Originally Posted by
NuGuy
Maybe they had an MEL that prevented single engine ops
Maybe the ground power was no good (the Airbus is notoriously finicky about ground power)
Maybe the external air was only blowing lukewarm air.
Maybe the crew felt that the turn into the gate would be difficult single engine.
Maybe the Captain and/or FO were doing IOE or were new to the aircraft and didn't need the distraction.
FWIW, a CA friend of mine was getting 'hassled' about the fDAL FO about single engine taxi. "Fine" he said, "you start #2 whenever you think it's a good time". 3 out of the next 4 flights they pulled over into the pad to give #2 3 minutes.
MYOFB, and let the crew working the flights do their job....just sayin'.
Nu
Hmmm... that's weird. I've flown on about 20 Airbuses over the past couple months during my commutes and most of them were in the jumpseat. Only 1 crew has single engine taxiied. None were doing OE (on the flights I jumpseated) and all were two engine taxiing out to the runway on long taxi times.
If that fDAL F.O. wasn't timing his second engine starts correctly, then I guess he got a sub-par F.O. It doesn't take a PhD to time your engine starts and warm ups.
MMOFB? You're kidding right? It is my business. It's my company, too. The problem is they're NOT doing their job right. Read the FOM... One of the first pages notes "economy" as one of the operational priorities. I'm just trying to figure out why the fNWA crews I've flown with are not attempting to save some gas. It's just throwing money away.
Also, I agree that we need to fix the lack of/lazy ground crews. We sat at JFK yesterday waiting for a jetway driver for 20 minutes with the APU running. Very annoying...