Originally Posted by
FmrFreightDog
All this is really a DC-9 issue, mainly because it's a note intensive airplane. With no FMS most guys pull out the map and write down the route on the release. Also with AWABs, we have no printer so the WDR update comes across as a bunch of seperate, hard to read free text ACARs messages. Is it a huge deal? No. Is it a big change? Yes. On a non FMS airplane there's a lot to write down especially since we now have to compute our takeoff power manually, and I'm used to having a copy of the flight release (Which in fNwa speak is a one page summary of route,fuel,MELs, and alternate information) to write on. We will get over it and start bringing bigger pieces of scratch paper. It's just a little frustrating when you have two guys stumbling through a totally new system with almost zero instruction for us and absolutely zero instruction for the fNWA agents who have no idea what FPS, WDR, or AWABs is.
Very well put! Speaking only for myself, my biggest issue is with the training. We were thrown out there with next to no explaination of the whole process (hence the delays over the past few days). A couple of months from now we will be going thru this all over again with the cutover of the rest of the fleets unless they send out some kind of clarification on the process to the "Bus" & "Boing" guys. This "Learn it on line" mentality is fine as long as one of the guys up front can explain it. When both guys are clueless it is a "nowhere road". We can figure it out, but it just takes a few extra minutes at the gate (usually with some expletives thrown in).
I personally don't think the release thing is anything more than an inconvenience. We will get used to it shortly, but we will most likely still complain about it because lets face it, we're pilots & that's what we do best!