Originally Posted by
Twin Wasp
That’s the problem. While I enjoy hours of doing nothing except marking up a plotting chart on a published airway, there are times when CPDLC fails. Then what? Had a flight a couple years back, no answer on any of the HFs we were given. Dug up the ARINC page in the Jepps, looked out the window and picked a frequency. San Fran answered immediately and the FO had a priceless look on his face. “How did you do that?”
No, it’s no rocket surgery but when you have a training program that’s more of a differences class for pilots that have experience versus real training in international ops there’ll be problems.
Exactly......had a similar experience in an LCF. Had to get an HF phone patch and problem solve real time. Got the same look from the other FO.......good job he said (he had no idea what had happened or how to rectify the situation). The PROBLEM is that when an entire crew of 2 or more get in the cockpit and no ones ever experienced the anomolies before, we'll end up with another really bad outcome. How many more have slipped through the cracks? How many Captains won't even take rest breaks anymore? Our collective global aviation experience dwindles as.more of the folks who were hired long ago continue to leave, only exasperating the situation. I wish I could offer a solution.