Interview Advice From Interview Committee Member

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08-28-2008, 11:08 PM

#11

joepilot

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Jul 2008

Position: 747 Captain (Ret,)

Posts: 804

Quote:

Originally Posted by asdf

Lets say you're the captain of a flight, and you have just learned the plane is 10 pounds over max gross weight? What do you do? Every single captain I've flown with would just fudge the numbers and continue on with the flight, knowing that 10 pounds will not hurt anyone. At the same time, I do not know of a single captain that would admit doing anything other than canceling the flight when presented with this scenario during an interview.

It is a great idea to be honest and all that, but a lot of times you just can't be. Would you say its best to keep it real by honestly fessing up to doing illegal-yet-hardly-unsafe stuff during an interview, or telling them what they want to hear?

The problem is you just can't always be that perfect example of the aviation cherub. There are many times when you have to fudge it, or else screw over a lot of people over what amounts to nothing. Its absolutely impossible to go through your career without doing some dirt along the way. Furthermore, since there are so many regulations, it's very easy to get caught up in "dirt" without ever even approaching "unsafe"

This is what I hate about interviews so much. There are so many situations where it's basically lose/lose. Your Boeing 737 is 10 pounds over max gross. Do be the perfect aviator and cancel the flight, screwing over all those passengers over nothing, or do you be the perfect aviator and get it done safely, yet still break the law?

I've gotta call bullsh** on this. Do not EVER knowingly exceed ANY FAR or company limits. If any little thing happens, the FAA will hang you out to dry, and your company will sanctimoniously point to its regulations which say you should not have done what what you did.

At my company, when we activate the autothrottles for takeoff, the aircraft automatically sends a message to our maintenante facility with all of our takeoff parameters, including our gross weight at the time of the button push for autothrottle engagement.

If you are above max ZFW, you don't go. If you are above max ramp weight, you don't go. If you are below max ramp weight but above max ATOG, you don't takeoff until you have burned off taxi fuel. You can do that in position on the runway as long as your clearance was not for an immediate takeoff. At takeoff power you may be burning as much as 100 lb/sec, depending on aircraft, so a few seconds delay while holding the brakes makes you legal.

Note: Nothing I am saying has anything to do with safety, it is about protecting your liscence to fly, which is your livelihood. Your company doesn't care about you. Your passengers don't care about you. Only you care about you. Protect yourself.

Joe

08-29-2008, 10:41 AM

#12

asdf

Line Holder

Joined APC: Jul 2008

Posts: 50

Quote:

Originally Posted by joepilot

I've gotta call bullsh** on this.

Calling bull**** on what exactly? Are you saying its impossible to be a good pilot, having ever broken a rule? If thats the case, then I've never met a good pilot. Everyone I've ever flown with has "done dirt" to some degree. At the same time, I've never met a pilot who would admit doing such things in an interview, which goes against the OP's point of "being yourself".

The fuel example may have been a bad example because its very easy to burn off a little bit to get back into the envelope. What if the issue was something just as minor, but not as easiely fixable?

And how eactly does your airplane know how much it weighs? Is there some kind of weight sensor in the landing gear or something? Does it rely on the pilot entering the weight maually with a keypad?