Originally Posted by
labbats
One brand new captain recently refused to take an airplane into Roanoke because the auto spoilers were inop. How do you suppose that conversation went? If you guessed that dispatch questioned whether that captain should have ever upgraded you'd be right. Never mind that they were already an MD80 captain at a previous airline and made the right call on this.
Oh the horror. No auto spoilers. Not taking the captains right away to question things, but what do you think happened in the days before auto spoilers?
Is it MEL- able? Are there performance numbers that show it will be legal? If so, not much of a leg to stand on.
edit: I looked at performance charts (not for MD-80) and it says landings distance numbers are for both auto and manual spoilers