As a grasshopper I was assigned to DH to TPA and test hop a 57 that had some recent slat work done. We walked in and Johnny Ops said "Maintenance says that you guys are going to go fly it, and if good come back, but if its bad, just go to MIA". This seemed reasonable to me as I had done this type of thing countless times as a commuter geek.

But BIG C Captain overheard this and interjected "No (Golly) Way" or words to that effect. He then implored me to dig out the FOM while he dialed SAMC. Little did I know but at the time, there were pages of info dedicated to flights other than scheduled ops. Repo Flights, Ferry Flights, Maintenance Test Flights, Verification Flights etc etc, each with specific verbiage over what exactly could be done and by whom.

As a result of that day, I will always find out exactly what type of flight is being authorized and exactly what can, and cannot be done. The FOM is very specific and so will be the release, or permit, or whatever they issue. While these types of flights may seem benign, one can easily put their ticket on the line by performing anything other than what is specified and allowed. In our case, they wanted us to retract and extend the flaps repeatedly. This was action was specifically prohibited under the auspices of our release, as was diverting to MIA if the work performed did not resolve the issue.



Don't end up like these guys.