Originally Posted by
webecheck
Unbelievable. I actually am going to concur with 757driver. Both of his posts. The iPad is a glorious thing, and everything is right at your fingertips, to be reviewed on the van ride in. Probably should even shorten the 45 minute shows to 30, provided the Capts are willing to do some box work or a walkaround. If you want 30 minute shows in a junior base on a new hire fleet, and intend to just sit there or chat with FAs until the FO has everything ready, good luck.
And why do people care whether it’s looked at in the hotel before pick up, in the van, of after the report window begins? It’s your work to do and just needs to be done. I’ve never flown with anyone who refuses to look at anything until inside of report time....that’s an outlier to be wary of for sure.
I totally disagree with both of you.
First off you need to understand that flight planning with the FO in the flight planning office was the way most LUAL flights were done before the merger and the vast majority of LUAL captain's still do that today. Going straight to the plane was an unusual event when you were particularly late or wanted to grab food. 90% of the time pilots went first to the flight planning office and sat down at a table to review all the papers and only after BOTH pilots had looked everything over did the captain sign the release and then BOTH pilots went together to the plane.
Also, there is absolutely no way a domestic pilot can load his iPad, read all the NOTAMS and review the DIL and review the weather forecast for the destination and enroute and alternate and discuss MEL items and fuel with your FO and THEN do a full setup in an A320 when the van drops you off 45 minutes prior.
You can say no one at LCAL ever had a problem with 30 minutes, but I will tell you I had a friend at the commuters who got violated because he didn't read a NOTAM about a changed minimum on an ILS into HPN and shot an approach when visibility was below the NOTAM'd limit. I had my own case as an FO on the 767 when flying to ZRH with GVA listed as an alternate. Turns out buried deep in the NOTAMs was a tiny note saying GVA would be closed for the time period we were going to arrive. The next closest suitable alternate ended up causing us to add gas. Who knows what choices we might have been faced with if I hadn't caught that note. What about our guys that missed the tid-bit about calling Turkey ahead of crossing VESAR that got in trouble. Do you think a little more time reviewing the available info might have been prudent?
Cutting corners in reviewing information may work most of the time as there isn't much relevant in there 99% of the time, but skip something important just once and you may be in trouble.