issues especially cabin related) then they'll send you a message back to MEL it and it'll have the MEL number and control number on it and you MEL it and leave.
Now lets say the ball is dropped and the MEL doesn't end up on the new crews paperwork. Say you're 45 minutes late and the new crew already has their paperwork without the MEL listed. When they get the plane they should see a placard on the panel, an MEL card in the front of the logbook and the write up and MEL on the particular log page. Same as obviously you guys would. Then they can get an amended release that includes the MEL.
FWIW, say you get authorization to MEL something at the gate, via ACARS, you don't have to have the MEL in immediately just prior to leaving the aircraft.