Alright, so I get it. Do the procedure, do the checklist, call for push, when cleared beacon on and tell tug driver "beacon on, brakes released, cleared to push." Then start immediately and don't worry if you're sitting there with one or two engines running while they disconnect. No more "time the start so that when the wing walker..." kind of like "start the APU so it's just coming up as we pull into the chocks..." or "start the second engine when the 757 in front of takes off, they have to give us two minutes..."

I get it. It's actually simpler, at least for the Douglas equipment folks. We've got the HYD cut your head off issue with the 88 dropping it's flaps and the 717 dropping flaps and slats at the gate. Until those guys pull the chocks and are clear you really don't want to hit those things and thus you don't really get ahead of that checklist. It'd be nice by the time the driver called that you were ready, but we're waiting on the driver to call to get started. Now, if it were up to me I'd pull HYD ON from the pushback, make it like the beacon as a no brainer and put the "ckd" on the after start... but that's just imho. Then we could get ahead. And I don't mind seeing the beacon dropped from the checklist, less is better.

Really I think they want to stop something you see in ATL sometimes where planes push and then the tug disconnects and they hang out starting the engine and doing the WDR and then doing the after start and then finally dropping the slats after hanging everyone up. And I kind of understand the 88s plight on that, a taxi check there compared to the 717 is a whole different ballgame when you have computer screens vs... the 88. But I got stuck on ramp 3 one day and watched a SWA jet push, as soon as they stopped the towbar disconnected and those guys were gone like they stole something, which according to AirTran

And Scambo I completely get what you're saying about the tug driver, but on the 88 and 717, those guys are blind as a bat and if you give them bad wing walkers...



It's more or less good to have the Captain and FO listening to the push clearance and what is said to the tug driver and what that guy says back. Such as ensuring the driver understood you're waiting for someone coming out vs going in vs a 757 vs a 88. You have a better chance of doing that if the FO is not running a checklist even though right now we don't move til it's done.

I also really think they're trying to strike the balance between those who go too slow (not always in the name of safety, just slow) and those who go way too fast.