OK old procedure at AE was mx comes to MEL. New procedure is they don't. It does not matter if we are at an outstation or DFW, maintenance will NOT come MEL or troubleshoot the item. If we call them they will say defer it or talk to your chief pilot and bring the union. The chief pilot will then say "airlines like Delta look down on pilots who are troublemakers and not accept legal aircraft." I actually had an ACP say that verbatim.

Sounds like they are trying to do some pilot pushing.

If an ACP says that... just smile and nod. They are full of crap, and they know it. DL expects you to not accept a safe aircraft.

Alright, as 80 said, you look at it and look at the enroute and approach requirements and determine if you need it for your flight and if not you're legally allowed to go. Your call after that.

But is the problem at Eagle that they're making you fly unsafe airplanes with critical safety devices on MEL or that there is a new MEL procedure that has pilots writing both the irregularity/issue side of the log page and correctly filing out the corrective action side with the appropriate MEL?

Delta doesn't look down on someone if they have good reasons not to fly it imhe.

But that MEL procedure is not out of line. It sucks they won't fix things but if it's not going to be fixed and you're okay to fly with it then you deal with maintenance control, MEL and fly. And the next pilot will get it, review it, and go fly without having a mechanic come out and sign it off.

The main issue here is we have a new team of FEDs that are from Mesa and Trans States that are trying to turn what I believed was a pretty decent regional into a dump. This is just the tip of the iceburg. We have horrible DOT statistics and have some of the highest fines due to maintenance and instead of trying to actually accomplish things they just want to shift blame.

Your FAA folks are new? They can't dictate for the airline to lower standards and if they allow mx standards to be decreased it can only go down to what is allowed anyways which should've always been allowed if Eagle wanted to opt with the lower requirement.

I guess to the overall question, do other carriers have their pilots "balancing" both sides of the MEL page? Yes. New term though for many of us as what is deemed balancing is really nothing more than filling out the MEL page as we see it correctly prior to the next flight, a) problem, b) solution.

There is only 1 case I can think of at Delta where we have what amounts to an open write up but really isn't and it's specifically allowed. And that's a requirement to write that we did a max power takeoff and there is no corrective action required. I hate looking at it after all of these years of that being a major FAIL to continue on like that but I've seen with my own eyes that it's the procedure and I'm fine with it. But other than that I should be able to walk into any aircraft look at the logbook and see a logbook that either is blank, has a write up with a maintenance sign off, a write up with a MEL or a write up that no matter how mundane = AOG.

Sorry that's happening at Eagle. If you ever hear "we have to cut costs by 30%" then you're being sold. That seems to be the common M&A procedure, 30%.

VOR receivers? Unless you have 3 (2 and a spare) these cannot be MEL'd. At least at the 2 previous carriers I worked at and my current one as well. At my current airline EGPWS is a category C item and has 10 days but the GPWS is a category A. They allow us to MEL any portion of the enhanced portion and it is a 10 day. But there are restrictions like windshear inop cant fly into areas of possible windshear. But all the others you state well you might fly for up to 10 days with a lot on that list before it is addressed. At my airline MEL's can be extended as well on category B and C items if there is a good reason like a hard to acquire part. MEL's are there for a reason to keep a/c moving. For the most part it covers issues like anti ice items etc. pretty well it will not be allowed to dispatch in known icing or thunderstorms that is where maint control and dispatch agree on it. It is up to individual flight crews to determine if a legal MEL is something that they are not comfortable with and act accordingly. At my previous carrier capts could refuse A/P, autopressurization, APU MELS for any reason no questions asked.

There, I fixed it for you! At least I think I did!:)

Denny

New to Eagle not the FAA.