American agreed to a b scale in the 80s. To get some md80s.

The whole thing was messed up, especially the part where the recalled furlough pilots had to come back to the b scale. Nice move APA.

Getting back to tool of the day...

Mainline CA gets on our RJ and pops his head in the flight deck. 'Hi I'm --- and I'll be upfront today.' Ok that's bad enough, but nothing compared to what he said next. I'm quoting exactly.

"Any deferrals I should know about?'

For a moment I was convinced this guy was a Fed or a surprise line check we didn't know about (which is not a thing at my airline.) Then we realize this guy really is a mainline guy asking if there are deferrals he should know about.

We let him on, of course, but what we should have done is say 'Oh thanks for reminding us to check that! Now that you mention it...hmm...uh oh, looks like the jumpseat is deferred. Yup, says it right there." Just to see the look on his face...

Hello I'm CA__ this is F/O__ , Are you asking me if you can ride in the jumpseat? OK, lets take a look at your license/med. Looks good, here's the jumpseat brief card, if there's anything we might need from you we will let you know, make yourself at home.
Just leave it at that and laugh about him later, he's one of the 3% er's who insist on making this job really difficult.

Had a similar event, with an overseas carrier. The potential jumpseater was a wet behind the ears newbie. Strike one... he questioned us about MELs, flight plan, fuel load. Then said I’m riding on the jump seat with you lads to XXXX.

OK the kid was youngster was a 30,000 hour inexperienced individual with less than 1,000 hours in his log book. I requested to view his credentials... ID, license, passport, and medical. His response was “No need, I’m a company F/O.”... He was a two striper, a cadet. That was strike two. I didn’t wait for strike three. Then was not the time to lecture the individual about etiquette.

I told him “You’re invited to deplane. Do not attempt to take a seat in the passenger cabin”. I called the Purser to the front and advised her that the youngster decided not to ride with us and can should be escorted to the main entry way.

Called the base captain, and advised him of the event. End result... the youngster was counseled on the matter and the importance of etiquette and how the cockpit, forward of the jump seat is sacrosanct.

Ooof. Maybe that was just his awkward way of asking if the jumpseat was deferred...but that is cringeworthy.

Why "of course?"

Sure, the gentlemanly way would be remind him of the proper etiquette and give him a chance to catch himself and try again, but to automatically let him on no matter what? That would only be justifying his feeling of entitlement as true. And in denying someone there no need to beat around the bush with a fictitious deferral, you can just tell him straight up why.

There was a better way to the ask the question but what he was probably getting at was "are there going to be any MEL associated master alarms at awkward times in the flight profile". Some MEL-associated alarms can pop up on the T/O roll and are not inhibited.

For the record, I was not involved

As a person who has ridden the jumpseat about a bazillion times, I’d never even think of asking that question. My job isn’t to call out master alarms for an abort.

TOTD confirmed

The Republic first officer dancing around like a clown on the ramp in Philly this morning. No words.