Originally Posted by
Cycle Pilot
Saves more gas? Are they kidding? Maybe they should worry about some simple things first. I was on the ramp in MCO a couple of weeks ago. I was doing my walk around and saw three Airbuses with their APU's running and they all had air and power hooked up. I talked to one of the rampers and asked him if the DAL-N planes ever shut their APU's down. He said it's very rare and very annoying. They go through all the trouble to hook up the power and air and the crews never shut the APU's down. I also take Airbuses home all the time, and I have yet to see the crews do a single engine taxi. I know it's going to take some time to switch mindsets and habits, but it just seems like common sense to save fuel. Oh well...
Cycle,
On the DC-9's, when it's hot, not only do we taxi on two engines, we don't shut the APU down until we are taking the runway. Not only don't we shut the APU off at the gate with external power and air, we put little shades up to keep the sunlight out. It gets hot. Really hot. To the point where I have had to delay boarding until it cooled down (30-45 minutes later). If it's not hot though, we shut the APU down when we get connected.
As for the Bus, I think that thing makes a booger of a noise when it's running on one engine. But, you will have to ask those guys. I don't understand French.
But, I wonder why you say it's going to take some time to switch mindsets? I also wonder why you imply that those guys aren't using common sense? I hope I explained the reasoning on the 9 well enough. Its hot!
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