Ya...Atlanta isnt the safest place to get caught with ones pants down. Let alone multiple times.

Take no chances. Wear a belt and suspenders.

Some people do make a living off of that, to be fair.

As to cross tuning, on our 777's some FO's do, some don't. I don't care and I've never heard any Captain give anyone crap about it. I'm just happy when I'm not making a seatbelt PA on guard or 123.45!

Every once in a while when I'm bored out over the Atlantic or Pacific, I will intentionally make a long winded PA about all my experience and all my night carrier landings on guard, but I always preface that transmission with, "Welcome aboard American Airlines flight..."

Delta (and most airlines, I'm sure) have some guys who have techniques that they have enshrined as unbending "procedures", probably because that's how someone did it in an F-16 three decades ago. Like tuning the departure freq in the standby on #1 when you get the clearance at the gate. Huh? Is that really the best use of resources when you're rolling around in some complex ground op with multiple ground and/or tower frequencies that always seem to change over at runway crossings or complex intersections? If you really want me as heads-up as possible like you stated in your brief, let me preset a frequency I know I'm gonna need in the next few minutes, not a departure freq I might need in 25 mins. There will be plenty of time to set the departure freq when we are sitting #6 in line for take off (setting departure freq should be on the Before Takeoff checklist anyway, in my opinion).

You took the time to write "Delta" (like you're gonna forget what airline you work for?) on your scratch paper beside the flight number, surely you have time to write down the departure frequency. Yet some guys still have an aneurysm if you go to pushback with anything other than departure in the standby on #1.

/rant

In a previous life we just set the departure frequency on standby on #2. When you switch to tower you can just put guard or your ramp freq back on standby on #2. Not like you have to be listening to guard on the ground anyways.

It's a VERY good idea (in fact procedural at DL) to have guard in 2 as soon as you're not using it for ramp. We've had crews get saved from violations on the ground having it already tuned up.

Love the luggage by the way. Had that exact set and color in my family as a kid. Probably still have a piece in storage. Every time I have seen a pilot carrying something of that ilk, I've found out they are a senior wide body captain, usually not big on tipping - forget about a coffee for a crew member.


As a fNW/pNW pilot, I can attest to the cultural differences in radio management philosophy, and perhaps bridge the connection to why anybody even thinks of these minor details. In a nutshell, at NW we were pretty stringent about any calls regarding aircraft movement or future trajectory occurring on #1 VHF. I like that philosophy and believe it to be the safest approach (tough to get one guy, the captain, out of the loop). Obviously there are the odd places such as ATL where it can be necessary to multitask between two radios when trying to sync operations with ground and ramp. Being adaptive when circumstances dictate is an important caveat to many rules

As a 7ER/B in the merger, I learned that things are done differently in the South, which usually does not cause too much grief. But the one thing that really drove me crazy was South captains either listening to the clearance or reading it from PDC and tuning departure in the standby window of the #1 radio. Next step in radio use became me thinking my previously set-up ramp or Ground freq. was in standby, so I call for push on Departure Control and look like a total tool (note to self: don't mess with F/O's radios when you move to left seat). Pre-tuning departure that early in the game causes several subsequent frequency-changes (perhaps Metering, Ramp and multiple Ground Controls and Tower) to be accomplished on top of the "live" frequency; depending on your radios, that results in a short no-comm period as well as eradicates a freq you may not have memorized or available for quick reference. Rather than harken back to my 1970's Beech trainer, I'd rather use the features of today's radios, but I can handle the "caveman tech" of writing down a frequency in order to load it up after I've switched to Tower. As a F/O, I always took it as a point of pride to see that Departure was tuned in standby before the T/O roll. But setting that freq up at the gate essentially nullifies the benefits of flip/flop radio tuning. I once flew with an LCA who messed up my radios on every leg by tuning departure when he copied the clearance. When I pointed out his interference with my system, he schooled me in "the Delta way," but could not cite a written policy. It wasn't worth belaboring, since he was a good dude overall and evidently my opinion held no water next to "that's the way we've always done it."

Isn't it great to have such petty annoyances to discuss? I dedicated too much verbiage the issue. But the point is, there are apparent differences between North and South. I choose to flex and adapt. when necessary.

Bump this a thousand times. Captains think of it this way. If the wrong frequency is in for Departure what are you going to do? Switch back to Tower which is already preset in standby. Why won’t you afford the same courtesy on the ground???????
When you’re taxiing out of LHR, BRU, ICN or anywhere else where English is the second language you don’t manipulate the comms. But we are trying to translate frenchlish. When you block our ability to keep the previous frequency readily available it delays our abilities to recover from issues that may arise. Keep Departure on the 3rd comm on standby. Or write it down, in addition to it being on the chart, CPDLC in the FMS and CPDLC print out.
One of the many tribal laws that can’t fade away quick enough.

I really don't want to chime in here, but I see the real "problem" being that there are several different possible radio configurations. I've flown the 727, M88, 757/767 and now the 320. There are differences to all of them, and in the case of the 757/767, even differences depending on what airplane you are flying that particular day.

Each configuration sort of led to a different style of "management." That said, I won't be micromanaging any of my F/Os. I've never had a time where I can think of there ever being any sort of disagreement over the "right" way of setting up the radios. I just ask the F/Os to let me know when they are switching radios (going from ramp to ground, for example). Other than that, I don't care how things are set up, so long as we are talking to the correct folks at the correct time.