You're entitled to your opinion, but it's part of the job. Know your responsibilities.

I to, am waiting for the OP to explaining and define exactly what "MEL Balancing" is.
Never heard that term before.

That is just one more of the things pilots have convinced themselves in the U.S. that it is part of their obligation to do for free, I certainly don't deal with MEL's that is what maintenance is for

Well, it's just a matter of time until they try to implement this here too. This goes beyond flight crew placarding which I think almost all of us do, so we can continue on to a MX base. There seem to be very few that actually have pilots entering the MEL deferral, coordinating with MX Ops, and then flying the plane for however long the MEL says it can go before having it fixed or even looked at by a MX technician.

Some seem to think this is part of their job simply because their company says it is. These are probably the same folks who don't read their contracts and have no clue about the provisions within the RLA for changes to working conditions or rules.

I'm just glad that madness hasn't infected our pilot group yet.... Although with the number of new flow thru's lately who knows if we'll still have as solid a pilot group in another few years.

In short, their pilot group had never done this before. It was always a MX function. The company had unilaterally transferred the duties of another labor union employee (mechanics) to the pilots. Contracts aside... That's a no no under the RLA last I checked. Hope they fight it and win.

This ALPA MEC American Eagle. It was done with there knowledge and they did nothing and got nothing. ALPA MEC at work, for management.

Is there some sort of code talk going on here about a regional airline doing what again? Is this balancing ensuring one MEL doesn't conflict with another?

Mason what airline are you at? Using an MEL is a part of every 121 and 135 job I've seen, what is it you want extra pay for? And is this something that goes beyond what the FAA allows pilots to do with an MEL?

Or I'm going to have to pull out and post "the picture" here...

I think he means something like this:

http://www.personal.kent.edu/~cearle...H8_balance.png


This came up on googling "balancing boobs." I prefer this kind of balance:

http://www.cavemancircus.com/wp-cont...al_boobs_8.jpg

It takes all of one minute to fill out a flight crew placard. I can't see delaying the flight over an hour to call contract maintenance just for the principle of getting paid for that one minute.

This is not about a flight crew placard. Like you said, everyone does flight crew placarding. Before, when we would flight crew placard, we would leave with an "open write up" that would be signed off or "balanced" by maintenance when we arrived in a maintenance base. That is no longer the case. This is about the pilots doing the corrective action part of the log book or "balancing" it as Mason said and maintenance not even looking at the MELed equipment for the length the MEL is good for.

This is a step that maintenance would usually take 30 minutes to an hour to complete . In order to reduce delays, management thought it would be a good idea to put that responsibility on the pilots.

The writeup is considered signed off with a flight crew placard at the carriers that I've worked at. It is applicable to the standard deferral period.