Originally Posted by
BusBoi
One of my friends is an AA 73 captain and he said there's a lot of cultural opposition to taxi on one, and also they have pretty strict taxi thrust limitations that are hard to work with for the 737NG. At Spirit we used to have a 40% limitation, which was removed around the time I became a captain. Definitely made it easier as sometimes 40% just didn't cut it.
But yea, I've been on AA where we had a 40 minute taxi out and they ran both engines the whole time. That's fuel you could have in your tanks and could make the difference between diverting or not later in the flight.
Frankly, taxi thrust restrictions are ridiculous. It's incredibly frustrating watching pilots practically crawl across a runway or up a slope, all because they're strictly adhering to a low N1% limit. Here's a news flash: Exceeding that limitation on taxi isn't going to trigger an alarm. I do it almost every flight and have never had any repercussions. As for anyone behind you, their spacing is their responsibility—focus on what's in front of you.