That has been my policy since day one. While still on probation, I called in fatigued, called in sick, and refused junior assignments. Sick and fatigue were not abusive, they were necessary. If everyone does this then we are good. They can't fire all of us. It only takes a few people actually accepting JA's and the rest of us look bad though.

 

No FMS of any kind. The closes we get to anything is hitting the DEV button to show a line of our chosen course on our EHSI, we can get really crazy and 2nd course the other guys line on ours.

But since we track ground based navs, the line will still move on the EHSI just like the ol 172

 

That's good old-fashioned flying...nothing wrong with that...I'm jealous! You should see these guys' faces when I flip it into green-needles HAHA They've been out of it so long, it's difficult to get back. Lord I hope they never suffer the emergency that is an FMS-failure

 

Reminds me of the time I heard a RJ declare an emergency for a FMS failure. 100% serious

 

Heard of an ERJ that delcared an emergency after the AP malfunctioned after take-off from LGA too...Yikes!

 

That could be an emergency. How am I supposed to enjoy the view and drink my coffee if I have to actually fly the plane???

In all seriousness though, without knowing the situation an AP malfunction could be an emergency. It isn't responding to inputs from the crew, strong and erratic flight control movements, or won't disconnect are a few examples.

 

Oh come on, like a RJ pilot would really disconnect the AP at anytime above 200', right before landing.

 

I don't think the OP's concerns are unique to Pinnacle. This kind of crap is happening all over the place. I think the worst safety issue is lack of cancellation pay. It encourages crews to fly unairworthy airplanes because if they write them up they get punished by having a turn (or in my most recent case an entire day of flying) canceled and losing the pay for those flights. When you're making poverty level wages already, you can bet a lot goes through your mind when you notice a maintenance issue that will effect your pay. Write it up and lose flying and you're gonna end up flying while really ****ed at the company for taking your money because you did your job. Don't write it up and you're flying an airplane that should have been fixed. Either way it's unsafe. I've already written safety reports about this and the fact that our company only allows one pilot (the pilot not flying) to have a chart in front of them.

I know a crew very well that had to file a report the other day because the PNF was doing piloty stuff like calling in range, getting weather, and briefing up the pax. In the meantime, the PF accidentally blew past the point they were supposed to turn because there had a miscommunication about where that point was. BANDS is 21miles from PSP and SETER 21 miles from PDZ. Pretty easy to see with a chart in front of you but not so much when the chart is on the other yoke and the mileage and VOR's are very similar. Anyway, point is that there are tons of safety issues at every airline that the pilots all know about and have told people about but nothing gets done. Nothing ever gets done until people die.

 

Waaawaawawawaaaaiiiiit a minute, they actually tell you you're NOT ALLOWED to look at a chart???? Are you kidding me? Who the hell thought that was a good idea? (And why are the feds not going nuts on them???)

 

Woahhhhhh..I know your not joking, and that is scary, that desk jockys can make a rule like that....hopefully that ASAP report will bring this to someones attention...Im curious would your union protect you if you got the carpet dance, or punished for not following that, is it just a recomendation or ...gasp(an op spec), and if it is how the heck did they get the feds to sign off on that one...can your PF not have an approach plate on their yoke during an approach?..all I can say is WOW, I think one could make the argument "Hey im using ALL available resources....yada yada...