Originally Posted by
Sunvox
If you look at a plan and say "that's stupid" but don't call dispatch to change it then "garbage in equals garbage out". Is that really why you became a pilot?
The bottom line is really this: Flexibility and adaptability is the key.
A plan is a plan. You can make the plan as good as you can make it and keep improving it until you raise the gear.
Most of my calls to dispatch go like this?
"I don't know captain, I just sat down."
"I am working many flights right now, I'll get to it when I have time."
"It's quicker for me to just go ahead and add the gas rather than crunch this out."
"what flight is this again."
Text messages sometimes take 30 minutes to be returned.
But, flexibility and adaptability allow for the crew to think on their feet. After all, it says in the ops manual and AIM, and lots of other places that we are required to use good judgement, prior experience, and known and forecasted delays in our calculations. If we are being thoughtful and conscientious and incorporating that into the plan and into our actual flight that's really all the company, our customers, and the regulators can ask.