I keep trying to tell Captain Mark to put the freakin speedbrakes in at cruise! But noooo, he has to lower the landing gear at 200 miles too! WTF! He just likes calling "min fuel" for some reason.

At least the mediated debrief still works.....;)

In reality, if something happened, flights would be diverted to other locations a LOT earlier than after they got so close in that they would need to go to NQA. Remember, all those other pax carriers are not filing an alternate at all, what do you think they do when something unplanned happens? I have experienced this in a previous life.

ALPA has a lot of experience with this, with great safety and engineering. I trust them to do the right thing as long as they are involved.

oh boy. Here we go.

On this same thread - When did the FCIF/e-mail about non-tower alternates disappear? I tried to look it up, but couldn't find it anywhere (except, an oblique reference in the SVP's bulletin, as "Enhancing Alternate Selection Procedure"). I hope this means that pipe dream has gone up in smoke.

I think you meant better than the "last guy," but overall I agree with your letter!
;)

Yep, I missed the sort by 5+ hrs on the KIX-MEM once. Dumped a whole bag of gas after a pressurization problem. We actually wasted about 1 hr (30 mins out, 30 mins back), while the 2 Capts discussed crossing the pond on 1 pack, then another 30 mins to dump !:rolleyes:

Page 3-13 in the FOM?

Several years ago, during recurrent ground school, this subject came up. If I recall correctly, one of the management guys (maybe RS) came in and asked that Capt's not add fuel indiscriminately (of course with, "We understand there are lots of good reasons to add extra fuel, we're basically addressing the guys that add 5,000# extra EVERY leg).

They went on to explain that, "If you add 5000 extra in STN, it costs you 1200# to tanker that fuel so you only get to MEM with 3800# extra anyway." This conversation went around in circles for a few minutes before the class collectively decided that the point had been made, that we actually should have been adding 7500# extra if we wanted 5000# extra on arrival in MEM. :D

Definitely one of the funniest things I've seen at FedEx ...

Another funny extra fuel story ...

Several months after the first ALPA contract, the company slowly started to institute the "new" catering clause in the contract. Many guys were annoyed that they couldn't get their "tuna sandwiches" every leg as they had grown accustomed to. A few started adding extra "tuna fuel" in protest. Well, I was in MEM flight ops one day and observed the Duty Officer approach one of his buds and advise him that the company was noticing the 5000# of extra fuel some guys were loading in exchange for the tuna sandwiches. His response?

"What SOB is only adding 5000#?" :D :D


Regards,



Mark

Mark, when you diverted on the KIX-MEM flight did you have enough duty time left to get the plane back to Memphis or did they have to get another crew???

If the company really cared about saving gas, we wouldn't be waiting with engines running 2, 3, 5, 10+ min for some dude to show up at the gate just to get parked!

If the company really really cared about saving gas we would not be routinely loaded with an extremley forward CG from places like CDG, FRA.

If the company really really really cared about saving gas, we wouldn't get a CDG release with 150+K cargo. Show up at the airplane to find it had been loaded hours ago, only to have 54K in cargo!! :rolleyes: