Sure jumped on this one quick. Let's put the cart before the horse, shall we? Whether or not the accused is a scab, he got shafted by someone doing something illegal themselves. So therefore, the appropriate remedy would be for the union to come to bat for his situation and fix it first, before it affects anyone else.

Perhaps him getting help from his fellow aviators would show him what it means to be unified? That's IF he did what he's accused of doing.

Nope, the only time I ever see a AA MD-80 move with any speed it's to get in front of someone. Once they get in front of whoever, they go right back to their "waiting for numbers" speed.

I have read it. I think you're "reading" things into the post. He clearly says everything is done before the pushback and start. That's the way CAL wants it done. BTW, I don't drink............:eek:

This comment would suggest otherwise. Even if you try to minimize this comment, let's say this would only happen 5% of the time, the reality is this is reckless. Disregarding procedures, flying unstable approaches, flying through thunderstorms, violating sterile cockpit rules, etc., etc., etc. even if only 5% of the time does not make it okay.

I call BS on that one. You may have seen an isolated incident, but for the most part we taxi at a consistent speed - safe speed. I, for one, and all for letting folks get ahead of me. Paid by the minute, folks...

Flifast, I was wondering why it took you so long to chime in. ;)

F/Os at AA are very busy on the taxi out completing the long taxi/before TO checklists we have, as you can see from my posts above. As such, certain tasks that at other airlines are the F/Os job, are delegated to the CA here at AA. The two that I am aware of are the "cabin notification PA", always made by the CA...("Flight attendants, prepare for takeoff") and the "takeoff imminent chime" given to the F/As when cleared onto the runway. Everything else is the F/Os job. So, I'm not quite sure where you get the impression that we are just "sitting there." I know I'm pretty busy on taxi out.

Regarding the mechanical lighted checklist... well, it's been proven in several safety studies/audits that the mechanical checklist is the safest thing out there. Why? Every item can not be closed out until it's been called out and verified. In addition, if we return to gate or are interrupted, the whole thing needs to get re-opened and started from scratch. It's exactly the reason why today's airplanes have "electronic" checklists on the displays- for safety. The old "paper checklist" is only as good as your memory when it comes to remembering if you've done an item. With the mechanical, you KNOW it's been done - and closed out. This is one aspect where I am glad AA is different.

Like you, when I came to AA, I was not too impressed with the mechanical checklist. After a few quick taxis and returns to gate, I quickly came to appreciate its value. If we find out that the Spanair MD80 crash was due to retracted flaps/slats - after they returned to the gate and then hustled back out - you can clearly see that, through the use of a paper checklist, it is a lot easier to forget an item has been completed. At AA, the whole mechanical checklist would've had to have been reopened and closed out, one item at a time.

Different horses for different courses. I'll agree 100% that we wish we had TWA's friendly culture here.

73

I commute on AA every week to work and, as often as not ride in the cockpit jumpseat. And while none of their pilots taxi like I do when I'm on the Miller-leg and trying to catch my flight home, I don't see any dawdling by their crews. I do occasionally chide them for taking 40 years to set their altimeters correctly, however.

Well I'm not saying it's everybody, but I think "not that uncommon" would be fair terminology. And also, I've never seen it from the 75/76 or anything other than md-80. It just seems to me that they go at an abnormaly slow rate when compared to everyone else.

I don't disagree with you over the slower than usual taxi speeds. I just think that the one you saw that was speeding up to get in front of someone, then resuming a slow pace, was an isolated incident. Maybe they had a sequence? Who knows. As far as it being the MD80s, the only thing I can think of is single-engine taxiing. It takes a while for those old Pratts to spool up and get the momentum going. We don't really do single engine taxi on any other a/c except maybe the 737... and lately nobody is even doing SE taxiing anymore due to safety and avoiding situations where random CPs turn us in for not moving fast enough.

Fair enough... it still drives me batty some times.... but fair enough