Ok, now promise me my wife won't find out about it so I can buy a new mainsail and jib!!

BTW...how much money did DAL lose in the first quarter that has already off-set this $500M quarter?

 

Herk,

#1 Ridiculous. Who told you that? An FO not being able to load the FMS? You're kidding, right? It was the captain's overhead, and the FO's exterior preflight, but the CA could perform the walkaround. The overhead was that way because in certain fleets, you could only do the overhead from the left seat (anti-skid test in the DC-9, for example). There was VERY strong vertical guidance in all the fleets, so SOPA/SMAC was sometimes driven by the way one aircraft required things if it didn't make a difference in other fleets.

#2 You're kidding, right? Go around because the CA has to move the flap lever? SOPA/SMAC said that this is the way to do it almost all of the time. But go around because you can't do it exactly this way is absurd. Deviations were fine, but they should be the exception, and it was the nature of that you had to MAKE an exception to draw your attention to why you had to make it.

But consider what you are saying. If the other seat is so TOTALLY swamped that if he or she can't reach over and move the flaps a notch, and it's to the point in the approach where if he doesn't do it RIGHT then it creates a problem, then there are CRM issues going on, and you might want to consider the state of the crew and airplane.

I mean coordinating with the FAs when you are in the pattern? Is it something that important that it can't wait until you get on the ground? Don't you think that stuff is better handled after landing or before you decend below 10k? THIS is exactly the kinds of error that SOPA/SMAC was designed to trap.

This is what made SOPA/SMAC such an inherently strong error trap. If the PM DID have to reach over and move the the flaps, that was a big red flag that the guy in other seat is overloaded and that you'd better look around and do a quick assessment.

Sounds like you're getting your info from a guy who never flew under it. Next time you fly with a north guy, ask him what HE thought about it.

Nu

 

"Many years ago NWA developed an operating philosophy under which individual pilot tasks were organized into a time-ordered flow of events. THe objective of this method of organization was a smooth, coordinated flight deck management system which promoted standardization and enhanced safety.

Under the Northwest system each crewmember is assigned specific duties. However, an organized and standardized method of integrating these duties with the other pilot is also needed. SOPA is established of this purpose. SOPA is not intended to supply detailed systems or component operating information, but primarily:

1. to establish the sequence in which the designated steps are accompolished and
2. to designate which crewmember normally accomplishes each step.

Adherence

All pilots will follow SOPA during normal operations.

The captain has the authority to deviate form SOPA, but only when unusual circumstances require him or her to do so in the interest of safety.

Structure

All duties are normally performed in the order in which they appear in SOPA. However, that does not preclude the earlier or later performance of isolated items that are not "on command" items or part of a specific flow pattern. In other words, the time ordered nature of SOPA outlines what may be considered a normal flight, but aside from flows and "on command" items, it allows some flexiblilty in the order of performance to allow for specific circumstances."

SOPA allowed the standardization between fleets as much as possible in that you knew with a new aircraft training event you would be doing the same things at the same times in your new plane vs the old plane decreasing the amount of training that you would need on the new aircraft. Having flown SOPA and the new DAL procedures, I prefer SOPA. Not saying that it is better, just that I prefer it. It allows you to identify a guy that is not up to speed or having a bad day instantly and you are not sitting there going well this must be the way this guy does it. Both sides have pluses and minuses. Hopefully a blend will come out of this giving us a great set of operating procedures.

 

While I agree that Herk's understanding of SOPA/SMAC is largely misinformed...

Come on... you've never reached over and hit the flaps or gear when the other guy got saturated for whatever reason? You are truly the superior aviator if so. Not only are you incapable of moving the flaps or gear when you are the PF, but you are fully capable of removing any task saturation from any and all crewmembers on the airplane. Why is it that we revere newK so? Perhaps it should be "what would NuGuy do?"

The whole idea with that is to reduce task saturation... hence having already considered the shape of the crew and the airplane and keep from overloading them with commands that you, the pilot, should be perfectly capable of performing.


Props for the shoutout on your first post... you get 5 Schrute bucks! Or is it newK bucks over here?

 

Hey, if you non-rev and connect through say ATL, you can only view the standby list for the first flight. If you get on that first flight are you above all the standby people that are originating in ATL since your connecting or do you get thrown back into the list again?

 

Switching gears....I was really excited about us going to ship sets until I just went through recurrent and we used them. It's gonna blow. Already, there is stuff missing, stuff misfiled, etc, etc. When I asked our LOE check guy what the plan was for the line he said that the kits would be updated every two weeks or so. Can you imagine what the kits are going to look like after two weeks of constant line flying? Its gonna be fortunate if one pilot can locate the necessary Jepps. As much I as hate doing the revisions, I think I'd rather quality control my own stuff. Should be interesting.....

 

You are above all the other standby people - as long as the flt number is the same.

If you have two legs in the same listing, you can view the standby list for the second flight in TravelNet. In that case, you don't have any special priority, as it's just a second flight.

 

You bring up a good point. At my last airline, we had ship sets. We went to about the same 15 airports, but the airplanes went to mostly the same two or three (same aircraft, same route). The Jepps for those cities were well used - it wasn't crew abusing the charts, just normal use. Imagine the ATL charts being used 4+ times a day as the plane goes ATL-DCA-ATL-MCO-ATL-DFW or whatever.

 

I think its going to be a more than a hassel...the narrow body, multi-leg crews are going to suffer the most. Guess I would have rather had only the market destinations, than all alts in a ship set.

 

80,

I gave you a perfect set up for cheerleader pics in an earlier post. Did you not take it because it was for older, NFL cheerleaders as opposed to the young, hot NCAA cheerleaders? Am I beginning to show my age?