Originally Posted by
crazyjaydawg
I think it’s fair to consider the threat, and you may not be all the way in left field, but not in the infield either.
FAR Part 139 is a hefty read that outlines everything airports need to do to maintain an operating certificate in order to allow for operations of 30+ seat aircraft in 135 or 121 operations.
Those airport ops guys that you raised on frequency are required to do FOD checks on certain intervals (I didn’t feel like looking up the exact matrices), but the basic idea is that based on risk management, the number of operations, and frequency of operations, the runway is getting inspected on set intervals no matter if tower is open or not.
So yeah, the FO has a valid reason to be skeptical; however I think the way you handled was the best possible outcome. A back taxi is likely an over-use of resources, but having airport ops do it is exactly why they’re there (and required to be there per Part 139).
Just food for thought, but I’m guessing a busy airport such as ATL likely gets many more operations between inspections than the airports that go non-towered at night. There’s no way tower sees most FOD in the dark and hundreds of takeoffs/landings can happen with someone getting eyes on pavement.
Okay, fair enough. I'm clearly influenced by the one "find" of my career .... that's pretty much how human learning occurs. Glad I asked the question. Anyhow, greater consideration to be afforded to utilization of outside resources before considering doing a safety check in person at $xx-hundreds per minute of aircraft direct operating costs.
On the topic of aircraft operational costs, does anybody know of a way to ballpark what it is for a particular fleet? This conversation comes up from time to time, especially while waiting for ramp agents to saunter into position for marshalling. I'm usually flying a 321NEO and I could probably have been heard saying (either in my head or just on the interphone) something along the lines of "don't hurry on our account, this is only costing $150 per minute," which of course works out to $9000 per hour. Big time WAG! I rented a 737-200 in 1991 for $3000 per hour, wet with qualified crew/instructors to get my type rating, which I assume was profitable to the operator. That's gotta be triple in cost by now, especially considering the captital value of the machinery, even though relatively frugal on (more expensive) jet fuel. I'd guess our company would not provide such numebrs, but my curiousity seeks a figure to work with. Thoughts?