Originally Posted by
Delta1067
I'm not saying don't use them. Use them if you need them. My point is that there is a lot of speed brake usage that is a result of **** poor planning. I have flow a lot of different airplanes with speed brakes and on some you need them more than others, 75/76. Even on the 75/76 you can minimize their use with good planning. I do my best to operate the airplane like I'm paying the fuel bill. I have seen way too many pilots over the years use the speedbrake as a crutch to fix their constant poor planning errors.
I don't get your point. If you were paying the fuel bill and REALLY wanted to save money you'd use the speedbrake every flight because you'd stay high as long as you possibly can before making a steep 4 or 5 degree descent at flight idle max speedbrakes. That would be the most efficient way to fly the plane but would be dumb to do since you have used up all possible methods to shed energy for any unanticipated events ( increased tailwind, ATC speed reduction, crossing restriction etc)
For me 200 speedbrake use has increased drastically because we reduced our flap 8 limitation to 200kts from 215kts due to increased flap failures. When the 200s 1st came out the factory limitation was 230kts