Originally Posted by
7576FO
I fly for AA. We have a taxi checklist that is short. Then a mechanical checklist which is relatively long compared to other airlines. One of the reasons we taxi slowly is we never know when we'll receive our load closeout over the acars printer. We cannot take-off until we have this. Sometimes we get it before pushback. Sometimes we have to wait in the penalty box for closeout numbers.
We never know. Lots of ATC controller ask, "Hey American do you have your numbers?"
For the whole time i've flown for American pilots have asked for SWA's closeout system of Laptop atog's and agent closeout sheet at main cabin door departure. The answer is always "our system is fine"
I don't think so, we waste tons of fuel waiting on numbers.
On taxi in, many times we do not know if our gate is avail. Most often it is occupied. This may account for most of our slow taxi on arrival.
The last few years some of us call ahead to see if our gate is available on arrival. But most of the time we never know. In fact we are not supposed to call our ramp control until AFTER crossing all active runways and then contacting ground control, then call ramp.
As far as the ex TWA pilots response above, it is interesting how people only remember the good things about their previous employer. They remember none of the bad stuff.
Funny, at CAL on the 756 we have NO taxi checklist whatsoever. Everything is done and set up prior to push, including the numbers. Granted, sometimes they might be a little late and a CA will push without them, but by the time we're disconnected from the tug, the printer has rolled out the info. It's usually uplinked through the FMC before the printer gets it, anyway.
Everything that would normally be done on a taxi check is done on the before start or before takeoff. The before takeoff is every short, though. Departure announcement, Flaps/TO Config Check, any changes to the TO brief (that was done at the gate) and turning on the xpndr.
CAL's idea is to keep the pilots looking outside and not distracted while taxiing around.
Works pretty well.